Facial Hair

[Fruitbat]

Oh yes Dan, you are spot on the money, but don't forget that although the Romans held a (very) grudging respect for Greek intellectuallity, they still thought they were a bunch of girls!

[Fruitbat]

Nathan, what a superb point - ooh, that's going to send me off on one for a while, thanks, but as for speach not beards, please, I would love a contemporary reference....

[Fruitbat]

Matt, you make a very valid point, when I served in the British army, they were very aware that poor hygine and disease took more troops from the front than the enemy, and I am sure that this point was not lost on the Romans. But I have read (during the WWII Arnhem affair) from an eye-witness that the cleanest thing about the British troops was their weapons (which helps to make your point), but in 'polite society' of the day, a well groomed turn-out was the way to be, as is still the same today (no shell suits or baseball caps thanks). also, the gift of a clean shave as a gift....well that speaks volumes.....

[Robert Vermaat]

It's a funny idea, but I think the confusion derives from the etymology of 'feminalia', the short tight breeches worn by soldiers - the word derives from the femur (thighbone), not their supposed femininity :wink:

Yes, I've heard that a lot, but I don't quite see the etymology. After all, 'femur' would render 'femoris', make the garment being called 'femoralia', right? How then, would this become 'feminalia', which seems derived from quite another root, namely 'femina'? I'm no language expert, maybe someone can enlighten me?

[Nathan Ross]

After all, 'femur' would render 'femoris', make the garment being called 'femoralia', right?

Yes, that is a bit odd. I've also seen it written femenalia, apparently from 'femen' - thigh. Either way, it seems more likely than a derivation from 'feminine' - Roman women didn't wear trousers, after all, or even underpants :wink:

[Tarbicus]

Seneca the Elder had some fine pork chops by the looks of it, and Pliny a beard worthy of a Dacian.

Some more busts (not identified at the web page).

[Nathan Ross]

He's not Seneca, he's a very...

That's actually the so-called Pseudo-Seneca, now believed to be one of various Roman copies of a Greek original. No portraits of Seneca the Elder survive as far as I know, but here's the (very much clean-shaven) Seneca the Younger.

That's not Pliny either... although I don't know who it is. Another Greek, I would guess.

I can't find any bust portraits of bearded Romans, Nero aside, between the early Republic and Hadrian. Plutarch describes Marcus Antonius as having a full beard - possibly started while he was in mourning for Caesar, or during his 'Greek God' phase. Most of the coin portraits show him shaven, but there are a couple of bearded ones:



And even Octavian seems to have grown a bit of fluff on his cheeks:

[Fruitbat]

Wonderful post Nathan, I had long hair when I was a youngster, wouldn't dream of it now of course!

[Tarbicus]

Nathan, good points. I learned something

Armae's blog has a short article on the subject.
French
English

[Nathan Ross]

Actually I have found one bearded(ish) Roman who looks pre-Hadrianic. Marcus Modius Asiaticus was a physician, and probably of Greek descent - his bust has Greek script on it anyway. The copy is kept in the Louvre, and listed as '2nd Century', but the hairstyle looks rather Trajanic to me, and the beard is a bit Neronian...

[img size=268x400]http://www.louvre.fr/media/repository/ressources/sources/illustration/autres/image_124062_v2_m56577569831249121.jpg[/img]

Armae's blog has a short article on the subject.
French
English

Some interesting stuff there, even in the garbly Google-translation! The epigram by Martial is characteristically obscene (!) - here's a literal translation:

You smoothe your face with psilothron and your bald scalp with dropax. Are you scared, Gargilianus, of the barber? What happens with your nails? For surely you can't cut them with resin or Venetian clay. Desist, if you have any shame, from displaying your wretched bald scalp: this, Gargilianus, is what usually happens with a c&@%.

Which suggests, quite apart from Gargilianus's shaved head, that Roman woman practiced, erm, depilation too... hock:

[Theodosius the Great]

Yet it had always been my understanding that the fashion in the 1st century B.C. was not to wear a beard. If any of you bearded gentlemen portray soldiers from that period what do you do? Do you shave before a re-enactment or not? I have a beard, but am not all that keen on shaving every time I do a re-enactment. Thoughts?

I keep my full beard and tell anyone who asks that I'm not a slave to fashion. Someone, IMO, would have been bearded. There's always the oddball.

Here is a Trajanic soldier (possibly a Praetorian) who is fully bearded. You have to zoom in closely to see it.



~Theo

[Alanus]

Theo,

I think you have a good point. Always an unconventional character in every unit. I'm lucky-- I portray a barbarian. And as we all think we know (nuk, nuk, nuk), those barbarians were so backward they had not the where-with-all to shave.

Kidding aside, we are now finding scissors, tweezers, even ear-spoons, in barbarian graves, some predating the time-period we're talking about. Every acute man, in all cultures, had a predisposition to stride beyond the unkempt. Beards were trimmed, probably carefully. Otherwise, these guys would have looked like ZZ Top. :roll:

[John Conyard]

Roman shaving is an interesting topic.

http://comitatus.net/romanshaving.html

[Alanus]

Hi, John

Been awhile!
Good article. The blade on the folding knife looks a lot like a modern Exacto knife. And the shears are ubiquitous, found so often in both Roman and barbarian graves. Personal appearance must have played a large part in a man's self-esteem within all cultures; albeit, we know some Romans went to extremes. Caesar, for example. :grin:

[M. Caecilius]

I keep my full beard and tell anyone who asks that I'm not a slave to fashion. Someone, IMO, would have been bearded. There's always the oddball.

Or one could tell people that one is in mourning for a fallen comrade. Or for the State. Cato the Younger, according to Plutarch, stopped shaving after he left Italy with Pompey during the Civil Wars...