Persians are known to have worn two modes of dress during the Achaemenid period. One is an ankle-length robe or tunic with a poncho-like upper. The other is a simple shirt-and-pants ensemble like that seen from Greater Iran through Scythia to Western Europe, where it persisted until the Middle Ages.
Herodotus claims that the robe is the native Persian costume, the shirt and pants (sometimes called Median or cavalry costume) being adopted from the Medes. Some modern historians suggest that rather the Persians adopted the robe from their Elamite neighbors. At Xerxes I's tomb at Naqsh-e Rustam an Elamite is seen wearing a nearly-identical robe, while all Iranian peoples other than the Persians wear a shirt or short coat and pants.
In any case, the robe appears to have been an item of formalwear. It is seen at processions in royal iconography and seals depicting the idealized king slaying enemies, but very rarely in Greek battle art. It's also (so far as I know; I'd very much like further evidence) the only attested form of dress for Achaemenid women. Unfortunately, its construction is even more unclear than that of other garments. For example, was the caped top an integral part of the body or a separate piece? I haven't seen anyone attempt a reconstruction since Iran's 1971 commemoration of the empire's founding.
Get on with it
The Medo-Persian tunic was knee-length. It had a round neckline, close-fitting, wrist-length sleeves and fit close in the upper body as well. Below the waist, it was probably flared for ease of movement. The hem was straight.
The neckline in period art rarely looks wide enough for the head to fit through, so it probably had some kind of closure. It is possible, for example, that the neckline was actually a keyhole style, with a short slit running down the front like a polo shirt, the top of which could have been closed with a loop and button, string and button or two strings.
The shirt was boldly decorated with stripes, zigzags and diamonds. A good source is the so-called Alexander Sarcophagus, which was originally painted and a reproduction of which has been retouched to mimic the original: It shows two Persian shirts with contrasting cuffs, hems, necklines and single central stripes, and another with two central stripes.
Late in the 1st century BC, Strabo in his Geographica wrote that Persians wore "double tunics." I've seen it suggested this means they wore one tunic as outerwear and another as an undershirt. I've yet to try this out, but if the undershirt were made of linen, it seems like it would make wearing a wool outer tunic more comfortable. Of course, even if correct, this hypothesis may very well be anachronistic for the Achaemenid period.
Since we don't know about the construction, there are several options for making or obtaining your shirt. Similar European tunics from the late Roman, Migration and Viking periods are available ready-made, but if you get a non-custom one, there's the chance that you might not like the fabric or fit, plus you'll need to find one without decoration. Making your own (or having one made for you) takes care of these challenges, but keep in mind the alterations necessary for a close fit and freedom of movement.
Next time: Alexander the Great and the fall of the empire.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
1,126 (2/3)
The Ionian Revolt
The army that failed to take Naxos included Greek contingents and tyrants from Greek Anatolia. According to Herotodus, Aristagoras kidnapped these tyrants and handed them over to their cities as incentive to join the revolt.
He also asked aid from mainland Greece. Athens, a new democracy aiming to spread that form of government elsewhere, responded, as did Eretria. The combined forces invaded Sardis in 498 BC, and (possibly accidentally) burned much of the city. A Persian army followed the Greeks to their landing place in Ephesus and defeated them. The Athenians and Eretrians retreated. The Ionians and Persians fought to a stalemate from 497-95.
Aristagoras left Milesian politics and went to Thrace, where he died fighting the natives. In 494, the Ionian fleet fell apart during the Battle of Lade off the coast of Miletus, mostly ending the revolt. The Persians spent 493 flushing out the remaining rebels, and building a more workable system of arbitration and taxes. In 492, Darius' son-in-law Mardonius (Mardoniye or Marduniya) traveled through Ionia with an army and officially converted the tyrannies to democracies.
The Graeco-Persian Wars
Darius determined to punish the mainlanders who'd aided the rebels. Mardonius took a fleet and conquered Thrace and Macedon, but turned back after a storm wrecked many ships. In 491, Darius sought the submission of major cities of mainland Greece. Most made a show of accepting, but Athens and Sparta killed the ambassadors sent to them.
In 490, an expedition against Eretria and Athens was launched under Artaphernes' son Artaphernes and Datis. They conquered several islands, besieged Eretria and forcibly resettled the populace to Iran. Lastly, they landed at the plain of Marathon, to march to Athens. The Athenian army and a small force of Plataeans blocked the mountain passes from Marathon. After five-day standoff, the Greeks attacked the Persian camp, according to Herodotus after the Persian cavalry re-embarked. The phalanx routed the Persian infantry, killing six thousand (possibly a third of the army). Artaphernes sailed to Athens itself, but the Athenians marched home even faster and Artaphernes gave up. Darius' attention in the last year of his life, 486, was taken up by another revolt in Egypt.
His son Xerxes I (Xšayarša) assembled a huge army to invade Greece. He marched to northern Greece in spring 480, then sailed south. The Greeks split, some submitting to Xerxes and others forming a defensive alliance. The allied Greeks and Persians fought an indecisive sea battle at Artemesium in August or September, and the Greek army left Thermopylae when outflanked after several days of battle; the Persians then burned the evacuated Athens. The Greek fleet fled to the bay of Salamis, where they drove back the Persian fleet with heavy losses.
For unclear reasons, Xerxes left Greece with most of the army, leaving Mardonius to occupy southern Greece. In June 479, after months of stalemate and negotiations, the alliance attacked Mardonius outside Plataea, killing him and most of his army. Simultaneously, their fleet destroyed what remained of the Persian fleet at Mycale in Ionia. Over the next several decades, the empire was driven out of Ionia, which joined the Delian League.
Schizopeace
Xerxes was assassinated in August, 465 by a high official, Artabanus, who also caused the death of his son Darius, either murdering him before Xerxes or falsely accusing him of Xerxes' murder. Artabanus was himself killed by Xerxes' younger son Artaxerxes (Artaxšaça), who took the throne. Xerxes is believed to have been entombed near Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam, north of Persepolis.
Artaxerxes is remembered for his support of Jewish nobles Ezra and Nehemiah, who furthered the rebuilding of Jerusalem and promoted religious orthodoxy. He also, ironically, rendered sanctuary to the Athenian politician Themistocles, leader of the allied Greeks at Salamis, who was driven out of Greece by political enemies.
In 460, a protracted revolt in Egypt broke out, in which the Delian League took part. The revolt failed, but not until taking the life of Artaxerxes' uncle Achaemenes, satrap of Egypt. Artaxerxes concluded the Peace of Callias with the League in 449. He died in Susa in 424, having reigned even longer than Darius the Great, but not longest of the Achaemenids.
More intrigue followed. Artaxerxes' son Xerxes II was killed after a 45-day reign by half-brother Sogdianus, who was killed by another half-brother, Ochus, who declared himself Darius II.
Darius intervened late in the Peloponnesian War, giving Sparta money and ships to help bring down the Athenian empire. The year that war ended, 404 BC, Darius died of illness. He was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes II. All seemed well until 401, when his other son Cyrus the Younger quietly gathered an army in Sardis to overthrow his brother. Cyrus got near Babylon before being killed at the Battle of Cunaxa charging his brother's bodyguard.
Artaxerxes II was the longest-reigning Achaemenid king, totalling 45 years. Early in his reign, the Egyptians finally revolted successfully. In 399, Tissaphernes, satrap of Lydia, attacked the Greeks in Ionia as retribution for their support of Cyrus. This provoked Sparta to invade Lydia in 396, which Artaxerxes deflected by funding Sparta's Greek enemies, leading to the Corinthian War (395-387). When the anti-Spartan alliance started winning, and allied with Egypt and the anti-Persian government of Salamis-in-Cyprus, Artaxerxes switched to supporting Sparta, demanding the Greeks make peace. The ensuing treaty in 386 handed Ionia back to the Persian empire.
Artaxerxes turned his attention to the Cadusii, a rebellious mountain tribe of northern Iran. His expedition of 385 ran short on food before taking advantage of Cadusian factionalism to gain the submission of rival chiefs. He was less successful attempting to retake Egypt in the 370s.
In 372 Datames, satrap of Cappadocia, rebelled. The neighbouring satrapies failed to retake Cappadocia. In 366 he was joined by Ariobarzanes of Hellespontine Phrygia and in 364 gained the support of Sparta. The revolt ultimately failed when Ariobarzanes' son Mithradates assassinated Datames and Ariobarzanes was captured and executed.
A series of plots late in Artaxerxes' reign led to the deaths of all his sons except one, who acceded as Artaxerxes III in 358. His suppression of the Phoenician rebellion in 346 or 345 resulted in the destruction of Sidon, in between campaigns in Egypt that finally retook the ancient country in 343. He looted and then taxed Egypt heavily to weaken its ability to rebel again.
Late in Artaxerxes' reign, Philip II of Macedon planned to conquer Greece and launch a full-scale invasion of Persia. Artaxerxes' reign ended in a bloodbath. Historian Diodorus reported him poisoned by his minister, Bagoas, who also killed most of his children, including puppet king Artaxerxes IV. Bagoas' last act was to enthrone Artaxerxes' cousin Codomannus as Darius III in 336. On attempting to poison Darius, he was caught and forced to drink the poison himself.
To Be Continued
The army that failed to take Naxos included Greek contingents and tyrants from Greek Anatolia. According to Herotodus, Aristagoras kidnapped these tyrants and handed them over to their cities as incentive to join the revolt.
He also asked aid from mainland Greece. Athens, a new democracy aiming to spread that form of government elsewhere, responded, as did Eretria. The combined forces invaded Sardis in 498 BC, and (possibly accidentally) burned much of the city. A Persian army followed the Greeks to their landing place in Ephesus and defeated them. The Athenians and Eretrians retreated. The Ionians and Persians fought to a stalemate from 497-95.
Aristagoras left Milesian politics and went to Thrace, where he died fighting the natives. In 494, the Ionian fleet fell apart during the Battle of Lade off the coast of Miletus, mostly ending the revolt. The Persians spent 493 flushing out the remaining rebels, and building a more workable system of arbitration and taxes. In 492, Darius' son-in-law Mardonius (Mardoniye or Marduniya) traveled through Ionia with an army and officially converted the tyrannies to democracies.
The Graeco-Persian Wars
Darius determined to punish the mainlanders who'd aided the rebels. Mardonius took a fleet and conquered Thrace and Macedon, but turned back after a storm wrecked many ships. In 491, Darius sought the submission of major cities of mainland Greece. Most made a show of accepting, but Athens and Sparta killed the ambassadors sent to them.
In 490, an expedition against Eretria and Athens was launched under Artaphernes' son Artaphernes and Datis. They conquered several islands, besieged Eretria and forcibly resettled the populace to Iran. Lastly, they landed at the plain of Marathon, to march to Athens. The Athenian army and a small force of Plataeans blocked the mountain passes from Marathon. After five-day standoff, the Greeks attacked the Persian camp, according to Herodotus after the Persian cavalry re-embarked. The phalanx routed the Persian infantry, killing six thousand (possibly a third of the army). Artaphernes sailed to Athens itself, but the Athenians marched home even faster and Artaphernes gave up. Darius' attention in the last year of his life, 486, was taken up by another revolt in Egypt.
His son Xerxes I (Xšayarša) assembled a huge army to invade Greece. He marched to northern Greece in spring 480, then sailed south. The Greeks split, some submitting to Xerxes and others forming a defensive alliance. The allied Greeks and Persians fought an indecisive sea battle at Artemesium in August or September, and the Greek army left Thermopylae when outflanked after several days of battle; the Persians then burned the evacuated Athens. The Greek fleet fled to the bay of Salamis, where they drove back the Persian fleet with heavy losses.
For unclear reasons, Xerxes left Greece with most of the army, leaving Mardonius to occupy southern Greece. In June 479, after months of stalemate and negotiations, the alliance attacked Mardonius outside Plataea, killing him and most of his army. Simultaneously, their fleet destroyed what remained of the Persian fleet at Mycale in Ionia. Over the next several decades, the empire was driven out of Ionia, which joined the Delian League.
Schizopeace
Xerxes was assassinated in August, 465 by a high official, Artabanus, who also caused the death of his son Darius, either murdering him before Xerxes or falsely accusing him of Xerxes' murder. Artabanus was himself killed by Xerxes' younger son Artaxerxes (Artaxšaça), who took the throne. Xerxes is believed to have been entombed near Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam, north of Persepolis.
Artaxerxes is remembered for his support of Jewish nobles Ezra and Nehemiah, who furthered the rebuilding of Jerusalem and promoted religious orthodoxy. He also, ironically, rendered sanctuary to the Athenian politician Themistocles, leader of the allied Greeks at Salamis, who was driven out of Greece by political enemies.
In 460, a protracted revolt in Egypt broke out, in which the Delian League took part. The revolt failed, but not until taking the life of Artaxerxes' uncle Achaemenes, satrap of Egypt. Artaxerxes concluded the Peace of Callias with the League in 449. He died in Susa in 424, having reigned even longer than Darius the Great, but not longest of the Achaemenids.
More intrigue followed. Artaxerxes' son Xerxes II was killed after a 45-day reign by half-brother Sogdianus, who was killed by another half-brother, Ochus, who declared himself Darius II.
Darius intervened late in the Peloponnesian War, giving Sparta money and ships to help bring down the Athenian empire. The year that war ended, 404 BC, Darius died of illness. He was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes II. All seemed well until 401, when his other son Cyrus the Younger quietly gathered an army in Sardis to overthrow his brother. Cyrus got near Babylon before being killed at the Battle of Cunaxa charging his brother's bodyguard.
Artaxerxes II was the longest-reigning Achaemenid king, totalling 45 years. Early in his reign, the Egyptians finally revolted successfully. In 399, Tissaphernes, satrap of Lydia, attacked the Greeks in Ionia as retribution for their support of Cyrus. This provoked Sparta to invade Lydia in 396, which Artaxerxes deflected by funding Sparta's Greek enemies, leading to the Corinthian War (395-387). When the anti-Spartan alliance started winning, and allied with Egypt and the anti-Persian government of Salamis-in-Cyprus, Artaxerxes switched to supporting Sparta, demanding the Greeks make peace. The ensuing treaty in 386 handed Ionia back to the Persian empire.
Artaxerxes turned his attention to the Cadusii, a rebellious mountain tribe of northern Iran. His expedition of 385 ran short on food before taking advantage of Cadusian factionalism to gain the submission of rival chiefs. He was less successful attempting to retake Egypt in the 370s.
In 372 Datames, satrap of Cappadocia, rebelled. The neighbouring satrapies failed to retake Cappadocia. In 366 he was joined by Ariobarzanes of Hellespontine Phrygia and in 364 gained the support of Sparta. The revolt ultimately failed when Ariobarzanes' son Mithradates assassinated Datames and Ariobarzanes was captured and executed.
A series of plots late in Artaxerxes' reign led to the deaths of all his sons except one, who acceded as Artaxerxes III in 358. His suppression of the Phoenician rebellion in 346 or 345 resulted in the destruction of Sidon, in between campaigns in Egypt that finally retook the ancient country in 343. He looted and then taxed Egypt heavily to weaken its ability to rebel again.
Late in Artaxerxes' reign, Philip II of Macedon planned to conquer Greece and launch a full-scale invasion of Persia. Artaxerxes' reign ended in a bloodbath. Historian Diodorus reported him poisoned by his minister, Bagoas, who also killed most of his children, including puppet king Artaxerxes IV. Bagoas' last act was to enthrone Artaxerxes' cousin Codomannus as Darius III in 336. On attempting to poison Darius, he was caught and forced to drink the poison himself.
To Be Continued
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
811 (1/2)
Little is known of the pre-imperial history of the Persians, but it's clear that they were established in the eponymous kingdom or principality of Pârsâ in southwestern Iran before the 6th century BC.
The area was the home of a very ancient, pre-Iranic people, known in Old Persian as Huzi, in Greek as Cissians and in the Bible (and most modern histories) as Elamites. Once a large empire, Elam seems to have been weakened by internal conflict and war with Assyria. Migrants into an established and highly-developed civilisation, the Persians adopted Elamite dress, used the Elamite language for royal records and made the Elamite city of Anshan their capital. It was from here that King Cyrus II (Kurush or Kurash) started his empire.
A century later, Herodotus wrote that Cyrus was the son of Persian noble Cambyses (Kabujiya) and Mede princess Mandane. The Median king, Astyages, ordered the infant killed because of a prophesy that his daughter's offspring would overthrow him; Cyrus was instead raised in secret by a shepherd and grew up to lead the Persians in rebellion against their Mede overlords.
Cyrus was then attacked by King Croesus of Lydia, an ally of Astyages. The kings fought indecisively at the Halys River in central Anatolia; with winter and the end of the military campaign season drawing near, Croesus called the whole thing off and went back to his capital of Sardis. As did Cyrus. (To Sardis.)
Stunned like a bug on a windshield by this unorthodox strategy, Croesus had only time to watch his cavalry's horses run in confused terror from the Persians' camels before getting conquered the hell out of and nearly burnt at the stake. Herodotus claims he was saved by a miraculous rainstorm after telling Cyrus of his meeting with the legendary Athenian lawgiver Solon. Right.
Meantime, Cyrus had inadvertently added Lydia's vassal Greeks of Ionia and Aeolis to his empire. The Greeks weren't happy and had to be, er, added to the empire again, one by one and holp along with many stabbings by Cyrus' lieutenants.
Meanmeantime, in 539 BC, Cyrus conquered Babylon, and was well-received if his propaganda is to be believed, earning a spot in the Bible as the liberator of the captive Jewish nobles, who rebuilt Judea as a client state of Persia. Herotodus has a nifty story about Cyrus diverting the Euphrates with trenches and marching his army under the river gate, but Herodotus clearly didn't know squat about Babylon, since he thought it was the size of New Jersey.
Stories of Cyrus' death (in or around December, 530 BC) vary, sometimes fighting the Dahae, or peacefully at his capital of Pasargadae. Herodotus claims to have heard several and recounts one where he dies in a vicious battle against the Massagetae. He was interred in an above-ground tomb at Pasargadae, which stands there still.
He was succeeded by Cambyses II. His short reign was troubled; though he conquered Egypt in 525, his campaigns against Kush and Carthage failed; Herodotus describes him suffering a madness as punishment for killing the bull sacred to the Egyptian god Apis, and while he tarried in Egypt, the aforementioned Gaumata/Smerdis/Bardiya arose to seize the throne. Cambyses died in 522, variously of an accident, or (according to Darius I the Great) suicide.
Bardiya/Gaumata's assassins placed Darius on the throne, which he held for 36 goddamn years. He spent the first years of his reign quashing rebellions all over the empire. He also conquered parts of northern India c. 515. At around this time, the new ceremonial capital of Persepolis was built.
In 514 or 513, he invaded Scythia, crossing the Bosphorus with a pontoon bridge. The nomads conducted a scorched-earth retreat and couldn't be confronted, so after capturing part of Scythia, Darius built a series of fortresses along the river Oarus (possibly the Dniepr or Volga). He commemorated what success the campaign had with inscriptions at the ancient Elamite city Susa. Afterward he gained a loose hold over Thrace.
Little is known of the years between these inscriptions and the Ionian Revolt of 499 BC. This revolt resulted from the decision of the Persian kings to support a single lord (tyrannos) from among the cities' factional aristocrats. These tyrants often lacked popular support. The spark came the previous year when exiled aristocrats from the new democracy of Naxos approached Aristagoras, tyrant of Miletus, to help reconquer the island. Aristagoras in turn asked Artaphernes, the satrap of Lydia, to lend him an army for the purpose, planning to repay him with the island's captured treasure.
Herodotus blames the attack's failure on a dispute between Aristagoras and the Persian commander Megabates, who chose to warn the Naxians of the invasion. Whatever the reason, Aristagoras was now unable to repay Artaphernes, and in desperation, abdicated power, declared Miletus a democracy and incited the Milesians to revolt against the imperial government. To Be Continued
The area was the home of a very ancient, pre-Iranic people, known in Old Persian as Huzi, in Greek as Cissians and in the Bible (and most modern histories) as Elamites. Once a large empire, Elam seems to have been weakened by internal conflict and war with Assyria. Migrants into an established and highly-developed civilisation, the Persians adopted Elamite dress, used the Elamite language for royal records and made the Elamite city of Anshan their capital. It was from here that King Cyrus II (Kurush or Kurash) started his empire.
A century later, Herodotus wrote that Cyrus was the son of Persian noble Cambyses (Kabujiya) and Mede princess Mandane. The Median king, Astyages, ordered the infant killed because of a prophesy that his daughter's offspring would overthrow him; Cyrus was instead raised in secret by a shepherd and grew up to lead the Persians in rebellion against their Mede overlords.
Cyrus was then attacked by King Croesus of Lydia, an ally of Astyages. The kings fought indecisively at the Halys River in central Anatolia; with winter and the end of the military campaign season drawing near, Croesus called the whole thing off and went back to his capital of Sardis. As did Cyrus. (To Sardis.)
Stunned like a bug on a windshield by this unorthodox strategy, Croesus had only time to watch his cavalry's horses run in confused terror from the Persians' camels before getting conquered the hell out of and nearly burnt at the stake. Herodotus claims he was saved by a miraculous rainstorm after telling Cyrus of his meeting with the legendary Athenian lawgiver Solon. Right.
Meantime, Cyrus had inadvertently added Lydia's vassal Greeks of Ionia and Aeolis to his empire. The Greeks weren't happy and had to be, er, added to the empire again, one by one and holp along with many stabbings by Cyrus' lieutenants.
Meanmeantime, in 539 BC, Cyrus conquered Babylon, and was well-received if his propaganda is to be believed, earning a spot in the Bible as the liberator of the captive Jewish nobles, who rebuilt Judea as a client state of Persia. Herotodus has a nifty story about Cyrus diverting the Euphrates with trenches and marching his army under the river gate, but Herodotus clearly didn't know squat about Babylon, since he thought it was the size of New Jersey.
Stories of Cyrus' death (in or around December, 530 BC) vary, sometimes fighting the Dahae, or peacefully at his capital of Pasargadae. Herodotus claims to have heard several and recounts one where he dies in a vicious battle against the Massagetae. He was interred in an above-ground tomb at Pasargadae, which stands there still.
He was succeeded by Cambyses II. His short reign was troubled; though he conquered Egypt in 525, his campaigns against Kush and Carthage failed; Herodotus describes him suffering a madness as punishment for killing the bull sacred to the Egyptian god Apis, and while he tarried in Egypt, the aforementioned Gaumata/Smerdis/Bardiya arose to seize the throne. Cambyses died in 522, variously of an accident, or (according to Darius I the Great) suicide.
Bardiya/Gaumata's assassins placed Darius on the throne, which he held for 36 goddamn years. He spent the first years of his reign quashing rebellions all over the empire. He also conquered parts of northern India c. 515. At around this time, the new ceremonial capital of Persepolis was built.
In 514 or 513, he invaded Scythia, crossing the Bosphorus with a pontoon bridge. The nomads conducted a scorched-earth retreat and couldn't be confronted, so after capturing part of Scythia, Darius built a series of fortresses along the river Oarus (possibly the Dniepr or Volga). He commemorated what success the campaign had with inscriptions at the ancient Elamite city Susa. Afterward he gained a loose hold over Thrace.
Little is known of the years between these inscriptions and the Ionian Revolt of 499 BC. This revolt resulted from the decision of the Persian kings to support a single lord (tyrannos) from among the cities' factional aristocrats. These tyrants often lacked popular support. The spark came the previous year when exiled aristocrats from the new democracy of Naxos approached Aristagoras, tyrant of Miletus, to help reconquer the island. Aristagoras in turn asked Artaphernes, the satrap of Lydia, to lend him an army for the purpose, planning to repay him with the island's captured treasure.
Herodotus blames the attack's failure on a dispute between Aristagoras and the Persian commander Megabates, who chose to warn the Naxians of the invasion. Whatever the reason, Aristagoras was now unable to repay Artaphernes, and in desperation, abdicated power, declared Miletus a democracy and incited the Milesians to revolt against the imperial government. To Be Continued
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Denim and leather
Update 12/10/13: This post contains information that is probably incorrect. Please see here.
We're getting to the fun stuff, how to make your costume and gear - your "kit" as it's called. We'll start with materials.
The workhorse of ancient clothing fabrics was wool. Plentiful wherever people raised sheep and relatively easy to process, wool is handsome and hangs smoothly even in light weights, and breathes well.
Unfortunately, if you, like me, happen to be sensitive to it, you don't want it next to your skin all day. By the time I got to bed on the second day of Marathon 2011, I had welts around the base of my neck that didn't go away for a week.
Lesson: If you have only one tunic, make it linen. While it does wrinkle terribly in wear and "run" when washed, it's extremely comfortable, cool, and breathes better than anything. Linen is made from fibres from inside the stems of the flax plant, and the long and complicated steps in getting these fibres to the same level of usability as newly-sheared wool makes it very expensive. It's worth it. You can wear your linen tunic alone on hot days, or under your wool one or even with just a wool cloak when it's chilly.
Much more expensive in ancient times was cotton, imported from India. For our purposes, cotton should be regarded as up there with silk, although if you're doing an Indian impression, you have more leeway. Silk, of course, was also available (via the ancient Silk Road).
I'm still investigating historic weaves. In the meantime, plain weave is a good default choice. There will be no thread-counting in XMFM, mainly because I don't know enough about the subject, but also because I do know how hard it is to find good, affordable materials.
The other main kind of cloth used in our period was felt. Felt is not a weave, but made by compressing loose, tangled wool fibres into a mat. This mat is water-resistant, can be cut at any angle and won't unravel if you leave the edges unfinished. It's the material of choice for hats.
Dyes
Get natural-dyed fabric if you can, or dye fabric at home if you're really ambitious. Madder (red), woad (blue) and turmeric (yellow) were common. The green rind of Persian (aka English) walnuts produces a greenish-brown dye, but according to Robert Jacobus Forbes (Studies in Ancient Technology), ancient peoples more often used naturally brown and black wool in the production of brown and black fabrics.
While natural dyes tend to fade faster than synthetic ones, this will only make you look like someone who actually wears your costume more than a few times a year. Replace fabric items if they become so faded as to be unsightly, or as your impression would indicate - the richer your persona, the more clothes you should have and the more frequently you should replace worn ones. Remember, ancient people liked bold colours and wealthier Persian warriors were known for flaunting their finery on the battlefield. We are not looking for a drab Hollywood "ancient" look.
If you really want to go all-out as a rich noble or royal bodyguard, wear purple and saffron (golden-yellow or orange). In Achaemenid times, trade of Tyrian purple was controlled by the state and possession of a garment made with it was an indication of royal favour. It, and saffron, are as expensive today as they were then because the real things can still only be produced in minute quantities by labour-intensive processes. While other natural purples are available, they can't replicate Tyrian purple's resistance to fading, so in this case alone would I actually recommend an artificial substitute.
Leather
Leathers should ideally be vegetable- or otherwise naturally-tanned or else just rawhide (not actually leather, but you'll get it from the same sources). However, I'm not going to insist on anything because finding the right stuff can be challenging. And you will be needing a lot of leather:
1-2 ounces per square foot: Almost like fabric, a good leather for covering scabbards or other hard objects.
3-5 ounces: Use a soft leather in this weight for shoes and as backing for scale armour.
7-9 ounces and up: All-leather knife sheaths, bowcases, quivers, belts, bottles.
12 ounces and up: Shoe soles and shields.
Rawhide: Thick for shields, thin for shield facings. It's more resistant to puncture than tanned leather, but rots if allowed to stay damp for extended periods.
We're getting to the fun stuff, how to make your costume and gear - your "kit" as it's called. We'll start with materials.
The workhorse of ancient clothing fabrics was wool. Plentiful wherever people raised sheep and relatively easy to process, wool is handsome and hangs smoothly even in light weights, and breathes well.
Unfortunately, if you, like me, happen to be sensitive to it, you don't want it next to your skin all day. By the time I got to bed on the second day of Marathon 2011, I had welts around the base of my neck that didn't go away for a week.
Lesson: If you have only one tunic, make it linen. While it does wrinkle terribly in wear and "run" when washed, it's extremely comfortable, cool, and breathes better than anything. Linen is made from fibres from inside the stems of the flax plant, and the long and complicated steps in getting these fibres to the same level of usability as newly-sheared wool makes it very expensive. It's worth it. You can wear your linen tunic alone on hot days, or under your wool one or even with just a wool cloak when it's chilly.
Much more expensive in ancient times was cotton, imported from India. For our purposes, cotton should be regarded as up there with silk, although if you're doing an Indian impression, you have more leeway. Silk, of course, was also available (via the ancient Silk Road).
I'm still investigating historic weaves. In the meantime, plain weave is a good default choice. There will be no thread-counting in XMFM, mainly because I don't know enough about the subject, but also because I do know how hard it is to find good, affordable materials.
The other main kind of cloth used in our period was felt. Felt is not a weave, but made by compressing loose, tangled wool fibres into a mat. This mat is water-resistant, can be cut at any angle and won't unravel if you leave the edges unfinished. It's the material of choice for hats.
Dyes
Get natural-dyed fabric if you can, or dye fabric at home if you're really ambitious. Madder (red), woad (blue) and turmeric (yellow) were common. The green rind of Persian (aka English) walnuts produces a greenish-brown dye, but according to Robert Jacobus Forbes (Studies in Ancient Technology), ancient peoples more often used naturally brown and black wool in the production of brown and black fabrics.
While natural dyes tend to fade faster than synthetic ones, this will only make you look like someone who actually wears your costume more than a few times a year. Replace fabric items if they become so faded as to be unsightly, or as your impression would indicate - the richer your persona, the more clothes you should have and the more frequently you should replace worn ones. Remember, ancient people liked bold colours and wealthier Persian warriors were known for flaunting their finery on the battlefield. We are not looking for a drab Hollywood "ancient" look.
If you really want to go all-out as a rich noble or royal bodyguard, wear purple and saffron (golden-yellow or orange). In Achaemenid times, trade of Tyrian purple was controlled by the state and possession of a garment made with it was an indication of royal favour. It, and saffron, are as expensive today as they were then because the real things can still only be produced in minute quantities by labour-intensive processes. While other natural purples are available, they can't replicate Tyrian purple's resistance to fading, so in this case alone would I actually recommend an artificial substitute.
Leather
Leathers should ideally be vegetable- or otherwise naturally-tanned or else just rawhide (not actually leather, but you'll get it from the same sources). However, I'm not going to insist on anything because finding the right stuff can be challenging. And you will be needing a lot of leather:
1-2 ounces per square foot: Almost like fabric, a good leather for covering scabbards or other hard objects.
3-5 ounces: Use a soft leather in this weight for shoes and as backing for scale armour.
7-9 ounces and up: All-leather knife sheaths, bowcases, quivers, belts, bottles.
12 ounces and up: Shoe soles and shields.
Rawhide: Thick for shields, thin for shield facings. It's more resistant to puncture than tanned leather, but rots if allowed to stay damp for extended periods.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
History - Who were the Achaemenids?
Since "The Persian empire in 1,000 words or less" is coming along a bit slower than I anticipated, I'm going to buy some time by changing up the schedule a bit. Hopefully, this post will become clearer upon rereading after I get that one done.
The traditional view of the first Persian empire is that their rulers all belonged to a single family, founded c. 700 BC by Achaemenes (Hakhâmaniš). But Cyrus the Great does not mention an Achaemenes in the lineage he presents in the Cyrus Cylinder, the record of his conquest of Babylon, where he traces his ancestry to a Teispes. The name first occurs among the inscriptions of Darius the Great at Behistun, the third man to hold the throne after Cyrus' death.
Cyrus' elder son and first successor, Cambyses II, died in 522 BC just eight years after his father. According to the Behistun inscription, in the last year of Cambyses' life, during his lengthy occupations in Egypt, a man claiming to be his younger brother Bardiya (whom Cambyses had secretly killed before his Egyptian campaign years earlier) raised Persia and Media in rebellion and declared himself king. This man, whom Darius identified as a Magian named Gaumata, ruled the empire from March to September of 522 BC before Darius and six other Persian noblemen gained access to his palace at Sikayauvatiš and killed him. The story is essentially the same in Herodotus' Histories, except that he uses the name Smerdis in reference to the Cyrus' younger son.
It is in this same inscription that Darius details his shared ancestry with Cyrus: Cyrus' grandfather Cyrus I was brother to Darius' great-grandfather Ariaramnes, their father was Teispes, Teispes' father was Achaemenes.
It should come as no surprise that modern historians have questioned whether Darius was really a relative of Cyrus at all, and whether Achaemenes existed or was an invention of Darius. Adding to the suspicion is the fact that Cyrus' Pasargadae inscription identifying himself as an Achaemenid is written in Old Persian cuneiform, generally believed to have been invented during the reign of Darius. For these reasons, some prefer to describe the ruling line before Darius as "Teispid" rather than Achaemenid.
I am not going to assert a conclusion here. I'm bringing up this topic early on because I believe that reenactors shouldn't just recount the most popular version of history when there are real uncertainties. We should aim to present the truth as best we can discern it; if that includes admitting sometimes that the truth is unclear or disputed, so be it.
The traditional view of the first Persian empire is that their rulers all belonged to a single family, founded c. 700 BC by Achaemenes (Hakhâmaniš). But Cyrus the Great does not mention an Achaemenes in the lineage he presents in the Cyrus Cylinder, the record of his conquest of Babylon, where he traces his ancestry to a Teispes. The name first occurs among the inscriptions of Darius the Great at Behistun, the third man to hold the throne after Cyrus' death.
Cyrus' elder son and first successor, Cambyses II, died in 522 BC just eight years after his father. According to the Behistun inscription, in the last year of Cambyses' life, during his lengthy occupations in Egypt, a man claiming to be his younger brother Bardiya (whom Cambyses had secretly killed before his Egyptian campaign years earlier) raised Persia and Media in rebellion and declared himself king. This man, whom Darius identified as a Magian named Gaumata, ruled the empire from March to September of 522 BC before Darius and six other Persian noblemen gained access to his palace at Sikayauvatiš and killed him. The story is essentially the same in Herodotus' Histories, except that he uses the name Smerdis in reference to the Cyrus' younger son.
It is in this same inscription that Darius details his shared ancestry with Cyrus: Cyrus' grandfather Cyrus I was brother to Darius' great-grandfather Ariaramnes, their father was Teispes, Teispes' father was Achaemenes.
It should come as no surprise that modern historians have questioned whether Darius was really a relative of Cyrus at all, and whether Achaemenes existed or was an invention of Darius. Adding to the suspicion is the fact that Cyrus' Pasargadae inscription identifying himself as an Achaemenid is written in Old Persian cuneiform, generally believed to have been invented during the reign of Darius. For these reasons, some prefer to describe the ruling line before Darius as "Teispid" rather than Achaemenid.
I am not going to assert a conclusion here. I'm bringing up this topic early on because I believe that reenactors shouldn't just recount the most popular version of history when there are real uncertainties. We should aim to present the truth as best we can discern it; if that includes admitting sometimes that the truth is unclear or disputed, so be it.
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