06-20-2005, 04:56 PM
I have been working on Republican for quite some time. First abandon the notion that Roman soldiers of any era were Fred Flintstone wearing lots of animal skin.
Romans of all eras used lots of fabric of high quality. It was handmade and expensive, but that didn't stop them. Romans snapped up garments of high quality, such as the German sagum, whenever they found them. An accurate sagum costs about $2500 to produce today, and could have cost more in ancient times.
Fabrics such as linen, wool and hemp were used. Hemp is particularly wonderful. A real space age material from ancient times.
The weaves were exceptional. Some techniqes such as naalbinding are a lost art.
Mail was meticulously made of iron. It was made of flattened rings, half punched, half riveted, so the weight is considerably less than rounded, butted rings. It was worn under a padded linen or hemp subarmalia. This last garment is of absolute necessity for mail to function properly. Use of the fabric subarmalia means that the mail will actually protect you and not harm you, plus the mail shirt glides on and off over the fabric. In my opinion, leather was never used in this role. The subarmalia also distributes the weight of the mail in a comfortable way. I have seen absurd estimates that Roman mail shirts weighed 40+ pounds. Just try wearing one of those all day! I have. An accurated shirt should weigh less than 20 pounds.
Romans of all eras used lots of fabric of high quality. It was handmade and expensive, but that didn't stop them. Romans snapped up garments of high quality, such as the German sagum, whenever they found them. An accurate sagum costs about $2500 to produce today, and could have cost more in ancient times.
Fabrics such as linen, wool and hemp were used. Hemp is particularly wonderful. A real space age material from ancient times.
The weaves were exceptional. Some techniqes such as naalbinding are a lost art.
Mail was meticulously made of iron. It was made of flattened rings, half punched, half riveted, so the weight is considerably less than rounded, butted rings. It was worn under a padded linen or hemp subarmalia. This last garment is of absolute necessity for mail to function properly. Use of the fabric subarmalia means that the mail will actually protect you and not harm you, plus the mail shirt glides on and off over the fabric. In my opinion, leather was never used in this role. The subarmalia also distributes the weight of the mail in a comfortable way. I have seen absurd estimates that Roman mail shirts weighed 40+ pounds. Just try wearing one of those all day! I have. An accurated shirt should weigh less than 20 pounds.
"In war as in loving, you must always keep shoving." George S. Patton, Jr.
