04-29-2007, 05:59 PM
Quote:In my mind, as Jim mentioned, it's all about propaganda. Officers, especially emperors, were to be portrayed as gods. Gods have the perfect body. So in art, it makes absolute sense then, that this perfection is going to be artistically rendered in their sculptures, taking precedence over anything based on actual reality. Chances are these emperor's didn't have six packs...
If the emperors were naked, then I would agree that idealization was at work. However, we know that muscled cuirasses were actually worn, so I don't think that wearing them is really idealization.
Quote:For example....a while ago I made a thread about pteryges, since I'm doing a centurion impression. Well, many reenactors use leather for them, and I was going to do the same. I made a diagram showing their layout, and posted it for people to comment on. After 5 pages of postings and many modifications, I changed my tune to incorporate leather tongue pteryges, over top of linen/felt rectangular ones. The reason being is that while we can't really tell what they are made out of based on sculptural artistic evidence, we do know that layered fabrics make excellent protection, and was in fact used by the greeks and later copied by the romans. So now I had 3 pieces of evidence, both in the artistic record, and archaeological, and even to a lesser degree modern reconstructions/testing.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, stop right there. What you have here is purely artistic evidence which is supplemented by speculation. There is no archaeological evidence involved unless you have found some full pteruges. You are applying practical knowledge (protective capabilities of linen vs. leather) to the matter, but you are still not drawing from anything other than artistis sources.
Quote:That then, was enough to change my opinion, because I had quite a bit more to go on rather than one source.
You are saying that what you had to go on were sculptural representations of pteruges, knowledge of the protective qualities of leather and linen, and speculation. Shouldn't you have to cross-check that, by your standards, with actual examples of pteruges or literary mentions of what pteruges were made of for it to qualify as being actual evidence?
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
