06-27-2009, 03:22 PM
A quick review of the Graham Sumner book "Roman Military Dress" published by The History Press, £19.99.
This is probably the best overall book yet released on Roman "soft kit", and expands Graham Sumner's earlier three books published by Osprey (Roman Military Clothing) , with new material and greater depth. 224 pages long, with numerous colour and black and white illustrations.
Its main headings are
-Tunics and Cloaks (Republican, early Imperial and Late Imperial)
-The Clothing industry and the colours of military clothing
-Other Garments (Headgear, hats and helmet linings; the waistband; subarmalis, thoracomachus and armour coverings;the scarf; trousers, socks, leg wrappings and bindings, gloves, undergarments, footwear, belts and the leather industry)
It also thanks and acknowledges the help given by many familiar from Roman Army Talk, including Peronis and Crispus.
It is well written, with full sources, and as you would expect from a professional illustrator, the colour illustrations are excellent. I certainly recommend it, even if you already have the earlier Osprey books.
To give a few examples of items that were new to me, he pictures the Roman hat found at Didymoi- red in colour, with cheek guard shaped padding still surviving.
The subarmalis section is also very good, where he shows examples of subarmalis being worn without armour- very similar to the medieval practise of wearing an arming jack or gambeson as padded protection- presumably when armour was either not available or not affordable. This could be an interesting one to depict, and practically would certainly given more protection than simply wearing a tunic.
The tunic section is also very interesting. Helpfully, Sumner lists his sources, allowing people to make their own mind up.
Sumner's conclusion is that soldiers wore an offwhite tunic for everyday wear and fatigue duties. For military action, this was replaced by a red tunic in shades between salmon pink to a deep purple red. (This could be age and washing- for example, my older rugby shirts which were once scarlet are now salmon pink). On parades and religious festivals white tunics (probably specially whitened) were worn.
On cloaks, he concludes that yellow brown is the most popular for both paenulas and sagum cloaks, but off-white, red and blue are also fairly well represented.
Overall, then, highly recommended.
This is probably the best overall book yet released on Roman "soft kit", and expands Graham Sumner's earlier three books published by Osprey (Roman Military Clothing) , with new material and greater depth. 224 pages long, with numerous colour and black and white illustrations.
Its main headings are
-Tunics and Cloaks (Republican, early Imperial and Late Imperial)
-The Clothing industry and the colours of military clothing
-Other Garments (Headgear, hats and helmet linings; the waistband; subarmalis, thoracomachus and armour coverings;the scarf; trousers, socks, leg wrappings and bindings, gloves, undergarments, footwear, belts and the leather industry)
It also thanks and acknowledges the help given by many familiar from Roman Army Talk, including Peronis and Crispus.
It is well written, with full sources, and as you would expect from a professional illustrator, the colour illustrations are excellent. I certainly recommend it, even if you already have the earlier Osprey books.
To give a few examples of items that were new to me, he pictures the Roman hat found at Didymoi- red in colour, with cheek guard shaped padding still surviving.
The subarmalis section is also very good, where he shows examples of subarmalis being worn without armour- very similar to the medieval practise of wearing an arming jack or gambeson as padded protection- presumably when armour was either not available or not affordable. This could be an interesting one to depict, and practically would certainly given more protection than simply wearing a tunic.
The tunic section is also very interesting. Helpfully, Sumner lists his sources, allowing people to make their own mind up.
Sumner's conclusion is that soldiers wore an offwhite tunic for everyday wear and fatigue duties. For military action, this was replaced by a red tunic in shades between salmon pink to a deep purple red. (This could be age and washing- for example, my older rugby shirts which were once scarlet are now salmon pink). On parades and religious festivals white tunics (probably specially whitened) were worn.
On cloaks, he concludes that yellow brown is the most popular for both paenulas and sagum cloaks, but off-white, red and blue are also fairly well represented.
Overall, then, highly recommended.
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