Question for Graham Sumner

[Doc]

I asked this question on another post and found it unusual that all I received was one response. I thought that on the matter of period textiles that this question would have sparked some interest. Nontheless, and I do apologize, I am reposting this thread so to speak.

I would like your opinion (of course others are welcome) on the accuracy (if possible to be this discreet) or just your honest opinion in general.

I was thinking of making a sagum where around the edges there is an olive branch with leaves which immediatlry ends in fringes.

Below is the link to a crude drawing of the idea I have in mind.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb24 ... Design.jpg

Any input would be helpful. Does anyone think the design is inappropriate or that there is too much yellow. The borders are good/no good?

Is there any evidence for decorative designs on the borders of sagums?

Any help would be appreciated.

Paolo

[Graham Sumner]

Hello Paolo

My immediate 'gut' response is that your design looked like something that might have been inspired by what was worn by Peter O' Toole in 'Masada'. There is however an Etruscan period wall painting showing a purple cloak / toga decorated with white tendrils around the borders but also mythological figures. So, even more outlandish than your design and anything Hollywood has come up with. It is the type of garment we hear of in triumphs and what the more disreputable emperors might have worn.

Presuming you are making an early imperial sagum there is very little evidence for decoration of any kind although the fringe would be OK. The nearest parallel would be the Thorsberg cloak which has some bands of white near the bottom edge and something similar might be on the cloak worn by the standard bearer on the Mainz column relief. Perhaps evidence of the frontier troops adopting native garments. Some Paenula cloaks have coloured clavi like the tunics.

Some later imperial cloaks are decorated with clavi too but mainly with coloured square panels.

Being boring and playing safe, I would keep to a plain sagum with or without the fringe, bright red scarlet if your a junior officer type (although dark blue is also acceptable), in which case you want good quality finely woven wool as well or a plain yellow brown cloak a bit rougher in quality if your an ordinary soldier.

Hope this helps a bit.

Graham.

[M. Demetrius]

Just thinking of the weaving process, it's more likely that if fringe existed, there would be fringe along the warp but not the weft. That is, the threads that are in the loom have (or can have) free ends that become the fringe. The lateral threads, generally speaking, come to the last warp thread and turn back for the next woven row. So fringe would be possible along the right and left edges, but it would be a special process, not ordinary weaving.

Just an observation.