Loculus

[Octavianvs]

ok this is the second attemp as it appears it is impossable to not have the power going out today! I will simply describe the bag- This is my first attempt at anything like this . It is veg tanned hide with natural dye oils & thread. It is all hand sew. inside teh bag is sealed with bees wax as are all sew holes. outside is seal with oils. handle is filled with natural cotton fillermaking it more comfort on the hand. the shoulder strap is only sew on one side. the other side is punched in the strap and a thin leather strip cut from the same hide as the rest of the bag this way it can be undone wrapped about the pole and other smaller bag and reattached to the ring. this becomes very secure. the studded ring is brass and strap rings are brass. in short the reason I went with colour is you see widespread use of colour in every aspect of ancient rome. unfortunatly no original loculus has been found so we can only go by the pattern from Trajan Column and other similar images. but colour was used in walls statues columns and even the trajan column was coloured. There was even a caligae from somewhere I remember seeing had been red. it is as easy to say that they were left natural and simply oiled ( and no doubt most probably were ) but it is almost probable at least highly possable that some were coloured. we have seen items personalised before ( like helms with engraving ) we knwo the romans fondness of colour so how far off would it be to make a conclusion that some packs were coloured. For all we know all could have been. Economically would suggest that they would be left raw and probably unoiled until recieved by the soldier but without any evidence I have to see so far anything would be possable. We know that kit was altered and upgraded and modified. would it be hard to assume someone with a few extra denarii would be able to get some dye locally available and colour his own pack? OR give a few extra denarii to whoever was making leather gods and probably these packs as well who would most certainly have some sorts of dyes available there or with the people dying wools and have tehm colour thier bag? Items such as belts & daggers recieved inlays gilding silvering usw.
Any constructive comments and ideas or thoughts are welcome.