08-30-2005, 11:34 AM
Robert, I wasn't referring to the tunic colors museum curators use for their Roman reconstructions, but the actual colors of tunics when color survives in original classical artwork of soldiers wearing armor. Actually the evidence is quite consistent throughout the Roman era and ARMORED Roman soldiers in the Dominate are also depicted in red tunics. Red must have been so common in the late period that as one source tells us, the soldiers were nicknamed "the Russetti". Surviving boys tunics of the period seem to often be red so they can look like "little soldiers", a popular fashion tendency for boys that has continued to this day. I think I remember one in Trier.
Most people seem to have a "black or white" mentality, or in this case a "red or white" one. It is incorrect to categorize me that way, and in articles written over a decade ago I fully acknowledged that the day to day fatigue, and also "dress" tunics of the Roman army, as for virtually every other inhabitant of the Roman empire was unbleached natural white, and bleached white with clavi, accordingly. But as surely as soldiers today almost universally don camouflage clothing when going into combat, so the soldiers of the classical era donned red to do their butchery. The evidence is quite overwhelming.
Dan
Ps. Our Batavian auxilliaries also wear blue, not much evidence for this, but like the absence of crest mounts on helmets identified as "auxiliary" it is intended both for identication purposes and to denote lesser status to non-citizen troops. As it may have been generally thought that these non-citizens had different religious beliefs, it may have even been considered "blasphemy" for them to wear the red war tunic sacred to Mars/Aries, in this early period, at least, when provinicials had not yet been thoroughly "Romanized".
Most people seem to have a "black or white" mentality, or in this case a "red or white" one. It is incorrect to categorize me that way, and in articles written over a decade ago I fully acknowledged that the day to day fatigue, and also "dress" tunics of the Roman army, as for virtually every other inhabitant of the Roman empire was unbleached natural white, and bleached white with clavi, accordingly. But as surely as soldiers today almost universally don camouflage clothing when going into combat, so the soldiers of the classical era donned red to do their butchery. The evidence is quite overwhelming.
Dan
Ps. Our Batavian auxilliaries also wear blue, not much evidence for this, but like the absence of crest mounts on helmets identified as "auxiliary" it is intended both for identication purposes and to denote lesser status to non-citizen troops. As it may have been generally thought that these non-citizens had different religious beliefs, it may have even been considered "blasphemy" for them to wear the red war tunic sacred to Mars/Aries, in this early period, at least, when provinicials had not yet been thoroughly "Romanized".
