Scutum colour?

[Crispvs]

There is virtually no evidence for the colour of soldiers' tunics during warfare, or even if there was a special colour associated with war or the army, as I have pointed out earlier in this thread. The idea that soldiers wore different coloured tunics for war is based on two pieces of information. Firstly we are told that under the republic a returning army passed through the temple of Janus, entering in their military dress and exiting in their civilian dress, symbolising a return to civilian life. We know from this that the military tunic differed from the civilian tunic, but in what way we do not know. It may have been a matter of colour. But it may equally well have been simply a matter of the removal of the military belt. Then again, it may have been something about the wieght of the cloth. We just do not know. The other piece of information come to us from Isadore of Seville, who was writing in the seventh century AD. Isadore says that before a battle (he is probably talking about battle in the late Roman period) a red object was hung outside a fort. This object is variously interpreted as either a banner of some sort or a tunic. The possibility that Isadore MAY have been talking about a tunic has led some people to speculate that this indicated that soldiers were to put on red tunics, presumably in preparation for war. These people have then projected this assumption into the past and take the view soldiers wore different coloured tunics in wartime to the colour they normally wore. This assumption is extremely tenuous, particularly as Isadore may have been talking about a banner rather than a tunic. As I said in my earlier post, it is more likely that the cloak, rather than the tunic, was the significant item when it came to colour.<br>
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Crispvs <p></p><i></i>