Subarmalis & Pteruges
The Subarmails is the padded garment worn under a Lorica Cuirass, or other Roman upper body armor, however no physical example survives antiquity; we only know they existed from literature and sculptural examples.
Pteruges are the long strips of fabric (possibly leather), that can be seen in sculpture of Roman Officers and gravestones of Centurions, that hang from the shoulders and around the waist.
In all likelihood, the Subarmalis were made of felt, helped protect the wearer from chafing and acted as a a padding to help cushion blows. The Pteruges were again most likely felt but with a layer of decorative linen sew on and acted as both decoration, with fringe dangling, as well as to add protection against slashing blows to the shoulders and upper legs while not restricting movement.
The number of Pteruges seems to be a status symbol or symbol of class... Emperors always appear with at least three, sometimes four or more, layers of Pteruges while the gravestones of Centurions sometimes show only two layers with alternating fringe. However, there are no ancient examples of any officer where only one row of 3 to 5 Pteruges on each shoulder are seen; like in most Hollywood films. There are also no examples where there are only 10 going around the entire waist with huge gaps in between each of the Pteruges.
Project
For the Subarmails I used two layers of felt, sewn together using a crisscrossing pattern at 45 degree angles
I originally tried to just cut the pteruges as sleeves however, they did not hang correctly so I cut the sleeves off and sewed the pteruges on as you see below. I traced around the cuirass to get the shape right and to see where the tongue pteruges would lay.
To make my Pteruges I used felt as the base, 100% cotton fringe purchased on EBay, and although it will cost me points in Recreation-Heaven, I used a sewing machine to wrap and sewed a layer of red and natural/pearl linen over each.
I found it far easier to leave the cotton fringe intact, slip each strip of felt under, sewed it all as one long piece, and then cut each of the Pteruges out.
I started with a long strip of linen, cut it 2 1/2 inches wide and 17 inches long. Although, 2 1/2 inches is a little too narrow and it was difficult to sew that very short wrap... I changed to 3 inches for the rest of the Pteruges.
I had a very difficult time getting the Pteruges to hang correctly, they would split at the shoulder and twist. They were each sewn to my Subarmails individually. I tried pinning them temporarily to see if having them together at the top of the shoulder would make them hang better... and it did. The next step is to remove the safety pins, sew them together and start adding the second and third layers of Pteruges.
Due note, since I have far more of the peril linen than the red, I made the first layer all peril... I'll be alternating the colors as I add the other layers.
Well, I have 108 Pteruges made.... it's time to start sewing them onto my Subarmalis! I sewed them to a shoulder pad of felt and linen in a fan pattern... they hang correctly now and do not show any gaps.
I wanted to follow a similar pattern as in the original sculpture examples. Traces of paint on original statues show an alternating color pattern and the fringe matches one of the alternating colors, as in the example below... this is different than what we see in Hollywood, also note the fringe is not gold like in Hollywood movies. The original example of Augustus shows a color pattern of red and blue with blue fringe. I chose peril and red with peril fringe.
Tongue Pteruges
Unlike Hollywood Movies, the
overwhelming vast majority of the time that Tongue Pteruges are seen in ancient
sculpture, they are shown as being cut from one single piece of material… nearly
never as separate individual pieces.
I struggled quite a bit with this but in the end, this is how I resolved to make
them one piece.
The statues also do not show a Tongue Pteruges seem at the sides so, I added more templates, and cut the leather as one very long belt that will wrap around my waist and when I sew it to my Sub Armor, the seam will be at the back.
I used different animal heads for the upper layer, which is constant with ancient examples.
Once the lower pteruges were added, the tongue pteruges were sewn over them, and I added the shoulder pteruges and some trim to neaten them up
Montages for Roman Armor Talk Forum
