\'Black\' armour

[Carus Andiae]

Reconstructions of Roman soldiers tend to have them looking nice and shiny. Is there any evidence for them polishing armour (and if so, how did they do it?).

Conversely, around the British Civil Wars (1642-51) it was common to leave armour as 'black', ie unpolished, as it looked straight from the forge. Supposedly this helped to protect it from rust. Is there any reason to suppose this was a practice ever used by the Romans?

[Matthew Amt]

Ave!

We've had long discussions about this before, but the short answer is No. Every color depiction of Roman armor shows it as white/silver or yellow/gold. Multiple literary references describe armor as bright and shining, using the same words used to describe silver and gems and stars. Some accounts even tell of an ambush given away because of sunlight glinting off soldiers' metal. Finally, LOTS of surviving Roman equipment shows traces of tinning and silvering, including helmets, shield bosses, and armor parts. So that's the pictoral, literary, and archeological evidence all all in agreement--three for three. Many things that we do are less well-documented than that!

Bottom line, no evidence for darkened or blackened Roman armor at all.

Vale,

Matthew

[PhilusEstilius]

In the English Civil War period of the 17th century there was Armour that was Blued as also in the Medieval periods, infact the Romans may well have been into this kind of treatment of metal also for it does prevent oxidisation. As pointed out by Matthew the romans were into tinning and silvering, however we just can't discount the idea that the romans may well have blued certain pieces of gear.

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Yes, they do for sure in some things like pugio scabbards, blackened with silver, brass and enamel contrasting.

[Magnus]

Any evidence they did this on armour? Or is this like a centurion wearing a segmentata? 8)

[PhilusEstilius]

Matt I realy don't know but let us consider the only centurians helmet we can state which is the "Italic D" I don't know just how far this one has been studied but it has always given me the impression that it may have been blued from the fact of it's very even all over texture. Infact having made this one five times I decided to do just that with the last couple that I made, from experimentation at the outset I found this very interesting.
What I found was that I did a test run on an old cheekplate of this blueing and was not happy about it, but when I tried to remove it I had to use a drill with a buffing pad to shift it. This indicated that it has a very good anti-oxident coating that I'm very sure indeed the Roman craftsmen were well aware of and may well have used.

PS can't see anything wrong with a Centurian wearing a lorica segmentata

[M. Demetrius]

"Blueing" as we know it is a little different process than "blacking" with oil. Blueing uses some chemicals that may not have been used by or readily available to the Romans and other ancient smiths. Blacking occurs naturally when hot metal is plunged into oil. Sometimes, depending on the sort of oil, different colors may appear, such as violets, blues, even a sort of pink, but these are not evenly distributed. An iron skillet, properly "seasoned" will show the black surface that even blacking will produce. Higher temperatures do different things, also.

I don't know if the Roman armoring process would automatically produce black/blue metal. Odds are, if beaten cold, it would not, so any remaining discoloration would probably be removed by abrasives to give an even color for aesthetic reasons, if for no other. Waxes can be put on the "raw" metal to help prevent rusting. It works fairly well, though I've not yet done the weather test strips I've thought about to see how well it works, one thing compared to another.

[Anonymous]

We experimented with blued/blackened segmentatas. It worked great. Wax them and oil them and they reflected light as if they were a mirror.

We did it only as a possibility, bare steel being one option. I later learned about some tinned segmentata plates.

There is no evidence for any surface finish being "the rule".. Most segmentata plates are too corroded to determine how the surface looked.

Today we tin plate. It solves all issues... no more rust, its shiny with minimal effort.

Hibernicus
LEG IX HSPA, USA

[Caballo]

As an example- blued segmentata , front rank, second from left. Other segmentatas bare steel.

[Matthew Amt]

I am well aware of blackened medieval and Renaissance armor, and have worn it myself. It's completely irrelevant to a discussion on Roman armor.

Yes, surviving Roman helmets are dark, because they are mostly rust with modern coatings to stabilize them. I do not think that is evidence that they were dark originally.

There are reproductions of inlaid pugio scabbards with a dark iron/steel background, but I think those are wrong, and that the originals were polished originally. Niello was certainly used, but as an inlaid design. Can anyone document its use as a background? If so, that still does not count as evidence for blackened or blued iron!

Sean likes to bring up his blued loricae that got left out in a rainstorm, but one of *my* legionaries was there, and placed a shield over them so they wouldn't get soaked. Apparently, they showed about as much rust afterward as well-oiled bare steel. Lorica plates chafe against each other, and the darkened surface will be abraded away pretty quickly wherever that happens. Any rust which does develop has to be removed, which will also remove more darkened surface. So what you are really advocating here is a bizarre patchwork appearance! In addition, I completely disagree that darkened armor shines like the descriptions in Roman literature, and yes, I've seen the photos of it. If you have to oil or grease it so much to get even that much gleam, why bother with having it darkened in the first place?

I firmly believe that iron was left forge-blackened on the INside of armor and helmets. I also believe that pilum heads, arrowheads, ballista bolt points, and probably even many spearheads were left forge-blackened.

As I said, we've been over all of this repeatedly, and it's all pointless speculation. I can indeed discount any theory of Romans darkening their armor, because there is *no evidence* for it. We have LOTS of evidence for bright and shiny armor, however, so that's what we go with. Simple.

Valete,

Matthew

[PhilusEstilius]

Matthew Where you say that surviving helmets are dark because of rust and modern coatings to preserve them, I would take it as simply personal opinion where you say you do not think they were dark originaly.

[Carus Andiae]

Thanks. I didn't think there was any (firm!) evidence for deliberately blued or blackened armour, but I did wonder if there was any evidence that armour was worn forge-black. The balance of probability does seem to be a 'no', though.

I've just been researching some sets of 16th and 17th century armour, which is what prompted my ponderings on the possibility of 'black' armour in the Roman Army.

[Magnus]

Matthew Where you say that surviving helmets are dark because of rust and modern coatings to preserve them, I would take it as simply personal opinion where you say you do not think they were dark originaly.

I don't think that is the case (not to speak for matt!). ALL evidence points to shiny...not the contrary. Even blued armour as shown in the picture above, while it may have a "sheen" to it which shines, the overall colour is a medium to dark blue. It's more than just personal opinion, it's backed by what evidence we have.

[M. Demetrius]

And besides, the picture above is of REENACTOR people, not actual Romans. We can't use what we do in the hobby as archeological evidence, or any kind of proof, can we?

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

I
There are reproductions of inlaid pugio scabbards with a dark iron/steel background, but I think those are wrong, and that the originals were polished originally. Niello was certainly used, but as an inlaid design. Can anyone document its use as a background? If so, that still does not count as evidence for blackened or blued iron!

The iberian dagger, "father" of the pugiones were blackened/blued for sure, as i think were some real pugio ones. The blackenig chemically consist in the transformation of the surface of the iron in an iron oxid called magnetite (Fe3O4), with a black colour. This oxide are easily visible in metalographic analisys, and have been detected in iberian daggers sheaths. I think in roman pugio too, but i don't have any reference now available.