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Gloves, Hand and Arm Protection

Winter 2010
by Stephen Kenwright

Hand protection is often useful against both the cold and in some craft based
tasks, archery and contact sparring. In 2007 the A.G.M. decided that new
members should wear protective gloves for the armamentum display at least until
a qualified instructor/ Health & Safety officer (Victor) determines that they are safe
without. If you do want to wear gloves, what should they look like? Until relatively
recently, it was thought that gloves were unknown to the Romans (e.g. Wild 1968).
Evidence from the period is scarce but an argument for their use and appearance
can be drawn from sources compiled from across the empire and over several
centuries.

Literary evidence for gloves from the Roman age includes both manicae, (from
manus, 'hand'), which seem to covered the hand for warmth and for protection
(as well as a kind of hand-cuff! According to Amphitryon these specifically 'hug
the hand') and digitabula, (from digitus, 'finger', perhaps a compound meaning
'finger-guard'), which seem to be fingered gloves worn against the cold and
evolving into digitale meaning thimble.

Gloves are mentioned in Homer and Herodotus. In his C12th commentary the
Odyssey (xxiv. 228, 229) which mentions χειρίδες worn to protect the hands from
briars and thorns, the Byzantine Eustathius of Thessalonica compares such to
mittens used by labourers of his day for hedging and χειρίδες δακτυλανύται i.e.
'fingered mittens' or gloves, which supports the translation of χειρίδες as mittens
worn for light protection.
In the Cyropaedia Xenephon describes the Persians wearing fur gloves which
specifically protect the fingers from the cold. Pliny the Younger describes his
uncle's secretary taking the precaution of wearing manicae during the winter,
which clearly covered at least part of the hand to warm it, yet facilitated, rather
than impeded, writing. This might be taken to describe a sleeve extending over
the back of the hand but, were this the case, I would have expected Pliny to refer
to a long sleeved tunic (tunica manicata 'tunic to the hand') as does Quintus
Curtius Rufus in his C1st work. Mittens seem unlikely to aid writing. One might,
however, imagine that a fingerless “wrist-over” resembling a boxer's himantes,
covering the palm but not the fingers, as being ideal:
ad latus notarius cum libro et pugillaribus, cuius manus hieme manicis
muniebantur, ut ne caeli quidem asperitas ullum studii tempus eriperet (Epist. Iii.5)
“By his side was a note-taker with a book and writing-tablets; whose hands in
winter were protected with manicae so that not even the harsh weather should

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take any time away from his studies.”

In Varro's, De Re Rustica (i.55) he mentions what appear to be fingered gloves

(digitabula) for olive-picking:
Quae manu stricta, melior ea quae digitis nudis, quam illa quae cum digitabulis,
durities enim eorum quod non solum stringit bacam, sed etiam ramos glubit ...
“Of those (olives) picked by hand, those (picked) with bare fingers are better than
those (picked) with digitabula, as their hardness not only bruises the berry but also
strips bark from the branches... ”
As the harvest is a winter activity continuing as late as February, I assume gloves
would be desirable against the cold rather than for protection. Daremberg &
Saglio suggested nearly a century ago that these digitabula are metal prongs, but
I don't know why, as this doesn't seem to agree with the start of the sentence, or
the emphasised contrast with bare fingers or reflect any finds that I know of. As the
hardness of the glove is emphasised, I would interpret them as made of leather.

Closer to Comitatus' dateline and territory is a curse tablet from Bath in C4th
cursive script which regards stolen manicilia dua (diminutive of manica) which
some interpret as gloves or mittens (Allason-Jones 2005, Hassall and Tomlin 1985).
Manicillium appears as a later gloss for χειρίδίον. Another from Uley in a C3rd
cursive is similar though the writer gets the gender wrong and mispells it with a
common late provincial indifference to i and a short e (manecilis and manicili[.]s).
Certainly translating these as 'sleeves' doesn't sit naturally in this context.

More compelling, is the C4th tablet from Ratcliffe-on-Soar which lists "two greaves
(ocrias), an axe, a knife, a pair of gloves..."
(ma[n]ica[m], final 'm's being commonly
omitted from colloquial Latin and twice
more in this sentence alone). Tempting as
it is to see this as military equipment, this
more dispassionately calls to mind
Palladius who mentions ocreas
manicasque de pellibus i.e. leather
greaves (perhaps better 'gaiters') and
manicae, for use by huntsmen and
agricultural labourers (De Re Rustica. i. 43).

Tan gloves are hardly likely to show up in

art, especially mosaics. The first obvious
representation I can find of true Roman
gloves appear on sixth century mosaics in
Jordan and Argos, which appear to show
men hunting with birds wearing substantial
gauntlets on their left hand.

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Unfortunately, the Swedish Åsle mitten, previously dated to 200 A.D., gave a
Carbon 14 date in the late 16th - early 17th century. What appear to be gauntlet-
cuffs on the Vachere warrior are more likely to be sleeve-cuffs, as apparently his
fingernails can be seen.

Boxers

“...binding on hand and arm these well-seasoned thongs of bull hide...seven folds
of the hides of bulls...insewn with lead and with iron...” The Aeneid

Ancient Olympic boxers

wrapped their hands with
himantes meilichai, strips of
relatively soft ox-hide leather
which criss-cross to support the
wrists and knuckles whilst
allowing the fist to open and
close. Experiment suggests Himantes meilichai, himantes oxeis, caesti
that each should be three or
four yards long.

By the C4th B.C. a hard striking surface over the knuckles had been added,
making them himantes oxeis, “'sharp thongs', extending up the wrists on both
hands" as Pausanias puts it, more enclosed and padded on the forearms with
fleece, resembling fingerless, thumbless gloves. As padded, protective gloves,
they have much to commend them, but the addition of the 'sharp' thongs make
them specialist boxing equipment. Likewise, the metal re-enforced caestus was
effectively a specialist gladiatorial weapon. The heavily padded gloves used for
training boxers to punch were simply called 'balls' (sphairai) due to their globular
shape, which enclosed the whole hand.

Use by Greek sportsmen does not suggest

use by Roman soldiers in the field, but
these forms do seem to have influenced
the Roman equivalents and these
padded gauntlets or wrapped hand
bindings provide a period method of
protecting the hand and wrist which one
can argue would be familiar to soldiers
and which might easily be a better
model than modern gloves for the
context of training that Comitatus
portrays.

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Gladiators

Several types of gladiator wore a manica on their fighting arm. In the first century
B.C. these were gauntlet sized, just covering the hand and forearm and resemble
a boxer's caestus, which then was extended over the elbow and upper arm.

In the early centuries A.D.

manicae could extend from the
hand over the elbow to cover
the whole arm, apparently
made from some form of
padding held with straps, often
reconstructed as coarse linen or
leather bound with thongs.

By the C4th they are also

depicted as metal armour of
segmented plates, mail or
scale. The back of the hand
was sometimes protected with
a single large plate.

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On the face of it there is little reason to assume gladiatorial equipment would be

utilised by the army. However, Vegetius explicitly approves of the use of
gladiatorial training methods, specifically the employment of the post, woven osier
training shield and wooden training sword. Furthermore, the segmented manica
was certainly used by Roman infantry in the first and second centuries and
probably by Roman cavalry units in the fourth.

Soldiers

An excellent essay by Paul Browne (Caballo) comprehensively

covers the military use of manicae, which is well established up
to at least the late C2nd.

http://www.comitatus.net/Documents/The_Manica_3.pdf

st
The manica inscribed on the C1 memorial of Sextus Valerius
Severus in Mainz shows clearly banded sections covering the
back of the hand, with a separate thumb.
They are shown as apparently standard combat equipment
worn by legionaries on the Trajanic monument at Adamclisi,
Romania, with mail and scale armour as well as late C2nd-early
C3rd reliefs at Alba Iulia in Romania and possibly the Arch of
Severus at Leptis Magna, Syria, worn with segmented body
armour.
British finds have been identified, including both
copper alloy (e.g. Carlisle) and iron
(e.g. Newstead), the latter with surviving
elements of a leather backing.

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A relief at Firuzabad of Ardashir I's battle against the Parthian king Artabanus in 224
A.D. shows a Sassanid horseman wearing mail armour to the knuckles seizing a
Parthian with segmented armour to the knuckles.

Persian heavy cavalry seem to

have influenced some Late
Roman cavalry equipment,
perhaps carried by the many
C4th units of cataphracts and
clibanarii recorded in the Notitia
Dignitatum. I know of nothing
to parallel the mail, but the
segmented armour looks similar
to Roman finds.

The mid-C3rd Dura Europos

graffiti also shows a heavy
cavalryman with banded arm
protection, which is probably
one of the Sassanid besiegers.

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The Synagogue wall paintings include depictions of soldiers wearing knee length,
long sleeved mail coats, which obviously protect the arm but not the hand.

th
A relief of two soldiers probably from the C3rd-4 Arch of Diocletian, both have
long sleeves on their mail and scale armour respectively (Southern and Dixon 1996,
Fig 18, p99).

Illustrations in the (later) copies

of the C4-5th Notitia Dignitatum
seem to show segmented limb
defences including manicae.
The accuracy of these copies is
suggested by similar armour
carved on the Column of
Arcadius circa 400 A.D., now lost
but recorded in C18th drawings.

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Contemporary descriptions confirm that heavy armour could be extensive:

"Then the defenders [of Pirisabora]…. looked as if they were entirely of iron; for the
plates exactly fitted the various parts of their bodies and fully protecting them,
covered them from head to foot." (Ammianus Marcellinus, History Book XIX,
XXIV:2.10)

".. a huge force of Persians appeared ... all covered in iron (‘catervae ferratae’),
and all parts of their bodies were covered with thick plates, so fitted that the stiff
joints conformed with those of their limbs; and the forms of human faces were so
skilfully fitted to their heads that, since their
entire bodies were plated with metal,
arrows that fell upon them could lodge
only where they could see a little through
tiny openings fitted to the circle of the eye,
or where through the tips of their noses
they were able to get a little breath."
(XXV.1.11 - 14)

Iron plates from a gauntlet with a

suggested date of the C6th-7th were
found in the Amlash region of Iran, with
three strips of iron over the fingers, two
over the knuckles and a larger plate over
the back of the hand, with a similar
structure alongside for the thumb, then
studs on the wrist, which might have
reinforced a leather base. It may be a
late Sassanian bazpan, perhaps
resembling the iron gauntlets that
Mauricius recommended in his list of
equipment for bucellarii (Strategikon, i.2
circa 600 A.D.).

Saxon Period
Comitatus sometimes do later period shows and members attend some Regis
events , for example. The Old English word ”glof” might derive from an ancient
common root with similar terms in other Germanic languages such as Gothic and
Old Norse, suggesting to Owen-Crocker (2004) that such items were used in at
least the early Anglo-Saxon period. The term hond-scio or 'hand-shoe', found as
the name of a character in Beowulf, is usually translated as 'mitten' just like the Old
Norse hanzki preserved in the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda.

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In the C7th life of Columbanus, Jonas, Abbott of Bobbio, explains how gloves
(tegumenta manuum quos Galli uuantos uocant) protect the hands in manual
labour. The probably C8th Bewcastle cross seems to show a falconer wearing a
gauntlet and the Life of St. Guthlac mentions the loss of a pair of gloves by a
monk. Alammanic graves excavated at Oberflacht contained cloth lined leather
gloves laced at the back of the hand. The C8th Frankish 'minstrel' whose body was
excavated at Cologne was wearing fine decorated gloves, a different type on
each hand: the left was cow leather and the right of deer-skin with ridge and
groove decoration. In the C9th Eberhard of Friuli bequeathed a manica in his will
as part of set of armour. A C10th mitten from Arnheiðarstaðir, Iceland was made
of naalbinding.

Re-enactment

Proper technique and care from all participants usually protects the hands from
serious injury, but grazes, cuts and bruises to the hand are still amongst the most
common problems in sparring and close formations, quite often on one's own
shield, armour and equipment. On occasion in the past someone has picked up
or been given a sharp when rushing to the next part of a display, so ideally one
should know what you are going to use for contact demonstrations, know where it
is and avoid using unplanned equipment. At the least, ensure that you double
check you have a blunt before using it.

Fortunately, Comitatus present training scenarios, so one doesn't need to worry

quite so much about what was worn for combat and it is much more credible that
along with wooden training 'swords', capped spears and wicker shields one might
wear padded arm and hand protection. Light protection e.g. from equipment
scratches & arrow fletching cuts in archery can be provided easily by close fitting
tan leather gloves, available from garden centres, which can be slipped off when
near the public. They are also very useful for general camp duties.

You must take gloves off to be safe for throwing missile weapons.

Unpick any labels or elastic from the seams and consider re-stitching by hand with
linen thread. Avoid gloves that are loose, which obviously can cause rather than
prevent accidents. I now usually wear two pairs together for the armamentum for
a bit more protection, without feeling the need for a fully padded glove. Most of
the unpleasant effects of minor incidents can also be remedied by very basic
treatment if you don't ignore them: wash cuts and put ice packs on bruises before
they end up annoying you for the rest of the weekend & ensure your tetanus shot is
up to date.

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Authentic protection for the arm is easily provided by long sleeved mail shirts worn
over padding, but this adds to the weight you carry significantly and makes
archery and missile throwing much harder and hotter work. It is largely the
padding that protects for our purposes, rather than the mail itself, which is
designed to stop sharp blades from cutting. Similarly, mail backed gloves worn by
some at battle re-enactments are surprisingly heavy, promoting fatigue and over-
striking, doesn't give as much impact protection as leather, are unevidenced in
our periods and thus have little to recommend them.

Armamentaria is offering a very reasonable manica reconstruction with separate

plates covering the back of the hand and the upper part of the thumb in mild
steel and in copper alloy on a leather base, which has been adopted by Victor as
part of his C4th heavy cavalry impression and offers surprising freedom of
movement. Note that the evidence points to manicae being worn with full armour
by soldiers, not on it's own. Anyone fairly handy with cutting and riveting sheet
metal could make their own relatively cheaply.

At the end of the day, no-one in Comitatus should be hitting you in such a way as
to require the heavy duty protection needed for the massed competitive battles
run by other groups, but many members enjoy participating in them, such as
Regia's Jorvik Festival and owning a solid gauntlet is very useful for free sparring in
training sessions.

Home made impact protection can be provided by thick (e.g. 4- 6mm) leather
panels applied to the back of one leather glove on the fighting hand. They are a
common 're-enactorism' but should be hidden from the public, as they are
completely unevidenced. Don't use obviously modern gardening/welding/work
gloves as a base. If applying stiff leather panels to a relatively flexible glove, you
may need to sew on an intermediate thickness of flexible leather to spread the
load. You can stitch this on by hand directly, reducing the number of holes you
will need to punch in the thick panels with an awl. Alternatively, cover a hand
guard (e.g. hockey glove insert) with a suitable outer glove, but fix it securely so it
cannot come off / apart and look terrible.

For a much better look, overlay the leather panels to give a banded effect,
modelled on the Iranian gauntlet or manica or, if you are happier keeping your
fingers free, chop down gauntlets to resemble himantes and perhaps sew
thonging over the top. I believe that these are a more believable interpretation
than the standard re-enactor gauntlet, or even than the plain vegetable tanned
leather gloves that I think slim evidence supports, but which might strike some as
looking too modern. Grab a glove and enjoy sparring with spirit!

Salvianus 1/1/10 Stephen Kenwright