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Tunica & Sudarium -- Tunic & Scarf
***We strongly recommend you make your own!***
The tunica is an easy way to identify a soldier simply because of its length. According to Seutonius it was a punishment
from Caesar Augustus on soldiers for them to stand in front of the HQ building without a belt so that the tunic would hang
low. In so doing this it deprived the soldier of two key things that would identify him as a soldier (weapons belt and
short tunic).
The tunica can be made of 100% linen or 100% wool. Linen coming from fibers of the flax plant have been used throughout
the Mediterranean world. Alexandria, in Eygpt being the biggest exporter of linen, linen tunics were more common
in the Eastern half of the Empire. In 1881 when the tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses II was found, his mummified remains from
1213BC were in prefectly preserved linen rappings. Wool, coming from sheep, has been around since the domestication
of animals. In Pliny the Elder's accounts of Natural History says that the finest wool came from Tarentum in southern
Italy.
When making your tunica most recurits would think to trace out one of their tshirts on to the fabric and cut it out.
This is infact incorrect! The tunica should be more like a large bag, a tent, or even a dress. Little to no evidence
has been found of tunics from this period so information is sketchie at best. Most information comes from fresco, mosaics,
and serviving documents of the time. Now, in form the tunica could be as simple as a bag or two peices sewn together
we honestly don't know. Sewing two peices together makes a better product just because you can leave an opening on the
shoulders for your head and neck.
Here is probably the most controversial peice about military tunica. The Color! That is right,
we have for the most part no idea what color the Roman army used for the tunica. Now their are frescos in Pompeii that
show a Roman soldier with a white tunica on but it also shows a Roman soldier in a red tunica also. If you click here you will find many references to what the tunic color could have been. Now, Legio VI FFC and its supporters use the
color red for its legionaries. Any red will do but we prefer a dark red, mador red, blood red, etc....
Here is one piece of evidence that points to the color red but only during battle. During Julius Caesar's Gualic
War when the Nervii attacked his camp and before the battle of Pharsalus Caesar hoisted a battle flag, Shakespeare's
'bloody sign of battle'. Plutarch's account of the battle for Pharsalus says that it was the tunic itself that
was displayed as the battle sign.
When making your tunica the first thing you should do before you sew or even cut out your panels prewash
your fabric!! Now for the measurements, first off most neck holes are just a simple slit
left about 12 inches long. Some neck holes were bigger, we know this because of Trajan's Column in Rome. It shows
in several scenes where legionaries are depicted having one arm, usually the right arm, pulled out through the neck hole.
The length on either side of the neck hole should be rough 15 inches, or about to the elbow joint. Now the full length
of the length of the tunica should come to just before mid shin, this of course will be pulled up over a belt and raise
the length of the tunica to the knee/just above the knee.
You can make the tunica without sleeves but it can also be made with short or even long sleeves. If you decide
to make your tunica without sleeves just leave a simple ten inch hole on either side of the tunica. If you decide to
make your tunica with short sleeves you can make them about six inches long, also something to bear in mind if you do what
sleeves is to bring in the sides of your tunic. Part of the reason for the baggieness of the tunica is the overhang
can act as a sleeve. Now long sleeve tunic were commonly worn my Roman cavarly but can be worn by legionaries during
cold weather campagins. Surviving long sleeve tunics from later periods seem to be wider at the shoulder and narrowing
around the wrist.
Sudarium:
The sudarium is commonly refered to as a focale, but recent research has shed light on its true name. Early historians
such as Catullus and Valerius Maximus refer a piece of cloth to protect the neck as a sudarium. Then later in Dura Europa,
the site yielded graffito that mentioned a sudarium. On Trajan's Column in Rome all soldiers are wearing a scarf either
tucked under the armor or tied in a knot in the front. When the segmented armor is worn all the scarfs are tucked in
which could lead to the scarf is neccessary to hold the armor in place or the armor chaffed the neck. When mail armor
was worn the scarf is kept un tucked.
The actual shape of this garment is uncertain but two shapes are popular amongst re-enactors. One is a square folded
in half to form a triangle, the other a long thin peice of cloth.
The color of this garment is in much heated debate as the color of the tunic. Even ancient historians such as Antonucci
and Furntes were uncertain. Antonucci believed that the scarf more than the tunic was used more to identify individual
units. Furntes believed that naval unit wore a blue scarf.
* Members living in the Upstate of South Carolina have chosen to wear a yellow
sudarium. *
Here is what “Roman Military Equipment: From the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome” by M.C. Bishop &
J.C.N. Coulston has to say about the tunica.
The Roman military tunic was very distinctive, for it instanyly marked its wearer as a soldier simply by the way it was
worn; shorter than the everday tunics of ordinary citizens. Its lower edge hung just above the knee, but it coild also
be worn off-the-shoulder, as a number of eary 2nd century AD reliefs attest. Unfortunately, these garments are unlikely
to survive in a recognisable form in the archaeological record, although some tunics (almost certainly not military and probably
not Roman) were found in the Cave of Letters at Nahal Hever.
In form, it may have been a simple 'bag' comprising two rectangles joined, with a central neck opening and holes for
the arms. Length could evidently be regulated by gathering the material over the waist belt. The length was clearly
important, for one of Augustus' punishments for wayward soldiers recorded in Suetonius was that they should be made to stand
outside the headquarters building of a legionary base without a belt, simultaneously depriving them of their two key indicators
of status (weapons belt and short tunic.)
Early imperial tunics had a very distinctive form (shown to best advantage on the tombstone of Annaius Daverzus) which
may mena they were more complex than just a straightforward bag. They also seem to have been worn with a cummerbund
(possibly called the fascia ventralis) beneath the waist belt(s).
Recommended Suppliers:
La Wren's Nest: great place to find custom made togas, tunics, subarmalis, and
all kinds of Roman cloaks.
Merchant Adventures: good source to find ladies dresses, and premade tunics. Will custom
make items on request.
Fabric Store: has a great selection of 100% linen at good prices.
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