Greeks were correctin remarkingthat the barbarians
of their own time shared the earlier Greek attitude:
they still believed being nakedwas a hint of shame and
humiliation.
nudity preserved its historical significance of magical
Disgrace.
all, as an artisticconvention,scarcely if ever in daily life.


The instance of the Gauls is of particular interest for
our subject, for they were warriors. Historical sources
Underscore their extraordinarilywar-like spirit-they
were "war-crazy,high spirited and quick for conflict,"
as Straboputs it. They fought naked-or at least some
of them did."' Naked Gallic warriors appear in the
Pergamene statuary, in Etruscan artwork, on Greek and
Roman coins, and in early Irish legends."112The
sight of these tall, big barbarians,starknakedexcept
for their gold torques, terrifiedthe Romans."13
naked, and the Greeks' fit nudity is vividly illustratedin a passage in Livy: "Theirwounds were plain
to see because they fight naked and their bodies are
Buxom and white since they neverare nakedexcept in
Conflict; in effect, there was a greater flow of
blood from their excess of flesh, the gashes were more
horriblyvisible, and the blots of the dark blood stood
Outside more conspicuouslyagainst the whiteness of their
skins."114The Romans, who exercise in the Campus
In
from the Romans too. They did not normally


Tough in some cases to tell whether the Gauls' nudity in
Artwork reflectedtheir adoptionof the Greek Classical model, or
B.S. Ridgway, Roman Copies of
Greek Sculpture. The Difficulty of the Originals (Ann Arbor


practice any kind of fit nudity, either entire
Class of exercising to prepare their bodies for war.
this Greek association-but these were placedin women's graves, not men's !115 Theirs was evidentlynot the
"civilized" nudity the Greeks had introduced and
much of the world had adopted-at least superficially.
When the Gaesetae, and other Gauls-and Germans-undressed for battle, they reactedto a particular,
dangerous,risky circumstances. They deliberatelyremoved
their pants and capes and threw them aside, exposing themselves for the battle. Polybius attributes the
customto the Gaesetae's htAoboet'a
Ka'~ipo-ot, "their
love of glory and their courage."Being a Greek, nevertheless, Polybius includes a practical reason-they did it to
fight more efficiently,lest their clothing be caught on
the bushes and impede their movements."16
The custom might also be clarified by the Gauls' use of
magic. Such a reason would account for the specific
Scenario. They were attacking, and exhibited their
they threw aside any restraint. They might also have
been appealing for a particular kind of supra-humanassistance in a momentof catastrophe and of testing.'I7
the attitudetowardnudity of their contemporaries,the
Hebrews. Hebrew tradition was basically against the association of Greek fit nudity. Though

there was, as for all peoplesliving in a Hellenized
world,a widerangeof reactions,fromabsolutehostilthe instiity to relativeacceptance.
http://zop.kidshealth.info/__media__/js/netsoltrademark.php?d=familynudists.xyz/tag/nudism-in-public/page/3/ condemned
tutionas a whole:but becausephilosophicaldiscussionstookplacein thegymnasia,HellenizedJews attended;officialdoctrinedid not pub participationin
the palaestra.I8s
In Italy, too, we finda "civilized"
acceptancereflectedin the art, paralleledby fundamentaldifferencesof attitudeand realities.
the Romansdid not practiceathleticnudity. On the
exerciseground,in the CampusMartius,theyworea
perizoma,a coveringcalledthecampestre. Eventheir
Rite,religiousnakednesswas partial. Cicero'srhetoricalthunderagainstAntony'scostumeas a Lupercal-he ran arounddressedin an animal-skinloincloth-is celebrated. How coulda consulappearin
suchan undignifiedcostume!"19
Recentstudiesof the
aesthetic
andsociallimits
geographical,
chronological,
of Greekheroicnudityin Romanarthaveyieldedinteresting results.120 Freestandingsculpture,more
closelytiedto GreekClassicalmodelsthanpaintingor
relief,acceptedGreekheroicmale nudityas well as
the Venus sorts evolvedin the Hellenisticperiod,
whollyor partiallynude.
Earlier,in contemporary
"barbarian"
reactionto the Greekcomplexof pictures
and ideals:athleticand artisticmale nudityaccompanied by the dressedfemale amount and-eventually-the returnof the nudeAphrodite.In fact,much



for the Etruscan market is currently generally accepted.