Red is certainly not the beloved colour of all re-enactors or indeed film makers. However I put all the historical and archaeological evidence that I could find on all clothing colour into my book 'Roman Military Dress'.
Since the publication of my book some published research into dyes on textiles from a military site appeared to 'confirm' my theory and I have also done some new research myself which discovered something else. I presented both findings at the recent RAT conference, surely a reason for every RATer to attend these events. Hopefully I can get my latest work published soon.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
Quote:Since the publication of my book some published research into dyes on textiles from a military site appeared to 'confirm' my theory and I have also done some new research myself which discovered something else.
Quote:A discussion on another thread raised the question of Roman infantry, and cavalry, tunic colours.?
The tombstone of Silius, which was found to be painted when discovered (reconstructed here), suggested a green tunic for at least one cavalryman. However, since the artist appears to have had a palette of only five colours, I'm not sure how much reliance I'd place in it.
Mike Bishop
You know my method. It is founded upon the observance of trifles
That is an interesting point that you raise. The 'tunic' worn by Silius appears to be the same type of 'tunic' worn by other Auxiliary infantry on their tombstones sometimes with or without the zig-zag carving below. Robinson called this plain garment a cover for the mail armour. He also said elsewhere in his book that the smooth look would have painted to look like mail. Perhaps he was unsure too?
As I mention in the book the Romans had access to a wide range of dyes but over the Roman period their art only shows a limited amount of textile colours being used repeatedly. Archaeology also reveals little variety, a lot of textile fragments are un-dyed but then it is very very hard to get traces of original dye.
Well, if white were the norm, that would have been easy enough to do, wouldn't it?
In frescoes with white plaster backgrounds yes, you can just draw the outline of the clothed figure and leave the inside white. However some of the white clothing appears to have light blue shading. In at least one instance this has caused the garment itself to be described as being light blue because so few fragments remained. In fact when I too have to paint white, an awful colour, I use either blue or brownmixed with blue depending on whether the garment is bleached wool or linen and over paint with white to gradually get the right shade. it often means there is a light blue left for the shaded areas.
May we get a sneak peek?
I have given presentations at the 'Textiles from the Nile Valley' conference in Antwerp in 2011 with John Peter Wild attending, at the very start of my line of research then at the RAT conference this year and at the Hadrianic society conference in Durham, to gauge opinion. Some of the experts there appeared to think it was a good idea. I am due to show my conclusions, which basically in a nutshell are that you really need more evidence, at the Textiles from the Nile Valley conference this year. Perhaps if I get the chance I would like to show the material I have to Mike and Jon Coulston later this year, either before unleashing it on an otherwise unsuspecting world or to prevent me from getting egg on my face! If I am on to something it would be a lot of fun for modellers and re-enactors but it is hardly earth shattering.
The results could then be published with the other presentations at the Textiles from the Nile Valley Conference which are done soon afterwards in a really excellent series of publications funded by the host of the conference.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
Nothing short of conclusive documentary evidence will end the debate because different colors may have been used in different periods, different locations. and different duties or occasions. But it is very interesting and watching the vigor of the debate is one of the more fun aspects of reenacting and would be a source of much amusement to the Romans should they be watching from Hades or the Elysium fields. All that can be said for certain at this point is that some colors are more likely than others with red and white being the front runners.
Graham Sumners sequel book on Roman Military Dress.
Reguarding the textiles
a segment of torn fabric of diamond twill was found
in a rock quary know to be used by the Roman Military
by PhD. Maxfield featured on the
website The Virtual Legionary
diamond twill and zig zag pattern twill as well as other
"heringbone twill" patterns in wool or linen
were common in the 1st century
Ancient Danish Textiles From Bogs & Burials
a Comparative Study of Costumes and Iron Age Textiles
Textiles and Textile Production in Europe:
From Prehistory to AD 400 by Margarita Gleba
These are great resources for the type of fabric weave.
I have no clue on fabric color. Maybe there is some reference
from antiquity of some battle that describes the color of the
uniform. I have heard Madder Red was used but is this only
for Legionary and only certain ranks like corporals, I just do
not know?
What color would an auxiliary soldier have used?
Could a unit pick their own color?
Were sagum-cloaks a medium dark tan or brown in the 1st Century
or did the color match the madder red or white were these seasonal
colors or working vs off duty colors?
I have heard that the Navy or river boat units wore blue?
I would have thought that white would be an off duty
color and for officers? In the 3rd and 4th centuries
the enlisted wore tunics of Egyptian cotton in light shade
colors or off white.
A perennial question this one, I feel. Myself and an American friend have been for several years been trying to see exactly what was possible in the way of dye colours that would have been available to the Romans. This is 'kitchen chemistry' - but not in itself a bad thing as the Romans didn't have a proper chemistry laboratory either. Bottom line - if we can do it, then the Romans could probably do it as well!
While it is true to say that the Romans could dye just about any colour they wanted, there were obviously going to be constraints in terms of availability and (not least|) economics. The most obvious colour for red would have been madder. It's reasonably cheap and easy to dye with. The colour can be varied by the use of different mordants (chemicals such as alum that served to fix' the dye onto the cloth) and it can also be changed by varying (to some extent) the pH (acidity) of the dye-bath. There were other 'reds', e.g. Kermes insect eggs - but these were exceedingly expensive. This may have been the dye used to dye Caesar's famous red cloak. Cochineal (although chemically related) would not have been possible, as it came from the New World and was unknown in Europe before the 15th century.
The only blue dye available was woad/indigo (same chemical, different concentration in the two plants). Think blue jeans! This requires a reducing agent (here something that removes oxygen from the dyestuff to get it into solution). The ancients used things like rancid olive oil - the smell must have been appalling! Once the cloth was soaked in the solution, it could then be exposed to the air, when the oxygen would be added back on and the indigo pigment would be precipitated within the fibres.
Yellow is difficult. The most common yellow dye would probably have been weld. This was used for the colour of a Roman maiden's wedding veil (and also possibly for the Vestals). The dye is fine inside but fades quickly to a buff colour in bright sunlight. "Ladies Bedstraw" is another possibility, although the colour is not so bright as with weld.
Greens might require twice-dying (yellow, followed by blue). Obviously, this would add to the expense for such a garment. The same problem as with the yellows, over time your 'green' would change to blue!
Purple - a cheapskate method again involves twice-dyeing (red ad blue) but the expensive version - Tyrian purple - was reserved for those who could afford it, basically the Emperor and his mates. The dye gives a red-purple colour. As most people know, I'm sure, the dye is extracted from the glands of a sea-snail. It takes about 20,000 molluscs to provide one gram of the dye. It is actually more expensive than an equivalent weight of gold. Like indigo, to which the pigment is chemically very similar, it requires a reducing agent to get it into solution.
All these colours could be very bright indeed. I recently attended an exhibition at Cincinnati of the Dead Sea Scrolls - part of which was devoted to textiles found in caves and used to wrap the scrolls in. The colours seemed as fresh and bright as the day they were made - and certainly as good as our kitchen table experiments suggested were possible.
Roman society was very stratified and had been for several hundred years, almost from the inception of the Roman state. What you wore was governed by what you could afford. Wear something that was outside your pay-grade, and I would imagine that both your fellow squaddies and your centurion would come down on you hard as giving yourself airs and graces. At the very least you would be made fun of mercilessly.
There is plenty of evidence (and I urge you to have a look in Graham Sumner's book for the details) that off-white (i.e. unbleached linen or flannel, i.e. woollen cloth) was the prevalent colour for the tunic in Republican and Imperial times (at least for the first two centuries AD). To my mind, the two most telling pieces of evidence are from a pay-return of a soldier in legio X Fretensis at Masada (written on papyrus), which shows that he is being docked for a "white woollen tunic - tunica alba" as well as a linen tunic and secondly an order for cloth for "plain white tunics" given to a village in Egypt to supply them for the legion in Cappadocia. Both of these represent documentary evidence not subject to opinion. There is certainly evidence that later on the colour shifted to red (probably madder, as being the cheapest) and then back to white again for the later empire/tetrarchy, when coloured patches began to be applied to the tunics. Perhaps these looked better against a white background?
I think that common sense would suggest that if you are going to outfit an army of 300,000 men with tunics (or anything else in the way of garments, such as cloaks), then you are going to go for the cheapest possible solution - local cloth made by local people. Start to dye it in fancy colours and the cost is going to escalate pretty sharply. Auxiliary soldiers may have originally worn what they would have at home but would surely eventually have been dressed as were their citizen colleagues? There is also evidence that the naval service (and hence possibly the two Adiutrix legions, at least initially) wore blue. The descriptions I've seen - linking to the colour of the waves - would suggest the woad dye was the most likely.
Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)
visne scire quod credam? credo orbes volantes exstare.
You forgot to mention Saffron for Yellow, which gives off a nice Golden yellow. However Saffron was and still is the most expensive spice in the world.
Was black used for military tunics at all, using either natural black wool or dyed with organic or mineral dyes?
If so, can you please provide reference to an archaeological find, preserved specimen or painted image? Thanks to the subject experts for their prior answers on this issue.
Hopefully I can get my latest work published soon.
mile:.But don't worry I will not commit suicide if not.
