Roman Centurion cloak and plume

[LonginusXXI]

Did Roman centurions really wear red cloaks and red plumes? And what would a centurion in the Eastern legions look like?

[AMELIANVS]

Where did you hear/read they wore red cloaks and red plumes?

In reality we have absolutely no speciffic informations to tell us Centurions(there was more ranks among Centurions moreover!)used some uniform colors speciffic for them.There is a late 4th century mention by Vegetius who claims centurions had their crests "silvered"-but he gives no further detail to say us what time he is reffering(Roman army was an everchanging institution constantly developing into other forms not neverchanging and neverexisting pop culture nonsense) or what part of the crest exactly were silvered.It would by strange if the crest itself was silvered(maybe with exception of the late antiquity Ridge style helmets of Vegetius time some of whom had metallic crest but we are not sure if such helmets belonged to Roman late antiquity officers or not)so it seems more likely it was the crest holder what was silvered.There is some(very inconclusive!)evidence that republican and perhaps even early imperial(or even after this date?) Centurion rank soldiers might usel white crest decorated partially with red color at its edges.We have also some evidence for blue and white being typical colors used on Centurion cloaks at least during height of the Empire.

And what would a Centurion in the Eastern legions look like?...Well basically the very same as a Centurion in the western legions would look like(and again-what time are you asking on?Universal neverchanging Roman army never existed).Why so many people seems to think two major geographical halves of the empire are equal to a kind of magical barrier where things looked considerably different from each other?They mostly did not.There were certainly some minor differencies but these were mainly given by local regional traditions and preffered equipment styles in those given regions but personally I seriously doubt there was any huge difference between what the Roman army looked in the west from that in the east.

[Purplest]

Early centurion helmets, like the Coolus helmets, used a central horse hair tail mounted to a spike on the top of the helmet and had feathers mounted on the sides in plume tubes. Later centurion imperial gallic helmets had a horse hair transverse crest or a feather transverse crest. As far as color, there appears to have been a number of different colors used, such as white, black, red, yellow, purple... A lot of what is known about crests in general is from writings and sculpture as no complete crest (to my knowledge) has been found. Hope this helps.
As far as the color of cloaks those varied as well.. Just like the color of tunics and subarmalis. There wasn't just one particular color for these items.

Cheers

[AMELIANVS]

...and there are also accounts of the Jesus trial where centurion cloak was used to cover him.Majority of evangelists are describing its color being scarlet red while only one as "purple".It is far more likely in this case majority is correct while that one account using word purple was likely exaggerating it to give Jesus more regal appearance with typically royal attribute like purple color(which is however not very likely shade for the cloak of average centurion-even more so if that cloak was used to cover what they considered a lunatic criminal...it is very unlikely a piece of garment so expensive like those purple were would be used on something like that).

[Graham Sumner]

I put all the clothing colour references that I could find into 'Roman Military Dress'.

Some of the Fayum portraits from Egypt that appear to depict Roman soldiers could also include centurions. That is because the belts and swords are worn on the left side. Most of these men appear to wear blue cloaks but one or two are in red.

Contemporary hairstyles, brooches and facial reconstructions from the skeletons associated with some of the portraits, suggest these are a reliable source for both Roman clothing colour and equipment rather than anachronistic Hellenistic painting traditions. Therefore I do not know why they do not receive more attention.

Graham.

[Purplest]

Mr. Sumner I have your book and it's great. A wealth of information. Especially if you are interested in Roman clothing , uniforms, etc. Mr. James Ajiduah you should consider getting a copy of this book as it will answer a lot of your questions.

Semper Sis

[Purplest]

Forgot to mention that the imperial italic helmets, being very similar to the imperial gallic helmets, had the same type of crests.

Vale

[LuciusSallustiusPlautus]

I put all the clothing colour references that I could find into 'Roman Military Dress'.

Some of the Fayum portraits from Egypt that appear to depict Roman soldiers could also include centurions. That is because the belts and swords are worn on the left side. Most of these men appear to wear blue cloaks but one or two are in red.

Could you please post a link to said Faya(can't tell if it's 2nd declension neuter), I am very interested in seeing these.

[Graham Sumner]

Have a look on Google images for Fayum portraits. Just ignore all the modern copies and versions!

Graham

[Renatus]

Could you please post a link to said Faya(can't tell if it's 2nd declension neuter)

The Fayum is an area of Egypt south of Cairo. Nothing to do with Latin.

[LonginusXXI]

Do you have any images for this?

[ValentinianVictrix]

Do a quick google search James, its as easy as that.

[Crispvs]

I thought I might clear up a few factoids which have appeared so far in this thread.

Firstly, we do not know how centurions' crests appeared on Coolus type helmets, but there is no reason to assume that they appeared different to those worn on other types of helmet. I can think of just three depictions of centurions' crests dating to the first century AD, namely a flowing one which appears to be formed from a pair of horse tails (or perhaps one divided horse tail); a (presumably) horse hair transverse brush crest set into a curved box or block; and a transverse feather crest set into curved box or block. None of these retain any or their original colour.

Secondly, there is no evidence to suggest that feather tubes on helmets were connected in any way with rank. They may have been, but it is just as likely that they were used to allow different units to visually differentiate themselves from others.

Next, there is very little colour evidence which survives for the colours of crests. Polybius talked of black and purple feathers worn on helmets in the third quarter of the second century BC and a number of red crests are depicted in frescoes from Pompeii. I am not sure that there is anything more than this to go on without moving into the realm of modern speculation.

Fourthly, it is by no means certain that the soldiers dressed Jesus in imitation of a centurio or that the cloak/robe concerned belonged to one. That is possible, but the gospel writers say that the soldiers were mocking him to make fun of the statement that he was a king. In fact, only one gospel, Matthew's, states that Jesus was dressed in a red cloak and given a reed to hold (in imitation of a sceptre perhaps). Mark (the earliest written) says that they dressed him in purple and John (or perhaps one of his students, who may have completed his account based on what he had told them, as it was written in the late first century AD when John himself would have been very old or dead) says that they dressed him in a purple robe. All three of these accounts mention the 'crown' made of twisted thorns which was placed on his head as a torturous mockery of a crown. Luke's account (probably written around AD60) does not mention the thorny 'crown' but does add the detail that the incident happened in the palace of the Tetrach Herod Antipas and that is was his soldiers (rather than the Romans) who mocked Jesus. Luke also says that it was Herod who dressed Jesus in the 'rich' cloak. Although a purple cloak would seem an unlikely thing for the soldiers themselves to have, it would be no surprise for a tetrarch to have had one which he did not care too much about losing. Therefore the accounts of a purple cloak or robe are likely to be correct and the improvised costume was therefore in mockery of a king, rather than a centurio.

Lastly, to add to what Graham has said about the Fayum portraits, there is a very good book on them available from the British Museum, which amongst other things (although somewhat off topic here) features a full length portrait of a woman who is wearing a pair of bright red socks.

Crispvs