Palmyra

[Theo]

I'm just collecting a Palmyran wargames army from "A and A Miniatures". Does anyone know of any website where I might get some info on clothing colours and decoration and so on?

Theo

[jho]

The best single source of evidence for contemporary clothing colours are probably the Dura Europos frescoes. Try this link:

[url:2zhj1n3x]http://research.yale.edu:8084/divdl/eikon/subjects.jsp?subjectid=463[/url]

In his "Armies and Enemies of Rome" Phil Barker claims that murals from Palmyra indicate that Palmyran troops may have worn a sort of uniform with blue-green Tunic with maroon stripes and maroon trousers with blue-green stripes with officers reversing those coiours but I have never been able to locate pictures of the murals he refers to. Another source of evidence may be the Osprey series (Rome's Enemies, The Desert Frontier, and the Sumner Roman Military Clothing series).

Also a few years ago, mosaics have been found at Palmyra which are claimed to depict Odenathus in the guise of Bellerophon. Bellerophon is wearing blue trousers and a red tunic with green/gold embroidery. I do not have a source for the picture but a google picture search should locate it.

Also, take a look at the many reliefs from Palmyra (just do a google picture search). Although they do not show colours the stripes and embroidery are often shown in the relief and you will get a general idea of patterns. In my opinion more or less every colour could be used to colour those patterns with potentially a tendency for the trousers to reverse the colour pattern of the tunic.

I hope this helps to give you a first start. If you find more evidence it would be great if you could publish that here.

[Theo]

Jens,

Thanks for the reply. I'll do as you suggest and let you know how I get on.

Theo

[Theo]

Jens,

Well, I have not found out much more about clothing colours and so on - though I think there may be nuggest here and there on a website about Zenobia that I am trawling through - but I did just today find some images of gods carved on the temple. They are similar to the familiar 'trinity' in that they are wearing trousers, what appear to be pteruges and then either mail or scale cuirasses - though one definitely has a muscle cuirass. The images are hard to make out and have no detailed explanation but the armour is clearly enough depicted. I think one of the figures is mounted but cannot be too sure.

Theo