Late Republican Re-Enactment groups + handspun fibre query

[Caballo]

Apologies- it was of course Anon in De rebus bellicis rather than Vegetius...

Sr Simon James discussed it is a thread elsewhere, and he is far more knowledgeable than I suspect I will ever be!

"Subject: Re: ARMA: Loricae Hamatae vs. Loricae Segmentatae
Reply-to: [email protected]
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 20:55:07

Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 10:34:08 +0000
From: Simon James <[email protected]>
Reply-to: [email protected]
Organization: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: ARMA: Loricae Hamatae vs. Loricae Segmentatae

curator operis armamentarii wrote:
>
> Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 17:24:34 -0500
> To: [email protected]
> From: [email protected] (Lynne M. Viverito)
> Subject: Re: ARMA: Loricae Hamatae vs. Loricae Segmentatae
>
> In regard to hamata. Was it worn without any padded under garment?
> Phil
>
Good question! One about which I, also, would like to hear from
re-enactors. It seems to me that both segmentate armour and mail were
probably regularly worn with a padded undergarment, like the late Roman
'thoracomachus' decsribed in the Anonymus *de rebus bellicis*:

`The ancients, among the many things which... they devised for use in
war, prescribed also the thoracomachus to counteract the weight and
friction of armour... This type of garment is made of thick sheep's wool
felt to the measure... of the upper part of the human frame...'
(Anonymus, de rebus bellicis, XV, 1-2; translation Ireland (with
amendments), from Hassall and Ireland 1979 32-3).
Hassall, M.W.C. and Ireland, R.I. (eds.) 1979: De Rebus Bellicis,
BAR S63, Oxford.

So, there you go. Do any re-enactors use such garments under mail? Scale
shirts, with their textile backing, may not have needed a separate
garment. I believe Mike Bishop has views on sub-segmenta garments...?
Simon
--
Dr. Simon James,
Department of Archaeology, University of Durham"

In the next para it also says "In case the weight of the Thoracomachus itself should become sodden with rain and should therefore hamper the wearer, it will certainly be advisable to wear on top of it a similar garment of well prepared Libyan fleeces (pellibus- some translate as skins)to the cut of the thoracomachus".