---
Steven, like Roman tunics academics may not all be of one colour!
Roy

PS I bet the pooer you were thre more your tunic was off white and
issue and the richer the more likely it was to be coloured.
Did Republican Rome have sumptuary laws??


In ancmed@yahoogroups.com, "antiochus_au" <antiochus_au@...> wrote:
>
> "JAMES MANTO" <mantofam@> wrote:
> > Since legionaries bought their own kit there's strong arguments
for
> no uniformity at all.
>
> Hmm, I would question this for the republic period. There are
numerous
> references to the State supplying the equipment. This has been
going on
> since the Servian constitution was introduced. All soldiers paid a
war
> tax for the equipment. So Class I paid a higher war tax and got
better
> equipment. Therefore with the State supplying the equipment, it
would
> have been standardised and basic.
>
> If academics study the primary sources they will find numerous
> references to the State arming the army. But all we get served up
with
> is the one old theory everyone bought their own equipment, which
every
> acacademic follows without question.
>
> Regards
>
> Steven
>