Shields?

[/Bean\]

Red is usually the cheapest dye around. Purple, rich blue or green would have been more expensive, hence purple being the more heirachy colour.

[Banzai!]

If you went all historic on the Romans and gave them shield and body variation, this is what they would probably end up looking like [particular emphasis on last panel] (originally posted by Geneva in the TWC):

I'm not sure if this is the desired result of taking historical realism to the max: Romans looking like Gauls.

Aside: lol at the shirtless guy who thinks he's so tough in the third panel, then getting pwned by the first javelin exchange in the fourth panel.

[/Bean\]

I'm not sure if this is the desired result of taking historical realism to the max: Romans looking like Gauls.

Well, why not? Especially if it's the early Republic. They must have been heavily influenced by the Gauls, even at this point, having had many a contact with them.

[SwissBarbar]

And being conquered by them and using similar language and being at least as barbarian ^^

[desert]

Hmmm, it seems like it was (cheap, that is). They made it from blood sometimes. Green and blue weren't that expensive though. Mardians and Persian archers have it.

http://www.cais-soas.com/cais/histor...quip.htm#Spara

This link is interesting.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Red is usually the cheapest dye around. Purple, rich blue or green would have been more expensive, hence purple being the more heirachy colour.

Rich, lasting, color of any kind would've been expensive: the cheap dyes usually fade in sunlight...
Incidentally, rich & lasting red would've been very expensive, similarly expensive as Tyrian purper.

However, weld (yellow), woad (blue), madder (red), lichen (yellow/brown -> red/purple) are all fairly cheap.