Ethnicity in the Roman Northwest 503Figure 33.1 Gravestone for Blussus and Menimane, Mainz-Weisenau, mid-first centuryAD.
Mainz, Landesmuseum, no. S 146. © GDKE_Ursula Rudischer (Landesmuseum Mainz).
All of the relief images we have of “Menimane’s Ensemble” date to the early–mid-first
century AD. From the Flavian period onward, the distinctive Treveran ensemble
disappears from the gravestone depictions—from this time onward, the women of
the region wear the so-called “Gallic Ensemble,” a much plainer outfit consisting
of Menimane’s round bonnet and rectangular cloak, but, as the body garment, an
ankle-length, long-sleeved tunic that was worn ungirt and, importantly, without any
metal fastenings (see Figure 33.2). The archaeology confirms this dress change: finds
of the brooch combination worn by Menimane also center on the Treveran area and
also gradually disappear from the late first century onward, albeit continuing somewhat
longer into the second centuryADin the countryside (Wild 1985: 399, 412; see also
Rosten 2008 for this development in Britain).
The female Gallic Ensemble (unlike its male counterpart) appears as an innovation of
the late first century; we have no depictions of it in the funerary art before this time. It
is thus tempting to connect its evolution with the consolidation of Roman rule in the
northwest. On the other hand, it is not a “Roman” or even “Romanized” dress (Freigang
1997: 306–7): bonnets for women were virtually unknown in Rome, and the lack of belts
would also have been unthinkable there. Long sleeves were considered barbarian, and