04-01-2012, 06:49 PM
Here's what I conclude.
* You CAN make fringe from the threads of fabric. Blankets and saga with fringe are made this way. Linen does not have as large of yarn, but it can be done.
* Tearing cloth to remove gold thread yarn would not produce long threads at the point of the tear. Take a piece of woven cloth, make a small cut maybe 2 cm long, and tear it across its weave. Seamsters do this all the time to square up fabric for construction. (When you buy fabric at the store, they cut it with scissors, and the cut does not always follow the weave exactly) You will see that the tear is straight, and there are short free hanging threads at that point. But without removing more thread from the warp, you will not get proper fringe.
* We are trying to build a case that perhaps all vex banners were made in this format, while in fact, we only have ONE to work from. How many vexes and other legion, cohort, or other banners do we think existed over the years? What if this one was the "odd man out", and others did, in fact, have unit identifiers other than just a picture? How would we know? It's unlikely that any soldier from one legion would know what the vex emblem was from a legion he had never seen/met before, if the two were put on the same battlefield, seems to me. If banners were issued for each cohort, how many banners would there have been during Augustus' civil war? There doesn't seem to have been any Notitia Dignitatum during the Republic, Principate, or earlier Imperial times.
* The vex banner was designed to IDENTIFY a unit, with the purpose of making it possible to know who was where, or for a separated soldier to get back to his unit after the chaos ended, along with whatever other superstitious, traditional or religious reasons to have the particular emblem on the banner. No doubt a soldier would know his own, regardless of what was on it, but to find your own in an assembly of many cohorts on a battlefield would be very useful--even critical. Of course, this statement involves a bunch of "IFs", but suppose only ONE gladius had ever been found, or ONE helmet! Would we have to go with that one sample for all situations? or would we conclude that there may have been other helmets, as represented in the sculptural and artistic evidence. My guess is that the banners on Trajan's Column, and other sculpture had the logo painted on the surface, and now that information is lost to us, like much other color/detail information.
* * *
Our vex banner does not have a picture, partly because we have nobody in the unit who is of sufficient artistic skill to paint one, and partly because we want people to know who we are when we go out, so they can contact us later, and finally because I learned to hand letter with a brush when I worked a few years in a sign shop--back before computers did all the lettering.
Can I defend all those points against a concerted historist's attack? Nope. Not with facts. But it is why WE do what WE do. Others are free to do what they wish. Maybe if we ever get large enough to need a second banner, we will do something in that second one with some kind of artistic presentation. That would look very nice. We're making a new one now, and will probably put the Gammas on the corners, since many Roman objects had them.
We will sew on fringe, though, I think, since it's attractive, fairly easy, and can even be made from wool (or, I suppose, other fiber) yarn as needed. We will not use actual gold thread, though, just golden-colored fringe. Might use red, just to be distinctive, if the red matches the vex material.
I hand made the fringe on this vex banner. It's not perfect, but it's not supposed to be, either.
* You CAN make fringe from the threads of fabric. Blankets and saga with fringe are made this way. Linen does not have as large of yarn, but it can be done.
* Tearing cloth to remove gold thread yarn would not produce long threads at the point of the tear. Take a piece of woven cloth, make a small cut maybe 2 cm long, and tear it across its weave. Seamsters do this all the time to square up fabric for construction. (When you buy fabric at the store, they cut it with scissors, and the cut does not always follow the weave exactly) You will see that the tear is straight, and there are short free hanging threads at that point. But without removing more thread from the warp, you will not get proper fringe.
* We are trying to build a case that perhaps all vex banners were made in this format, while in fact, we only have ONE to work from. How many vexes and other legion, cohort, or other banners do we think existed over the years? What if this one was the "odd man out", and others did, in fact, have unit identifiers other than just a picture? How would we know? It's unlikely that any soldier from one legion would know what the vex emblem was from a legion he had never seen/met before, if the two were put on the same battlefield, seems to me. If banners were issued for each cohort, how many banners would there have been during Augustus' civil war? There doesn't seem to have been any Notitia Dignitatum during the Republic, Principate, or earlier Imperial times.
* The vex banner was designed to IDENTIFY a unit, with the purpose of making it possible to know who was where, or for a separated soldier to get back to his unit after the chaos ended, along with whatever other superstitious, traditional or religious reasons to have the particular emblem on the banner. No doubt a soldier would know his own, regardless of what was on it, but to find your own in an assembly of many cohorts on a battlefield would be very useful--even critical. Of course, this statement involves a bunch of "IFs", but suppose only ONE gladius had ever been found, or ONE helmet! Would we have to go with that one sample for all situations? or would we conclude that there may have been other helmets, as represented in the sculptural and artistic evidence. My guess is that the banners on Trajan's Column, and other sculpture had the logo painted on the surface, and now that information is lost to us, like much other color/detail information.
* * *
Our vex banner does not have a picture, partly because we have nobody in the unit who is of sufficient artistic skill to paint one, and partly because we want people to know who we are when we go out, so they can contact us later, and finally because I learned to hand letter with a brush when I worked a few years in a sign shop--back before computers did all the lettering.
Can I defend all those points against a concerted historist's attack? Nope. Not with facts. But it is why WE do what WE do. Others are free to do what they wish. Maybe if we ever get large enough to need a second banner, we will do something in that second one with some kind of artistic presentation. That would look very nice. We're making a new one now, and will probably put the Gammas on the corners, since many Roman objects had them.
We will sew on fringe, though, I think, since it's attractive, fairly easy, and can even be made from wool (or, I suppose, other fiber) yarn as needed. We will not use actual gold thread, though, just golden-colored fringe. Might use red, just to be distinctive, if the red matches the vex material.
I hand made the fringe on this vex banner. It's not perfect, but it's not supposed to be, either.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
