Beards in AD 100

[Maty]

I've been doing some work on Trajan's column and noted that some legionaries are clean-shaven and others, sometimes in the same group, have beards. Does anyone know if there was an 'official' position on shaving or otherwise, or was it up to the individual? My guess is that - as with, say the Rhodesian army of the late 1970s - you'd be allowed to grow a beard as long as you could grow a good one. However, any information on the topic would be appreciated.

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

From Johnston's Private Life of the Romans.......

 

Styles of wearing hair and beard varied with the years of the persons concerned and with the period. The hair of children, boys and girls

alike, was allowed to grow long and hang around the neck and shoulders. When the boy assumed the toga of manhood, the long locks were cut off, sometimes with a good deal of formality, and under the Empire they were often made an offering to some deity. In the classical period young men seem to have worn close-clipped beards; at least Cicero jeers at those who followed Catiline for wearing full beards, and on the other hand declares that their companions who could show no signs of beard on their faces were worse than effeminate. Mature men wore the hair cut short and the face shaved clean. Most of the portraits that have come down to us show beardless men until well into the second century of our era, but after the time of Hadrian the full beard became fashionable.

 

 

HERE'S an interesting article from Smith's Dictionary.

Edited September 8, 2008 by Gaius Paulinus Maximus

[Northern Neil]

Civilian fashion and military convention are frequently different in the same time period - for example, the '50's pompadour, 60's hippie long hair and current styles (many and varied) have run concurrent to the standard short back and sides of the armed forces for some five decades. So, I suspect the Roman period was very similar. I also wonder - were the bearded legionaries on Trajans Column perhaps intended to represent soldiers who had been away from camp for several days?

[Primus Pilus]

I've been doing some work on Trajan's column and noted that some legionaries are clean-shaven and others, sometimes in the same group, have beards. Does anyone know if there was an 'official' position on shaving or otherwise, or was it up to the individual? My guess is that - as with, say the Rhodesian army of the late 1970s - you'd be allowed to grow a beard as long as you could grow a good one. However, any information on the topic would be appreciated.

 

It may have also been a per legion, per cohort, per legatus rule rather than left up to individual preferences. As we know there were various differences in equipment and armament throughout the empire, what was good for a legion in Britannia may not have been apt for one in Syria.

[Kosmo]

In AD 100 the Roman officer and future emperor Hadrian had a nice beard.

[caldrail]

I've been doing some work on Trajan's column and noted that some legionaries are clean-shaven and others, sometimes in the same group, have beards. Does anyone know if there was an 'official' position on shaving or otherwise, or was it up to the individual? My guess is that - as with, say the Rhodesian army of the late 1970s - you'd be allowed to grow a beard as long as you could grow a good one. However, any information on the topic would be appreciated.

I think we tend to see the roman legions in the same light as modern armies and therefore assume that conforming to a particuklar standard of appearance was required. As far as I'm aware, there's no evidence of a requirement to be clean shaven other than cultural mores, and since the legions were often from foreign cultures, perhaps the wearing of beards had more to do with personal inclination, especially since it was likely the officers of that period may well be bearded (as important and fshionable citizens doing their bit for Rome and Career) its not so unlikely that individual soldiers aped that style for predictable reasons. It may have simply been they're home culture was bearded, or that as you suggest, it was easier in the field to simply let it grow. Which brings us to ceremonial parades and the appearance of legionaries looking dishevelled. It doesn't fit does it? Given the degree of esprit-de-corps achieved in legionary life of that period, that most men would tidy any facial hair to make a favourable impression, since a centurion would undoubtedly pounce on scruffy individuals and make them perform fatigues as examples regardless of any offical ruling on it.

[DecimusCaesar]

I read an article on Alexander's army that claimed that the Macedonians frowned on the infanty growing beards . Supposedly Alexander III of Macedon had ordered his troops to shave their beards, just in case the enemy grabbed hold of them, according to Chrysaphius. The practice was also outlawed in some parts of the Greek World around Alexander's age. I can't see how a short beard would be a problem for some soldiers, so it might have been acceptable for the Roman Legionary.

[longshotgene]

I think beards would have been discouraged amongst the higher classes until Hadrian made them popular. However, I think a beard on the lower ranks probably would have been permissable. A beard in various climates provides protection, warmth and a good net for fallen food. I have thought about this question numerous times while hunting deer in the middle of a zero degree winter. Plus, a military on campaign would not have had the resources to keep a few thousand men clean shaven. Soldiers serving on the frontier would have had access to everything considering they all had hospitals and civilians surrounding them. The march, from my thoughts and research would have been different.

[caldrail]

The resources used by romans to keep themselves shaven weren't too demanding. To all intents and purposes all they needed was a sharp iron razor.

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, K

In AD 100 the Roman officer and future emperor Hadrian had a nice beard.

Here comes Aelius Spartianus in the Historia Augusta, De Vita Hadriani Aelii, cp. XXVI, sec. I:

 

Statura fuit procerus, forma comptus, flexo ad pectinem capillo, promissa barba, ut vulnera, quae in facie naturalia erant

 

"He was tall of stature and elegant in appearance; his hair was curled on a comb, and he wore a full beard to cover up the natural blemishes on his face".

[caldrail]

There is a side to this thats occured to me. In the field, its unlikely that a roman legionary would be so effete as to carry a mirror with him, therefore he would require the services of someone else to shave him. Since the availability of civilian barbers or slaves is going to vary or more usually become non-existent on campaign, its easy to see shaving as a bonding ritual between legionaries in the field.

[Maty]

There is a side to this thats occured to me. In the field, its unlikely that a roman legionary would be so effete as to carry a mirror with him, therefore he would require the services of someone else to shave him. Since the availability of civilian barbers or slaves is going to vary or more usually become non-existent on campaign, its easy to see shaving as a bonding ritual between legionaries in the field.

#

 

You there - vir 'orrible et parvus! I want that helmet properly polished, you hear - I want you to be able to shave looking at that thing! Talking of shaving, I'm standing on your $%^&!! beard, you disgusting creature. Get the face fungus off, and stand closer to your puglio next time you shave. Mooooove!

 

I'd have made a great optio ...

[Kosmo]

Shaving yourself it's a XX-th century habit. Romans went to the barber on the street if they did not own one. Shaving was highly difficult given the poor qualities of available steel, that their scissors had no bolts and the absence of soap. It involved a lot of plucking and cuts. There were even law suits and poems about it. I think we have a thread about it around here...

[longshotgene]

I would have to disagree about shaving being a bonding ceremony for soldiers. Out in the desert where there is little water, you would not waste your water to shave your face. On the defensive areas such as Hadrian's Wall and the Rhine area, civilian barbers would have been readily accessible, much like the hospitals that were based with the legions. I just don't think shaving would have been something readily done while on the march. The 'appearance' of a soldier was probably something that grew up around the 18th or 19th century with the appearance of Victorian society.

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, K

Shaving yourself it's a XX-th century habit. Romans went to the barber on the street if they did not own one. Shaving was highly difficult given the poor qualities of available steel, that their scissors had no bolts and the absence of soap.

Here comes Caius Plinius Secundus Maior, Naturalis Historia, Liber XXVIII, cp. LI, sec. CXCI:

 

prodest et sapo, Galliarum hoc inventum rutilandis capillis. fit ex sebo et cinere, optimus fagino et caprino, duobus modis, spissus ac liquidus, uterque apud Germanos maiore in usu viris quam feminis.

 

"Soap, too, is very useful for this purpose, an invention of the Gauls for giving a reddish tint to the hair. This substance is prepared from tallow and ashes, the best ashes for the purpose being those of the beech and yoke-elm: there are two kinds of it, the hard soap and the liquid, both of them much used by the people of Germany, the men, in particular, more than the women".