Me Underwears

[Ioannes]

Salvete Romani! I always see pictures of Roman soldiers wearing brownish/tan "shorts," and I've never really given them much thought until now, when I'm slowly building up a kit. My question is this: what are those called and where are they purchased? Gratias, amici!

[Crispvs]

I'm not sure what sort of shorts you are talking about, as I can't call anything of the sort to mind, unless you mean the calf length 'femenalia' trousers which Roman infantry seem to have started wearing around the time of Trajan at the end of the first or beginning of the second centuries AD.

Roman soldiers could wear underpants, as we know of a pair which was sent to a soldier at Vindolanda by his mother, but we don't know what form they took. Some may have used loin cloths and others may have simply done without.

For underwear when in kit, I just have two plain linen tunics - one to wash and one to wear, as they say.


Crispvs

[Scipio Second]

Not as adventurous as apparently Crispvs is, may I suggest short, simple cotton running shorts as viable underwear for your kit. They are comfortable and are unseen.

Petrus Augustinus
(aka Pierre Kleff)