Bracae

Roman bronze depiction of a captured barbarian with braccae, Sarcofago di s. Elena, ca.335

The Bracae , also Braccae ( Greek  ἀναξυρίδες anaxyrides ) were pants in antiquity .

Description and use

The bracae were antique wool trousers. They went below the knee of the wearer and were tightened there with leather straps (bracae that went down to the ankle were worn by the Celts living in the north). These trousers were fastened to the waist with a belt.

Bronze figure of a Gaulish male prisoner with bracae (London, British Museum)

history

Pants were considered by the Greeks to be characteristic of their northern and eastern neighboring peoples (including Persians and Scythians ), as a passage in Herodotus shows.

The Sarmatian these pants were also popular on the Trajan's Column , a group Sarmatian was imaged with braccae.

At the same time, the Bracae were spread throughout Central Europe by the Celts. These trousers only came to the Romans through the conquest of Gaul , where the bracae were worn by all strata of the Celtic population. In Rome this was described as barbaric at the beginning, but in the border areas, bracae were worn by Roman legionnaires because of their warmth, because they were more warming than the Feminalia otherwise used . The Bracae finally found their breakthrough in riding, as trousers were much more comfortable than a skirt for riding.

In Britain this type of trousers was still popular in the Middle Ages, in the language the Bracae have been preserved up to our time, so words like the Scottish word breeks for short trousers are remembered ; and the English term breeches for saddlebags to the ancient Bracae. In Dutch, the word 'broek' is used for any form of trousers.

literature

• Dress. In: Peter Connolly , Hazel Dodge: The Ancient City. A life in Athens & Rome. Könemann, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-8290-1104-0 .
• August Mau : Ἀναξυρίδες . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1893ff., Col. 2100 f.
• James Yates : Bracae. In: William Smith : A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities . John Murray, London 1875, p. 213, ( online ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Herodotus, Historien 5, 49: "The men go into battle with short bows and spears, while their bodies are only covered by hats and trousers."