01-13-2018, 01:23 AM
For better or for worse? I am no expert on matters military but the breeches (are they new, or just more visible when the cloak is removed?) surprised me.
I know that the God Augustus wore FEMINALIA and TIBIALIA in winter, (Suet. Vit. Div. Aug. 80 through 82) but
A. The garment described on the Internet as the FEMINALIA (soldier's breeches) is not the garment alluded to by Suetonius. Cf. Private Life of the Romans:
Besides the subligāculum and the tunica the Romans had no regular underwear. Those who were feeble through age or ill health sometimes wound strips of woolen cloth (fasciae), like the modern spiral puttees, around the legs for the sake of additional warmth. These were called feminālia or tībiālia according as they covered the upper or lower part of the leg. Feeble persons might also use similar wrappings for the body (ventrālia) and even for the throat (fōcālia), but all these were looked upon as badges of senility or decrepitude and formed no part of the regular costume of sound men.
B. As made extremely clear by the above, but also by internal evidence, the force of these passages is that the Emperor was an invalid, or at best in very weak health, and Suetonius associates them with four tunics, a heavy toga, an under-tunic (SVBVCVLA) and a THORAX LANEUS, which Loeb renders as ''a woollen chest protector''. This is hardly to be taken as the normal winter dress of an Augustan Roman, especially as Suetonius also describes Augustus as likewise highly sensitive to heat [and so to all extremes of temperature].
I was under the impression that garments in any way akin to BRACCAE were introduced much later than ''um Christi Geburt'', (i.e. around the birth of Jesus the Nazarene, called Christ) as late as the second century C.E. -- there are many military scholars on this forum who can sort me out.
I know that the God Augustus wore FEMINALIA and TIBIALIA in winter, (Suet. Vit. Div. Aug. 80 through 82) but
A. The garment described on the Internet as the FEMINALIA (soldier's breeches) is not the garment alluded to by Suetonius. Cf. Private Life of the Romans:
Besides the subligāculum and the tunica the Romans had no regular underwear. Those who were feeble through age or ill health sometimes wound strips of woolen cloth (fasciae), like the modern spiral puttees, around the legs for the sake of additional warmth. These were called feminālia or tībiālia according as they covered the upper or lower part of the leg. Feeble persons might also use similar wrappings for the body (ventrālia) and even for the throat (fōcālia), but all these were looked upon as badges of senility or decrepitude and formed no part of the regular costume of sound men.
B. As made extremely clear by the above, but also by internal evidence, the force of these passages is that the Emperor was an invalid, or at best in very weak health, and Suetonius associates them with four tunics, a heavy toga, an under-tunic (SVBVCVLA) and a THORAX LANEUS, which Loeb renders as ''a woollen chest protector''. This is hardly to be taken as the normal winter dress of an Augustan Roman, especially as Suetonius also describes Augustus as likewise highly sensitive to heat [and so to all extremes of temperature].
I was under the impression that garments in any way akin to BRACCAE were introduced much later than ''um Christi Geburt'', (i.e. around the birth of Jesus the Nazarene, called Christ) as late as the second century C.E. -- there are many military scholars on this forum who can sort me out.
Patrick J. Gray
'' Now. Close your eyes. It's but a short step to the boat, a short pull across the river.''
''And then?''
''And then, I promise you, you'll dream a different story altogether''
From ''I, Claudius'', by J. Pulman after R. Graves.
'' Now. Close your eyes. It's but a short step to the boat, a short pull across the river.''
''And then?''
''And then, I promise you, you'll dream a different story altogether''
From ''I, Claudius'', by J. Pulman after R. Graves.
