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Pteruges: the evidences

Pteruges are elements very easy to be found in the roman art. With these stripes, that to modern eyes appear somehow funny, the romans loved to make them represented in order to recall some very ancient equipments dating back up to 1000BC.
Looking at the multiples examples visible everywhere in the mediterranean museums it appears very clearly that pteruges were not simply used by emperors, but also by tribunus, cunsuls, centurions and also optiones. This fact allow us to think that pteruges were a very important piece of roman panoplia. This undoubtable importance is probably derived just from the tradition that, as is well known, is absolutely important for soldiers from every era and a strong cultural factor.

The pteruges are associated basically to any kind of roman lorica romana, with the exception of the segmentata considering what has been found until today.

Pic.1-3. From the left: an Optio fomr the roman classis on a tombstone found in 2005 (III-V cent. AD); a Signifer (Aquilifer) and a Centurio with squamate armours (I cent. AD).
In the first case the pteruges end with fringes.

Origins and evolutions

As already said the origin of this element is ancient and probably has been invented by hellenic warriors that used to make vertical cuts in their linothorax, the linen armours, in order to enhance the legs mobility. In the roman era the pteruges seem to become just ornamental loosing the protection feature of their greek origin. In the Middle Age pteuges seem to return to a protective function as example around the neck.

Pic. 3a e 3b. Left: Greek hoplites while wearing linothorax reinforced with metal addition. Right: a linothorax with more evident cuts.

With the fire weapons these kind of protections are unuseful, but fall of XVIII century we see something that we could consider the final evolution of the pteruges: the epaulette.

Pic. 3c e 3d. Left: statue from the Munich Glyptothek in Germany. It is much evident the function to allow the leg mobility. Right: a portrait of Horatio Nelson with two epaulette on the shoulders.

Materials

For any reconstructor or reenacter is very important to find out which was the material used to build them. The tradition developed around pteruges in the romantic era (XIX century) suggests they were made of leather. This knowledge probably has its origins in some too fast observations of the roman statuary.
Of course we cannot exclude they were also done with leather, but a further observation of some details from sculptures would exclude leather at least as default, favouring materials such as linen. In addition it is known that this particular element is linked to the the story of the hellenistic linothorax, the greek linen armour, in fact pteruges were the terminal part of it.

We could also think that, being an important ornamental element, the pteruge was particularly well made in its aspect, using precious fabrics and brilliant colours. This detail is also confirmed from the traces fo colour still present on some sculptures and make think that such expensive fabrics would be worn mainly by emperors and consuls rather than rich soldiers.

Unfortunately the archeology cannot help us very much, and the only linothorax made of linen found in Micenae (Greece) during 1970-80is still waiting for publication¹.

In the first serie of examples (below) is very clear from the "movement", from the softness of lines and from the thickness represented by sculptors, that the consistence impression is given by textile material. In some cases pteruges report rubbings that are typical of textile in particularly of linen.

Pic.4-6. From the left: the Prima Porta Augustus, loricato from the Musei Capitolini² and loricato from Leptis Magna Museum (Lybia).
These examples suggest that the load of the pteruges is much more relevant of leather, an effect that can be achieved using multiple layers of linen as for the linothorax.

Pic.7-8. From the left: Prima Porta Augustus², this example suggests "strongness" that could be achieved with leather, but thickness and overall the evidence of sewing make think to textile. In the second image² uno of the pteruges has been revolved in a sharp way. In case of leather the curve could not be so sharp.

In some cases sculptures have kept some details that shows with no doubt textile material. From these examples we can affirm without any doubt that pteruges were (also) made of textile. Now we need to understand how many layers are needed to reach thickness similar to the one depicted on the numerous examples. I will try to respind to this in the next pages. Pic.9 on the right: Statue of Antoninus Pius at the Archeological Museum in Naples. Textile tissue that continues on the restored portion.

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Last Update: 03-set-2008