subarmalis

[Evgeny]

?Please help to define it. done with archeology? Sdelanaya recently?

[jvrjenivs]

Movie-prop?

[Vindex]

I very much doubt this actual piece has come out of the ground, and as far as I am aware it is not a reconstruction of a recent excavated piece.(But I'm frequently wrong ;-) )

Perhaps more an extrapolation or interpretation of iconography or a statue?

[Cheyenne]

Iconographic probably. Although I really like the way the flaps fall on the shoulders... that is a correct position based upon the examples I have photographed from the Getty, Pompeii, British Museum etc etc. So I'll be trying to replicate this for a couple I have to make in the next 2 mths

Thanks for sharing...

[petermac]

It does have a movie costume look about it. In Sydney two years ago was the Ben Hur Spectacular, and our group attended a private function at the stadium, to add some Roman colour to the proceedings. One of our members lent a colleague a subarmalis (in leather) that came from the Charlton Heston version of the film, and which he picked up while on a trip to te States some years ago.

On a different note, my partner is a weaver, and she reckons the tassles on the pteruges look like the warp ends tied off, suggesting the pteruges were at least in part woven.

Having woven Wickelband leg-wraps, my partner states it would be a simple matter to weave a strip of heavy wool of the appropriate width, which is then cut to length, leaving the warp ends as decorative tassles. Alternatively, if the basis of the garment was woven, then the pteruges could form part of the overall warp of the garment, with the pteruges woven in. It would be more time consuming, as you would have a separate weft for each pteruge once they started, but it would make them integral to the garment, and there is no wastage of cloth.

Regards

Peter MacKinnon
formerly AMMAS
currently Sydney Ancients

[Graham Sumner]

Hi

I think this is one of the re-constructions used in the film 'The Greatest Story Ever Told'' 1964, worn by the Centurions including John Wayne!

The costumes were designed by Nino Novarese who produced some of the better attempts at Roman military equipment seen in films at the end of the fifties and early sixties. Remember this is years before any decent research into Roman armour and equipment. This costume is in fact as far as I can tell the earliest reconstruction of the panoply of Marcus Favonius Facilis from his tombstone in Colchester. You can see more information on this in my article in the Ancient Warfare special.

Graham.