How To.. wear the Pugio and Gladius (belts, fasteners)

[John Conyard]

The Vacheres warrior is wearing typical Gaulic or Germanic sleeves, perhaps also seen on auxillary cavalry like the recent Lancaster find.

The sword attachment is sometimes found described as a Gaulic sword suspension sytem, and was/is sometimes worn by early Roman cavalry re-enactors. But I can't claim to fully understand it.

Bouncing up and down on the horse, baldrics are often secured under the waist belt. This means the sword is often worn low to allow the long blade to clear the scabbard. The broad 3rd century baldrics remind me of 17th century baldrics, and in the later periods cavalry can simply wear a waist belt.

Swords need to fit securely in the scabbard. Any sword which too easily slides from the scabbard will just bounce out and fall to the floor at the trot.

[Crispvs]

Swords are indeed depicted as being worn low by cavalry on 1st century AD stelae. The swords seem consistently to be shown being worn on waist belts.

Doc,

All of the objects shown in the image that Alexander posted up were found together. There were a sword, still in its scabbard, the remains of five belt plates, the button and loop fastener and the remains of a small buckle. When found it looked as if the sword had been deliberately buried with the military belt wrapped around it. It definitely counts as an assemblage, rather than a random group of unassociated objects.

Crispvs

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

The trouble with the reconstruction proposed by Miks is that only one of that items was founded. It's possible that there were two and one is missed, but it's possible too that there are another configuration, where only a buttom and loop were needed.

It's curious that the button and loop fastener have a bifurcated loop ending, instead the one loop, more common.

[Crispvs]

I have to wonder if the small buckle played some role along with the button and loop fastener in providing suspension. Then again, it looks like a buckle from a Corbridge segmentata so it could have fallen into the hole accidentally. That said, the sword was probably quite old when it was buried and so it might be that the associated items might have been quite old too. It might be that the buckle represents some sort of stop-gap repair to rectify a situation caused by a lost button and loop fastener.

The again, Dreschler-Erb proposed that the button and loop fastener might have acted in place of the buckle of the military belt and that the small buckle may have been the main fastening to attach the sword to the belt. You pay your money and you take your choice, as they say.

Crispvs

[jkaler48]

The trouble with the reconstruction proposed by Miks is that only one of that items was founded. It's possible that there were two and one is missed, but it's possible too that there are another configuration, where only a buttom and loop were needed.

It's curious that the button and loop fastener have a bifurcated loop ending, instead the one loop, more common.

Also not found were "standard" Pugio frogs. But it seems as
if only part of a belt was found UNLESS some belts of that period only had
five plates OR plates were missing from the belt before deposit. It doesn't seem clear if the small buckle found was the belt buckle or part of an associated attachment. A lot more questions it seems than definite answers
from this find.

[Peroni]

I have to wonder if the small buckle played some role along with the button and loop fastener in providing suspension.

Deschler-Erb proposed that the button and loop fastener might have acted in place of the buckle of the military belt and that the small buckle may have been the main fastening to attach the sword to the belt. You pay your money and you take your choice, as they say.

As there was only one button fastener found and not a pair I'm more inclined to agree with D-E's theory put forward for the use of the buckle which is extremely practical and secure. It also makes the pommel sit just at the armpit level as seen on so many reliefs...Like this..

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I do the same with leather thongs. Simple and works. I am going to try that some time too. Now that I can sew, almost.

[Crispvs]

Despite what many of the better known Rhineland stelae show, we know from other less well known stelae that some belts were not completely covered with plates and that in some cases they were spaced out along the belt. This is supported by both the Vindonissa find and the Velson burial. There is no reason to suppose that the Velson soldier's belt was incomplete but apart from its buckle and frog plates it only had four (or was it five?) other belt plates.

Have a look at some of the belts shown in this article, in particular number 42. You will also notice that the sculptors, although in many cases they have simplified the decoration of the belt plates, have often consciously depicted plates with differing decoration on the same belt, which is presumably the case with the plates found with the Vindonissa sword.
http://www.jrmes.org.uk/vol03/bishop.pdf

Having looked at the article, and very pertinant to the conversation at hand, those who are observant may have noticed, like me, what appears to be a large domed stud in image 42 which is positioned between the suspension rings on the scabbard. This relief is one of Miks' sources of evidence for his suggestion and it is more visible in Bishop's drawing.

Crispvs

[PhilusEstilius]

Crispvs for some reason I just can't get your link to come up, i'ts frustrating for I want to see this no 42 you refer to. I get the 5.92MB to run but when it gets there it wont download.

[Crispvs]

Oh no! Brian, you replied before I had a chance to edit out my spelling mistakes. :oops: :oops:

If you continue to have trouble connecting to the link, go to the JRMES website and have a look at the contents list for JRMES 3. You will find the PDF of the article there.

Crispvs

[PhilusEstilius]

Thanks I'll have a go to see if I can get in that way, have to say tho' I'm not exactly computor literate yet don't worry about it.

[Magnus]

I wonder then if belt plates were left bare where the sword was attached. That way the plates wouldn't get rubbed and damaged.

[Marcus Mummius]

I have to wonder if the small buckle played some role along with the button and loop fastener in providing suspension.

Deschler-Erb proposed that the button and loop fastener might have acted in place of the buckle of the military belt and that the small buckle may have been the main fastening to attach the sword to the belt. You pay your money and you take your choice, as they say.

As there was only one button fastener found and not a pair I'm more inclined to agree with D-E's theory put forward for the use of the buckle which is extremely practical and secure. It also makes the pommel sit just at the armpit level as seen on so many reliefs...Like this..

I use the same method for my sword and it puts the pommel at my armpit too. I use a small segmentata buckle on the strap.

[Crispvs]

John,

I don't see why it would need to have pugio frogs. The depictional evidence strongly suggests that not all Roman soldiers carried daggers so we should not necessarily expect to find them in an assemblage. Alternately, the owner of the sword may have worn two belts, with his dagger (assuming that he had on) on the other belt. To be honest, what confuses me most about this assemblage is why it was deliberately buried in the way it was in the fist place (sorry to be slightly OT).

Crispvs

[Tarbicus]

But it seems as
if only part of a belt was found UNLESS some belts of that period only had
five plates OR plates were missing from the belt before deposit.

This is something you have to be careful about. There is a very learned opinion out there that a military belt wasn't always jam-packed with plates, with many only having about five plates in total.

The button fastener illustrated in Miks could also keep the gladius to the armpit if the top holes fed the strap above and over the belt, with the bottom holes feeding a strap below it. Not much difference to the single criss-cross strap secured with a buckle really.