02-19-2009, 01:36 AM
Howdy all.
I'm (obviously) new to this whole thing, and I've got one pressing question for this forum.
I'm having trouble distinguishing between all the different types of military cloaks the romans had. Don't worry though, I'll stop before I get to the Greek Chalmys and such. I've browsed through Osprey's Roman Military Clothing cook. The color plates in the book were great, but didn't have much description on the cloaks worn in them. I'm just trying to square away what each of these four types were, what they looked like, what they were made out of, and who wore them. If anyone has any solid pictures to clarify, that'd be way awesome too.
As I understand it now:
Sagum: square, worn by anyone in the military, fastened in middle, drapes over both shoulders
Abolla: worn by civilians, fastened over right shoulder
Paenula: hooded, worn by lower ranked military, fastened in middle, drapes over both shoulders
Pauldamentum: one shoulder (left?), military higher ups only wore
Please add to and correct my knowledge.
In addition, I've seen some sort of cloak tied onto the shoulders of certain armors in the Rome HBO series. Was this accurate at all? It looks cool, but is it legit? Two images in case no one knows what I'm talking about:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... Ep16_3.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... public.jpg
Sorry in advance if this series is a hot rod for hate in the reenactment community, I was just curious.
I'm (obviously) new to this whole thing, and I've got one pressing question for this forum.
I'm having trouble distinguishing between all the different types of military cloaks the romans had. Don't worry though, I'll stop before I get to the Greek Chalmys and such. I've browsed through Osprey's Roman Military Clothing cook. The color plates in the book were great, but didn't have much description on the cloaks worn in them. I'm just trying to square away what each of these four types were, what they looked like, what they were made out of, and who wore them. If anyone has any solid pictures to clarify, that'd be way awesome too.
As I understand it now:
Sagum: square, worn by anyone in the military, fastened in middle, drapes over both shoulders
Abolla: worn by civilians, fastened over right shoulder
Paenula: hooded, worn by lower ranked military, fastened in middle, drapes over both shoulders
Pauldamentum: one shoulder (left?), military higher ups only wore
Please add to and correct my knowledge.
In addition, I've seen some sort of cloak tied onto the shoulders of certain armors in the Rome HBO series. Was this accurate at all? It looks cool, but is it legit? Two images in case no one knows what I'm talking about:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... Ep16_3.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... public.jpg
Sorry in advance if this series is a hot rod for hate in the reenactment community, I was just curious.
Harris Hoffman
