Artist-at-Work Demonstration:

Unstitching Ancient Garments

Let arms yield to the toga.
Cicero

Exploring Classical Couture a capite ad calcem with Legio VI Victrix Saturday, October 20, 2012

2011 J. Paul Getty Trust

Artist-at-Work Demonstration: Unstitching Ancient Garments Introduction

Welcome to the Getty Villas Artist-at-Work Demonstration, featuring the members of Legio VI Victrix! This demonstration is inspired by the many images of ancient costumes and actual accoutrements in the Museums collection. We hope that you enjoy the program and use this handout as a reference throughout the demonstration or while viewing related works of art in the galleries.

Ancient Greek and Roman Costume

We know from a multitude of visual sources that dress had a significant presence in ancient life. For the both Greeks and Romans, dress reflected the constraints of an hierarchical society. However, the basic form of clothing for both sexes in all walks of life remained remarkably simple -- the tunic, a tube of fabric with openings for the head and arms. Almost all ancient clothing, whether the Greek chiton or the roman tunica, were variations on this basic form. When we speak of male dress in the Ancient world, we must of course include the armor and equipment of one of the most important manly roles -- the warrior. The living historians of the Legion Six Historical Society here present a several examples of the Classical man of arms, plus a magistrate wearing the garment that defined Roman citizenship, the toga.

Ancient Greece
From circa 700 to 168 BC, the Greek Hoplite was the elite soldier of the ancient world. Indeed the fighting style of the hoplite, which demanded disciplined teamwork to create the formidable phalanx of spear-armed men, defined the "Western way of war" for centuries to come. The equipment of the hoplite changed subtly over the centuries, but the basics remained the same: Armored from head to foot, the hoplite's main weapon was a long thrusting spear, and his primary defense was the large, circular and dished shield called the hoplon or aspis, made of a wooden core covered with leather and bronze sheeting (an example belonging to a soldier in the army of the Bosporan king Pharnaces can be found in the men's gallery on the second floor). Legion Six's Ron Glass portrays an Athenian hoplite of the era of the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, circa 490-400 BC. He wears a Chalcidian-style helmet, only slightly more open than the famous Corinthian type, but still providing extensive protection. His body armor, or linothorax, is made of layered linen, and his lower legs are protected by brass shin-

Artist-at-Work Demonstration: Unstitching Ancient Garments

guards called greaves. Attired thusly, Greek soldiers successfully defended Europe from the Persians and engaged in decades of bitter internecine warfare.

Another object in the Getty's collection, a small ceramic vessel called a lekythos, depicts a soldier in the midst of donning his panoply of armor. He appears to be wearing a padded cloth undergarment called a thoromachus by the Greeks and a subarmalis by the Romans. This important garment often sported linen or leather strips at the hips and shoulders, which provided extra protection for the thighs and upper arms. Called pteryges ("feathers"), these narrow strips became another iconic emblem of the Greco-Roman warrior.

The Greeks also utilized a more famous and artistic form of armor, the muscle cuirass, later adopted by the Romans and, centuries later, depicted in countless Hollywood movies. Made of brass carefully hammered into the form of an idealized male torso, the muscle cuirass was widely employed by wealthier hoplites and high-ranking Roman officers for more than 1,000 years, from circa 500 BC to AD 500. In fact only subtle details differentiate a Greek officer of the Hellenistic era (336-30 BC) from his Roman counterpart. Right, Brandon Barnes of Legion Six depicts a Roman Tribune, of the late Republic or early Empire. A large stone sarcophagus depicting scenes from the Trojan war, carved in the second century AD, shows Greeks and Trojans battling one another wearing this Romanized form of Hellenistic armor (when not clad only in "heroic nudity," which, alas, the men of Legion Six will not be modeling today!)

Ancient Rome
After the battle of Pydna in 168 BC, the Roman legionary supplanted the Greek hoplite as the Ancient world's model fighting man. The legionary was usually heavily armored with a combination of Greek and Celtic-style armor, the Romans being supremely gifted at borrowing the best elements of their enemies' fighting systems and incorporating them into their own military structure. His fighting style was more flexible than the rigid Greek phalanx, employing a throwing
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Artist-at-Work Demonstration: Unstitching Ancient Garments

spear (or javelin) called a pilum and a short thrusting sword, the gladius hispaniensis ("Spanish sword"). The backbone of the Roman legion was made up of its Centurions, tough career officers who each commanded 80 fighting men (the "century"). The 60-odd Centurions of a legion were arrayed in a hierarchy headed by the Primus Pilus, the chief centurion, a professional soldier second in rank only to the general, or Legatus, who was usually a political appointment. To right, David Michaels of Legion Six depicts a Primus Pilus of circa AD 100. The properly attired centurion wore several pieces of equipment which distinguished them from the rank-and-file--namely a transverse (as opposed to fore-and-aft) crest, greaves, and polished scale armor; he also wore his sword on the left, while regular milites wore theirs on the right. Finally the centurion carried a twisted staff of wood -- a vitis or vine-staff -- as a symbol of office, a "swagger stick" and a club for meting out punishment. We are fortunate that several tombstones bearing beautifully sculpted images of Roman centurions have survived to the present day. On their funeral portraits, long-serving centurions are often shown wearing their service metals, or phalarae, on a harness over their body armor. These are beautiful disks bearing sculpted images of gods, goddesses and famous Romans of old. A silver phalara in the Getty's collection depicting Medusa is almost certainly one of these decorations. The most distinctive of all Roman garments was, of course, the toga-- a huge expanse of wool wrapped and draped about the torso in elaborate folds. Deriving from the dress of the Etruscans, the toga was the very symbol of Roman citizenship: Only citizens were allowed to wear the toga, while slaves were attired in the tunic. The toga was so large an unwieldy that a man required assistance to don it. Lacking any clasps or buttons, the toga had to be held in place using the left arm, rendering that limb all but useless. Once attired in a toga, any strenuous physical activity became next to impossible. Which was, perhaps, the point: Respectable Romans did not engage in common
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Artist-at-Work Demonstration: Unstitching Ancient Garments

labor. The basic off-white woolen toga, or toga virilis, was the formal dress of most Roman men of legal age. When running for office, a man would don a specially whitened tunic called a toga candida (from whence "candidate" derives). Once elected, a magistrate wore the toga praetexta, with a broad purple stripe along one border. Election to office also usually meant membership in the Senate, thus Roman senators are also depicted wearing the purple-bordered variant. High officials such as Consuls (and later, the Emperor) wore the toga picta, dyed deep purple and elaborately embroidered. LEGION SIX HISTORICAL FOUNDATION Founded in AD 2001, the Legion Six Historical Foundation is a California-based group of living historians who strive to recreate the soldiers and civilians of a Roman frontier town in the Second Century A.D. The groups talented members have produced their own clothing, armor, equipment, and everyday objects, all based on actual archaeological finds, ancient representational arts and sculpture, and primary literary references. Its mission is to inform, educate and entertain people of all ages about Greco-Roman civilization by giving them a first-hand look at how Romans looked, dressed, equipped themselves and related to one-another. Toward these goals, Legion Six has participated in film and television productions (including programs such as Conquest, The True Story of Hannibal, Mysteries of the Bible and Party Like an Emperor), set up encampments at timeline events and historical fairs, given presentations at schools and universities, and, most prestigiously, presented entertaining and informative programs at the world-famous Getty Villa in Malibu. The Legion Six Historical Foundation 50133 non-profit organization and runs on the tax-exempt contributions of its supporters.

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR FURTHER STUDY Cleland, Liza -- Greek and Roman Dress From A to Z (Psychology Press, 2007) De Souza, Philip -- The Ancient World At War (Thames & Hudson, 2008) Hope, Thomas -- Costumes of the Greeks and Romans (Dover Publications, New York, 1962) Houston, Mary G. -- Ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine Costume (Dover Publications, 2003) Pollard, Nigel and Berry, Joanne -- The Complete Roman Legions (Thames & Hudson, 2012) Sebesta, Judith Lynn and Bonfante, Larissa --The World of Roman Costume (Wisconsin Studies in Classics, 2001) Sumner,Graham -- Roman Military Dress (History Press, 2009) Warry, John -- Warfare In The Classical World (University of Oklahoma Press, 1980-2006)