Sagum, Paenula, Abolla, Pauldamentum, arrrgh!

[Graham Sumner]

I would disagree on the paenula only being for lower ranks though.

Quite right Byron. Trajan's Column shows Trajan himself wearing a paenula, you can not get much higher rank than that! Praetorian guards too are often seen wearing the paenula. It was regarded as a 'traditional' Roman garment, unlike the Sagum which was said to have Gallic origins.

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 book. The color plates in the book were great, but didn't have much description on the cloaks worn in them.

There are lots of different terms for what are essentially the same or very similar garments and in the Greek speaking east the terms were naturally in Greek. There was not enough space in the Ospery books to go into lengthy descriptions of cloaks but although the plans which I had drawn were all edited out, dimensions of cloaks were still included. In my next book , 'Roman Military Dress', which is a much larger volume, paenula and sagum cloak plans are included.

Graham.

Graham.