"New to ancients question " Topic

Asking the assembled wisdom of TMP, that rarely fails. I have been mostly in Horse and Musket do I have a question.

I just picked up some Romans and misc gauls/german/barbarians trying to organize them. Are all legions red cloaked and shields or are there other color options? Also with the barbarians is everything tan/brown or other colors? Do some regions seem to have color favorites schemes or is that too 18th century?

The short answer is, paint them however you want, in reasonably plausible colors (i.e., no purple, day-glo orange, orange, probably no black…)

This is because we just don't know what colors were used. We do have some notions about what kinds of fabric dyes were possible with the technology of the day, but that's about it.

Most people will tell you the "Legions in red" trope is an invention of Hollywood, and that white or off-white is more likely, particularly for the Republican Romans.

But…. red was supposedly the standard color for mercenaries in the Hellenistic world, so its not implausible that Legionaries would wear red too, as a suitable martial color.

As Ivan says, nobody really knows!

Roman tunics were maybe more likely to be off-white or red, but could easily have been other colours. There is not much evidence for shield colours at all. Red is a fairly safe bet but, again, could have been something else.

Barbarians would have been in mostly browns, tans, yellows, greens, unbleached type colours. There was a post a while back with a link to a site where a woman had actually made dyes from the same materials that were used in the past. She had photos of yarn that had been coloured using these dyes. Maybe someone remembers it better than me and could provide a link?

For barbarians, tan, brown, yellow, green (plus stripes) can end up pretty colourful.

See this for examples:

link

My advice is to limit the palette of your barbarians so there is a sense of cohesion within the unit even if they are not wearing uniforms. Maybe have one dominant colour for each of your units.

I just picked up some Romans

Republican Romans or Imperial Romans?

Imperial Romans.

I used off white and red, plus different coloured shields to tell my legions apart.
I also find when painting the tribesmen go with muted shades of your colours. So grey blue instead of bright blue etc.

Thank you all.

Most of the WWII uniform and kit colours are suitable for earlier periods as they are deliberately muted and have much in common with the earth dyes used before industrialisation.

Just avoid yellow cloaks on Romans, yellow was considered effeminate as it was the color of a woman's bridal gown. It would be the equivalent of soldiers wearing neon pink today. I have also have read that bright greens and blues likely were a rarity.

I painted my imperials with a mixture of off-white, red, and natural wool and linen colors (many shades of grey and brown). That being said, paint them in whatever way is visually appealing to you!

Romans look good uniform. Pick a color pallet like others have suggested and paint whole units that color. Tunics were often (though not always!) off white or earthy red. Red, green, blue or even yellow works for shield colors. Plumes were horse tail hair so should be colored appropriately…brown, black, gray or off white.

Barbarians work with any sort of earthy color. As well, yellow and green works too. Add some gingham or checker board patterns for cloaks, tunics or trousers.

Ivan DBA mentions purple being a no-no color. Purple was expensive to produce and was a sign of wealth and power. It should be reserved for high ranking officers, usually the color of the cloak.

I paint up my Romans with off-white tunics and red cloaks – as noted, you do have some leeway with them

My Praetorians are done up with white tunics and dark blue shields

The Barbarians I paint in a mix of browns, greens and blues with the odd bit of yellow and red for colour

Wasn't there an old Osprey book that had the legions in bright green etc?

I've painted my Romans with off-white/unbleached linen. I just think it looks better, as I tend to do armor quite dark.

"Wasn't there an old Osprey book that had the legions in bright green etc?"

No, not Osprey.

link

Most people will tell you the "Legions in red" trope is an invention of Hollywood, and that white or off-white is more likely, particularly for the Republican Romans.

Or they might quote Isidore of Seville at you, to show that Rpublican legions in red were an invention of antiquity:

The reddened (russata) garment … invented by the Lacedaemonians to conceal the blood … Roman soldiers under the consuls wore this, whence they used to be called "russati".

Or for the early Empire, Martial's epigram on "Brown cloaks of Canusian wool":

Rome more willingly wears brown cloaks; Gaul prefers red, a colour which pleases children and soldiers.

Artistic sources show tunics in a variety of colours – see Graham Sumner's books – but red and (off-)white are the commonest. Personally I'd paint legionaries in red tunics, with more variety for auxiliaries.

The only known remains of shields that are likely to be legionary (the late-period rectangular scutum from Dura and some fragmemts from Masada) are red; the earliest painting of a Roman Republican shield I know of (the Fish Mosaic from Praeneste) is white; oval (auxiliary??) shields from Dura are variously red, blue, and green.