Thepileus (Ancient Greek:πῖλος,pîlos; alsopilleus orpilleum inLatin) was a brimlessfelt cap worn inAncient Greece,Etruria,Illyria (especiallyPannonia),[1][2][3][4] later also introduced inAncient Rome.[5] The pileus also appears onApulian red-figure pottery.
The pilos together with thepetasos were the most common types of hats in Archaic and Classical era (8th–4th century BC) Greece.[6] In the 5th century BC, a bronze version began to appear in Ancient Greece and it became a popular infantry helmet. It occasionally had a horsehair crest.[7] The Greek pilos resembled the Roman and Etruscan pileus, which were typically made of felt.[8] The Greekπιλίδιον (pilidion) and Latinpilleolus were smaller versions, similar to askullcap.
Similar caps were worn in later antiquity and the early medieval ages in various parts of Europe, as seen inGallic andFrankish dress.[8] TheAlbanian traditional felt cap, theplis, worn today inAlbania,Kosovo and adjacent areas, originated from a similar felt cap worn by the ancientIllyrians.
A pointed version calledpileus cornutus served as a distinguishing sign for the Jewish people in theHoly Roman Empire for five centuries (12th–17th centuries).[9]
The word for the cap in antiquity waspil(l)eus orpilos, indicating a kind of felt.[10]Greek πῖλοςpilos,Latinpellis,Albanianplis, as well asOld High Germanfiliz andProto-Slavic*pьlstь are considered to come from a commonProto-Indo-European root meaning "felt".[11]
Thepilos (Greek: πῖλος,felt[12]) was a typicalconical hat inAncient Greece among travelers, workmen and sailors, though sometimes a low, broad-rimmed version was also preferred, known aspetasos.[13] It could be made of felt or leather. The pilos together with the petasos were the most common types of hats in Archaic and Classical era (8th–4th century B.C.) Greece.[6]
Pilos caps often identify the mythical twins, orDioscuri, Castor and Pollux, as represented in sculptures, bas-reliefs and on ancient ceramics. Their caps were supposedly the remnants of the egg from which they hatched.[14] The pilos appears onvotive figurines of boys at the sanctuary of theCabeiri atThebes, theCabeirion.[15]
In warfare, the pilos type helmet was often worn by thepeltast light infantry, in conjunction with theexomis, but it was also worn by the heavy infantry.[citation needed]
In various artistic depictions in the middle Byzantine period soldiers are seen wearing pilos caps.[16]
From the 5th century B.C the Greeks developed the pilos helmet which derived from the hat of the same name.[17] This helmet was made of bronze in the same shape as the pilos which was presumably sometimes worn under the helmet for comfort, giving rise to the helmet's conical shape.[18] Some historians theorize that the pilos helmet had widespread adoption in some Greek cities such asSparta,[19][4] however, there is no primary historical source or any archeological evidence that would suggest that Sparta or any other Greek state would have used the helmet in a standardized fashion for their armies. What led historians to believe that the helmet was widespread in places such as Sparta was, amongst other reasons, the supposed advancement of battlefield tactics that required that infantry have full vision and mobility.[19] However, many other types of Greek helmet offered similar designs to the pilos when it came to visibility, such as thekonos or the chalcidian helmets.
Being of Greek origin the Pilos helmet was worn in the late Etruscan Period by the local armies in the region.[20]
A so-called "Illyrian cap" was also known as "Panonian pileus" in the period of the Tetrarchy.[1] As such during the period of the Emperor-soldiers the influences of the Illyrian provinces of the Roman Empire were evident, such as the wide use of the Pannonian pileus.[3]
TheAlbanian traditional felt cap (Albanian:plis, cognate ofpilos[11] andpileus) originated from a similar felt cap worn by theIllyrians.[21][22] The 1542 Latin dictionaryDe re vestiaria libellus, ex Bayfio excerptus equated an Albanian hat with akyrbasia, and described it as a "tall pileus [hat] in the shape of a cone" (pileus altus in speciem coni eductus).[23]
An Illyrian wearing a pileus has been hesitantly identified on a Romanfrieze fromTilurium in Dalmatia; the monument could be part of atrophy base erected by the Romans after theGreat Illyrian Revolt (6–9 BCE).[24]
A cylindrical flat-topped felt cap made offur orleather originated in Pannonia, and came to be known as the Pannonian cap (pileus pannonicus).[25][10][26][3][1]
The Roman pileus resembled the Greek pilos and was often made of felt.[8] InAncient Rome, a slave was freed in a ceremony in which apraetor touched the slave with a rod called avindicta and pronounced him to be free. The slave's head was shaved and a pileus was placed upon it. Both thevindicta and the cap were considered symbols ofLibertas, the goddess representing liberty.[27]
The rod and hat were part of a legal ritual ofmanumission. A 3rd-partyadsertor libertatis (liberty asserter, neither slaver or enslaved) would state:Hunc Ego hominem ex jure Quiritum liberum esse aio (I declare this man is free) while using the "vindicta" (one of multiple manumission types). The legal ritual was explicitly designed to be anti-slavery in the interest of self-empowerment of all members of society, even those legally unable to pursue it directly e.g. the enslaved, and to guarantee that liberty was permanent.[28]
One 19th-century dictionary of classical antiquity states that, "Among the Romans the cap of felt was the emblem of liberty. When a slave obtained his freedom he had his head shaved, and wore instead of his hair an undyed pileus."[29] Hence the phraseservos ad pileum vocare is a summons to liberty, by which slaves were frequently called upon to take up arms with a promise of liberty (Liv. XXIV.32). The figure of Liberty on some of the coins ofAntoninus Pius, struck A.D. 145, holds this cap in the right hand.[30]
In the period of theTetrarchy, the Pannonian cap (pileus pannonicus) was adopted as the main military cap of the Roman army, until the 6th century AD; it was worn by lightly armed or off-duty soldiers, as well as workmen.[2][3][10] It often appears in Roman artwork, in particular mosaics, from the late 3rd century AD. The earliest preserved specimen of the hat was found at the Romanquarry ofMons Claudianus, in the eastern desert ofEgypt, and is dated to 100–120 AD; it has a dark-green color, and looks like a lowfez orpillbox hat.[10][31]
Similar caps were worn in later antiquity and the early medieval ages in various parts of Europe, as seen inGallic andFrankish dress, in particular of theMerovingian andCarolingian era.[8]
![Part of a Roman mosaic depicting Odysseus at Skyros unveiling the disguised Achilles,[32] from La Olmeda, Pedrosa de la Vega, Spain, 5th century AD](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aVilla_Romana_de_La_Olmeda_Mosaicos_romanos_001_Ulises.jpg)
Zu erkennen an der „illyrischen Kappe", dem sog. pileus Pannonicus, bekannt u. a. von der bekannten Tetrarchengruppen in Venedig und dem Ambulatio-Mosaik von Piazza Armerina. Auch auf den Sarkophagen tragen die Soldaten, die Petrus Oder Paulus in Haft nehmen, diese Kopfbedeckung (z. B. lunius-Bassus-Sarkophag).
Pannonia and Illyria also appear to have been especially associated with hats. Plautus (...) lampoons an Illyrian hat so big the wearer looks like a mushroom. The pilleus Pannonicus, a pill-box hat adopted from Pannonia by Roman soldiers in the late third century AD, came to be worn almost exclusively by the late imperial military.
Soprattutto durante il periodo degli imperatori-soldati prevalgono nettamente gli influssi delle province illiriche, che si esplicano nell'ampia diffusione del pilleus pannonico, delle ring-buckle belts e della tunica a maniche lunghe chiamata dalmatica.
The pilos... periods.
The Greek pilos... Carolingian dress.
"Travelers, workmen, and sailors might wear a conical cap known as a pilos; travelers, hunters, and other sometimes wore the low, broad-rimmed hit (petasos)
Most of them... πίλος.
the Greeks also developed the Pilos, Boeotian and Thracian helmets, which soon supplanted the former in popularity. The Pilos helmet derived from a felt cap called the Pilos.
The pilos helmet, of Greek origin, ...
It is generally agreed, and rightly so, that the modern Albanian cap originates directly from the similar cap worn by the Illyrians, the forefathers of the Albanians.
Ne kuadrin e veshjeve me përkime ilire, të dokumentuara gjer më tani hyjnë tirqit, plisi, qeleshja e bardhë gjysmësferike, goxhufi-gëzofi etj.
Le dictionnaire latin BAYFIO. «De re vestiaria», publié à Paris en 1542, constitue un témoignage intéressant du fait que les occidentaux consideraient le chapeau albanais comme un chapeau haut. Ce dictionnaire décrit la «cibaria» [kyrbasia] comme un chapeau albanais ou comme un «pileus altus in speciem coni eductus».
