03-15-2012, 09:09 PM
Nicus Maximus,
I agree with Jurjen - very nice so far! There is just one improvement I would suggest. The pugio should be higher, so that the upper suspension rings are in line with the belt. This is how they are consistently shown in Roman depictions. Also, the upper suspension rings should be tightly attached directly to the frog buttons with thonging rather than with straps. Although commonly used by re-enactors, these straps are nowhere to be seen in the contemporary evidence and are therefore simply a 're-enactorism'.
Agrimensor,
Some nice new bits and pieces I see. Just a couple of things though (sorry to have swapped my own eyes for those of the imperial eagle):
Firstly, if you shorten your baldric so that you sword pommel ends up near your armpit you will find that you no longer need to pass your belt over your baldric. In much searching through contemporary depictions I have never seen an example in sculpture where a belt passes over a baldric and in fact there are two images I am aware of (one from Mainz and oe from Adamklissi) of soldiers wearing sword baldrics but not waist belts. It would seem that the Romans did not see any need to secure their baldrics with belts. Since I started doing the same five years ago I have not found any need to either.
Secondly, trousers?? Why not instead do what we know the Romans habitually did and wear two or more tunics, thus giving plenty of insulation to the vital organs? Again, I have tried this out myself on a number of occasions in all weathers and have found that with two tunics, a cloak, socks and lower leg coverings, all of which we have ample evidence for the Romans using, you can stay sufficiently warm throughout a day or weekend (and, from my own experience of weeks at a time spent above the snowline in New Zealand, probably much longer) and retain higher energy levels than those not similarly insulated against the cold. Trousers can quickly be found to be unnecessary.
To our modern mindset, as we have all grown up wearing trousers, they are an obvious solution to cold. The same mindset might not have been present in the mind of the Roman citizen, even if he had grown up on the frontier and was used to seeing Germans in trousers, if he already had sufficiently good solutions to the problem of staying warm which still allowed him to maintain a cultural difference from the non-citizens around him. Citizenship was something both to be aspired to and to be proclaimed. Refraining from the use of something unnecessary to him but more essential to the Germans (who might be expected to do some things differently) might underline that.
'Common sense' arguments in favour of trousers tend to fall flat, as 'common sense' in always culturally based and so what seems common sense to people of one culture might seem the opposite to people of another culture. We are not like the Romans, and equally, they were not like us.
Lecture over. Now putting my own rather more blurry eyes back in place.
Crispvs
I agree with Jurjen - very nice so far! There is just one improvement I would suggest. The pugio should be higher, so that the upper suspension rings are in line with the belt. This is how they are consistently shown in Roman depictions. Also, the upper suspension rings should be tightly attached directly to the frog buttons with thonging rather than with straps. Although commonly used by re-enactors, these straps are nowhere to be seen in the contemporary evidence and are therefore simply a 're-enactorism'.
Agrimensor,
Some nice new bits and pieces I see. Just a couple of things though (sorry to have swapped my own eyes for those of the imperial eagle):
Firstly, if you shorten your baldric so that you sword pommel ends up near your armpit you will find that you no longer need to pass your belt over your baldric. In much searching through contemporary depictions I have never seen an example in sculpture where a belt passes over a baldric and in fact there are two images I am aware of (one from Mainz and oe from Adamklissi) of soldiers wearing sword baldrics but not waist belts. It would seem that the Romans did not see any need to secure their baldrics with belts. Since I started doing the same five years ago I have not found any need to either.
Secondly, trousers?? Why not instead do what we know the Romans habitually did and wear two or more tunics, thus giving plenty of insulation to the vital organs? Again, I have tried this out myself on a number of occasions in all weathers and have found that with two tunics, a cloak, socks and lower leg coverings, all of which we have ample evidence for the Romans using, you can stay sufficiently warm throughout a day or weekend (and, from my own experience of weeks at a time spent above the snowline in New Zealand, probably much longer) and retain higher energy levels than those not similarly insulated against the cold. Trousers can quickly be found to be unnecessary.
To our modern mindset, as we have all grown up wearing trousers, they are an obvious solution to cold. The same mindset might not have been present in the mind of the Roman citizen, even if he had grown up on the frontier and was used to seeing Germans in trousers, if he already had sufficiently good solutions to the problem of staying warm which still allowed him to maintain a cultural difference from the non-citizens around him. Citizenship was something both to be aspired to and to be proclaimed. Refraining from the use of something unnecessary to him but more essential to the Germans (who might be expected to do some things differently) might underline that.
'Common sense' arguments in favour of trousers tend to fall flat, as 'common sense' in always culturally based and so what seems common sense to people of one culture might seem the opposite to people of another culture. We are not like the Romans, and equally, they were not like us.
Lecture over. Now putting my own rather more blurry eyes back in place.
Crispvs
Who is called \'\'Paul\'\' by no-one other than his wife, parents and brothers. :!: <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_exclaim.gif" alt=":!:" title="Exclamation" />:!:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.romanarmy.net">www.romanarmy.net
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.romanarmy.net">www.romanarmy.net