Concerning trousers

[Jingles]

Just wondering, but does anyone know what period the Roman army started wearing trousers in? In some mods late legionaries are pictured with shorts on and in others, like RS2 they're simply wearing their tunics. If you skip forward to the very late Roman period, i.e the 4th and early 5th centuries, they're all wearing trousers and leather boots. To illustrate my point, in order of trouserfication:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Odd topic, I know, but one I'm strangely fascinated by.

[Eshmunamesh]

In my opinion it would seem that a transition would probably have taken
place very late in the Empire. The trousers, to me, are almost
medieval-ly, and I think they would have replaced the Roman
tunics togas quite near to the fall of the Western Empire, and the
beginning of the Dark Ages.

Some people would say the barbarians did something right with the
pantaloons. Though I wouldn't mind wearing a tunic nowadays if
everyone else would to!

[Shajarr ad-Durr]

Please don't think me disrespectful, Eshmunamesh, but I would politely disagree with your above post. Due to Celtic influence, short trousers called bracae were introduced to the ranks of Rome's auxiliaries by the 1st Century AD at the latest. Granted, trousers weren't something one should be caught wearing in Rome herself, but on the frontiers they were very practical garments for soldiers and were probably adopted as soon as there were Roman armies in Gaul and Germany.

[Moon]

Just been reading about this subject here's a link

http://www.romanarmy.net/coldweather.htm

[Eshmunamesh]

Of course I don't think it disrespectful. I was purely speaking out of logic.
I have no actual knowledge of the subject.

However, that is what I meant pretty much. Through the barbarian influences,
Celtic if you will, the Legions adopted it for practicality. As well as most other
areas of Europe later --->the Middle Ages.

My writing may not have been the greatest, it was rather on a whim.

[Shajarr ad-Durr]

Of course I don't think it disrespectful. I was purely speaking out of logic.
I have no actual knowledge of the subject.

However, that is what I meant pretty much. Through the barbarian influences,
Celtic if you will, the Legions adopted it for practicality. As well as most other
areas of Europe later --->the Middle Ages.

My writing may not have been the greatest, it was rather on a whim.

Your writing was just fine! I merely wanted to point out that trousers probably appeared just a bit earlier than you were thinking.

[rory o'kane]

Well, there we go. Off the top of my head, I was about to suggest first/second centuries AD due to the practicality when serving in coooler climes (Britain and the Rhine/Danube frontier spring to mind).

[HunterKYA]

Just wondering, but does anyone know what period the Roman army started wearing trousers in? In some mods late legionaries are pictured with shorts on and in others, like RS2 they're simply wearing their tunics. If you skip forward to the very late Roman period, i.e the 4th and early 5th centuries, they're all wearing trousers and leather boots. To illustrate my point, in order of trouserfication:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Odd topic, I know, but one I'm strangely fascinated by.

Perhaps, this is only speculation on my part, as I don't know the whole story, but maybe the Roman army didn't adopt longer trousers until the "germanization" of the army was firmly ingrained into their ranks. Plus, by the 4th and 5th centuries, since the armies had become comprised of more northern peoples and fewer Mediterranean peoples and the Roman state wasn't as wealthy as it had been in the past, there wasn't much that could be done to limit the adoption of the army wearing trousers. Additionally, as someone has already stated, they were more practical in cooler climates.

[rory o'kane]

If you read the link posted above, you'd see it was ingrained firmly by the Dacian Wars (i.e. the very beginning of the second century AD) i.e. well before the Germanicisation of the army - and before you say "those are shorts" - they're sufficiently like trousers to count, and socks could have covered the lower leg and foot if need be.

[Jingles]

I can't believe I just read a paragraph about Roman and Gallic socks. LOL.

Seems they were pretty well kitted out then in terms of cold weather protection. Funny how I didn't guess some of the more obvious ones like wearing more than one tunic at a time.

Still, I'd personally spend a month in Scotland dressed as a Celt rather than a Roman...

[Massive_attack]

The romans had to march in the winter time, and in parts of germany, or mountainous regions. Clearly, in these situations, some kind of pant was worn. (lets see YOU try and march through a pass in the alps in only underwear and a short skirt !). Other times though, like in the far eastern deserts and such, they were probably stowed away, atleast untill those chilly nights come.

Edit: Its also worth noting that the romans adopted simple underwear quite early on, so they did have some sort of breeches regardless.
Legionaries probably adopted some form of trouser by the time Rome defeated gaul, if not sooner. As for boots and such equipment, these were probably not 100 percent uniform in the army, meaning some soldiers probably had boots, others had sandles, etc. Alternatively, certain units could have recieved unique footwear. For instance, alpine auxilliary might have recieved simble cheap local made leather boots and rudimentary linen trousers.

Edit: doesnt really have to do with pants, but ive read some things stating roman legionaries also made use of simple cloaks over their armor as well.

The empire was a big place, even at its creation. I dont think there was really all that much uniformity regarding the issue in the legions.

[Leeham991]

Maybe people were scared that the legionaries had been too sexy for too long so they made them wear trousers?

[Themis]

Maybe people were scared that the legionaries had been too sexy for too long so they made them wear trousers?

I see what you did there