Colours available in the ancient world?

interesting post,

It's hard to have proof of what colors is used on clothes,
but, think of quite recent discoveries about colorfull statues of different antic period.

Trade in mediterranean area was very important (trade-roads by boat was faster than by foot!)
and an impressive number of raw materials, metals, food, informations and knowledge was diffused around all countries, so the knowledge of coloring clothes.

it's could be more a matter of fashion (already!) and of course the difficulty to produce some rare colors.

so for example it seem than Roman people like White, Purple, Blue, Red, Scarlet, Yellow, Green, Brown, Black...
(but it could be different between town and countryside!) 
of course peasants and poor peoples could have no choice that to use natural colors for their clothes (so different wool colors, different leather, and linen like colors...)
and colors could be not so bright and saturate that today (as the color process to fix the color in the clothes was maybe less effective and durable)

i think that merchants, like today tried to make clothes which pleased to their customers, so they tried to be original and beautiful. (and maybe importing rare material from far east)
the question of what is considered as beautiful in Antiquity, in Athens, Sparte, Rome or Babylon for example, is another interesting question!

and of course, some colors have different meaning in Antiquity and for some belief, religions or just decorum that could be very different from one country to another.
(think the use of white or dark for mourning period, or use of particular color for showing religious affiliation...)

But remember that we talk about Warriors, some want to be visible from far away to impress ennemy, (color or drawing on Shields too) but some (especially Psiloi) maybe not want to be seen, so they tend to use natural colors,
and most of them (as it's a matter of money) just wear simple clothes under armor. (and sometimes nothing at all, so it could be impressive to ennemy too, (body painting! )

the case of Alexandrer the great is interesting too, companions wore very different colors from those we usually see, but Achaemenid Persians too (bright and colorfull armies!)

Hi, yes I had read that the Romans favoured bright colours in their living spaces and that statues were indeed a riot of colour. I was surprised, as I always assumed the marble would have been left as it was. With this in mind it would be quite plausible that Roman legionaries might have worn a variety of colours. 

I think trade would indeed have allowed the spread of different dyes or dyed material throughout the Mediterranean and beyond what with the Phoenicians and the Greek city states busy plying their trade. I have even heard of Roman silver being discovered in India, which actually isn't all that fantastic when one considers Alexander had already taken an army there years before Rome became the dominating force it was.

It's funny you mentioned Macedonians as I am painting a Macedonian army at the moment and was struck by how colourful their clothing was and that it even might be related to which regiment they were in. I also have Persians to paint up next.   

Cheers, Paul.


 

As to Roman legionaries, Phil Barker is still of the opinion that it was possibly shades of red early on (varying dye lots) and white/natural wool thereafter.

Mine are still red.

I have been holding off on my Persians just because of all of that patterned cloth - multi colors are one thing, doing complex patterns is another entirely.

Although I have been putting trim borders on Greek tunics and some simple patterns on the trousers and tunics of my Skyths. Nothing on the order of the Paris statue though -

1.bp.blogspot.com/-d1k59pT0e78/UZElC548sfI/AAAAAAAAPrY/_R4vMRwrfsw/s1600/archer1.jpg

And one does have to question how much license the artist took -

thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/njJuBDnVhXodCCWRGn1n8zoHZl4=/fit-in/1072x0/https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/gods_jul08_7.jpg

Haven't seen too many lions with blue manes in all of those Nat Geo or Wild Kingdom programs i watched over the years...