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Roman cavalry
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Re-enactor as Roman cavalryman
Roman cavalry (Latin: equites Romani) refers to the horse-mounted forces of the Roman army throughout the Regal, Republican, and Imperial eras.
Contents
[hide]
1 Early cavalry (to ca. 338 BC)
2 Republican cavalry (338–88 BC)
2.1 Recruitment
2.1.1 Unit size and structure
2.1.2 Equipment
2.1.3 Campaign record
2.1.4 End of the citizen cavalry
2.1.5 Allied cavalry
3 Imperial cavalry (30 BC – 476 AD)
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Early cavalry (to ca. 338 BC)[edit]
Romulus supposedly established a cavalry regiment of 300 men called the Celeres ("the Swift Squadron") to act as his personal escort, with each of the three tribes supplying a centuria (century; company of 100 men). This cavalry regiment was supposedly doubled in size to 600 men by King Tarquinius Priscus (conventional dates 616–578 BC).[1] According to Livy, Servius Tullius also established a further 12 centuriae of cavalry.[2] But this is unlikely, as it would have increased the cavalry to 1,800 horse, implausibly large compared to 8,400 infantry (in peninsular Italy, cavalry typically constituted about 8% of a field army).[3] This is confirmed by the fact that in the early Republic the cavalry fielded remained 600-strong (Two legions with 300 horse each).[4][full citation needed]
The royal cavalry may have been drawn exclusively from the ranks of the Patricians (patricii), the aristocracy of early Rome, which was purely hereditary,[5][full citation needed] although some consider the supporting evidence tenuous.[6][full citation needed]. Since the cavalry was probably a patrician preserve, it follows that it probably played a critical part in the coup against the monarchy. Indeed, Alfoldi suggests that the coup was carried out by the Celeres themselves.[7][full citation needed] However, the patrician monopoly on the cavalry seems to have ended by around 400 BC, when the 12 centuriae of equites additional to the original 6 of regal origin were probably formed. Most likely patrician numbers were no longer sufficient to supply the ever-growing needs of the cavalry. It is widely agreed that the new centuriae were open to non-patricians, on the basis of a property rating.[8]
According to the ancient Greek historian Polybius, whose Histories (written ca. 140s BC) are the earliest substantial extant account of the Republic, Roman cavalry was originally unarmoured, wearing only a tunic and armed with a light spear and ox-hide shield which were of low quality and quickly deteriorated in action.[9]
As hoplite warfare was the standard early in this era, cavalry might have not played a substantial role in battle except for chasing after routed enemies.[10]
Republican cavalry (338–88 BC)[edit]
Further information: Auxilia
Recruitment[edit]
North face of the Mausoleum of the Julii in Glanum, southern France, showing a cavalry battle, c. 40 BC
As their name implies, the equites were liable to cavalry service in the Polybian legion. Equites originally provided a legion's entire cavalry contingent, although from an early stage, when equites numbers had become insufficient, large numbers of young men from the First Class of commoners were regularly volunteering for the service, which was considered more glamorous than the infantry.[11][full citation needed] By the time of the Second Punic War, it is likely that all members of the First Class served in the cavalry, since Livy states that members of Class I were required to equip themselves with a round shield (clipeus), rather than the oblong shield (scutum) required of the other classes - and all images of cavalrymen of this period show round shields.[2] It appears that equites equo privato (i.e. First Class members) were required to pay for their own equipment and horse, but that the latter would be refunded by the state if it was killed in action.[12][full citation needed] Cavalrymen in service were paid a drachma per day, triple the infantry rate, and were liable to a maximum of ten campaigning seasons' military service, compared to 16 for the infantry.[13]
Unit size and structure[edit]
Each Polybian legion contained a cavalry contingent of 300 horse, which does not appear to have been officered by an overall commander.[14] The cavalry contingent was divided into 10 turmae (squadrons) of 30 men each. The squadron members would elect as their officers three decuriones ("leaders of ten men"), of whom the first to be chosen would act as the squadron's leader and the other two as his deputies.[15] From the available evidence, the cavalry of a Polybian legion (and presumably confederate cavalry also) was armoured and specialised in the shock charge.[16][full citation needed]
Equipment[edit]
Pictorial evidence for the equipment of Republican cavalry is scant and leaves several uncertainties. The earliest extant representations of Roman cavalrymen are found on a few coins dated to the era of the Second Punic War (218–201 BC). In one, the rider wears a variant of a Corinthian helmet and appears to wear greaves on the legs. His body armour is obscured by his small round shield (parma equestris). It was probably a bronze breastplate, as a coin of 197 BC shows a Roman cavalryman in Hellenistic composite cuirass and helmet. But the Roman cavalry may already have adopted mail armour (lorica hamata) from the Celts, who are known to have been using it as early as ca. 300 BC. Mail had certainly been adopted by ca. 150 BC, as Polybius states that the First Class were expected to provide themselves with mail cuirasses,[17] and the monument erected at Delphi by L. Aemilius Paullus to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Pydna (168 BC) depicts Roman cavalrymen in mail.[18][full citation needed] However, a coin of 136 BC and the Lacus Curtius bas-relief of the same period show horsemen in composite bronze cuirasses.
There is similar uncertainty as to whether cavalrymen carried shields (not generally used by Greek cavalry until after ca. 250 BC) and the related question of whether they carried long lances (which normally precluded shields, as they would often be held double-handed) or shorter spears, the doru mentioned by Polybius.[15][19][full citation needed] Most representations show cavalrymen with the small parma equestris type of shield, but the Ahenobarbus monument of 122 BC and the coin of 136 BC both show cavalrymen without shields. Sidnell suggests that, since equites were expected to provide their own equipment, they may have chosen their own type and combination of armour and weapons e.g. long lance with no shield or short spear with shield.[18][full citation needed] But the evidence is too scant to draw any firm conclusions.
Although there is no pictorial evidence, it is certain from literary accounts that equites carried swords, most likely the same gladii hispanienses (Spanish swords) used by the infantry[20][full citation needed] or the longer spatha. The Ahenobarbus monument also shows a cavalryman with a dagger (pugio). There is no evidence that equites carried bows and arrows and the Romans probably had no mounted archers before they came into contact with Parthian forces after 100 BC.
Campaign record[edit]
There is a conception that Roman Republican cavalry was inferior to other cavalry and that they were just to support their far superior infantry. However, Philip Sidnell argues that this view is misguided and that the cavalry was a powerful and crucial asset to the Republican army.[21][full citation needed]
Sidnell argues that the record shows that Roman cavalry in Republican times were a strong force in which they bested higher reputed cavalry of the time. Examples include the Heraclea (280 BC), in where the Roman cavalry dismayed the enemy leader Pyrrhus by gaining the advantage in a bitterly contested melee against his Thessalian cavalry, then regarded as some of the finest in the Western world, and were only driven back when Pyrrhus deployed his elephants, which panicked the Roman horses.[22] Other examples include the Equites' victory over the vaunted Gallic horse at Telamon and Sentinum, against the Germanic cavalry of the Teutons and Cimbri at Vercellae, and even against the technologically more advanced Seleucid cavalry (including some fully armored cataphracts) at Magnesia.
A key reason for some historians' disparagement of the Roman cavalry were the crushing defeats, at the Trebia and at Cannae, that it suffered at the hands of the Carthaginian general Hannibal during the latter's invasion of Italy (218-6 BC) which were only rendered possible because of a powerful cavalry force. But Sidnell argues that this is only because of a consistent numerical superiority in cavalry. Another disadvantage for the Romans in the Second Punic War was that their respective cavalry were melee cavalry better suited to prodding at weak points and engaging the rear and flanks of infantry formations. This, however useful against infantry that has been routed or is flanked, failed against Hannibal's nimble, Numidian light cavalry, which used a skilful, elaborate series of movements that consistently defeated the Roman cavalry. On some occasions when they were deployed properly, led competently, and/or had the advantage of numbers or surprise, such as during the skirmish before Ilipa and at the pitched battles of the Great Plains and Zama, the Italo-Roman cavalry were able to best their Carthaginian counterparts. On occasion, such as at Dertosa, they were able to hold their own despite being supposedly outnumbered in a skirmish with Carthaginian cavalry. It should be noted that at the Zama, it was the Romans who held the numerical advantage in cavalry and the Romans had the support of thousands of renowned Numidian cavalry from their ally Massinissa. While at the Ilipa, the Carthaginian cavalry were already engaged fighting the Roman infantry before they were ambushed by the Roman cavalry from the flanks.
The Second Punic War placed unprecedented strains on Roman manpower, not least on the over 10,000+ drachmae First Class, which provided the cavalry. During Hannibal's apocalyptic march through Italy (218-6 BC), thousands of Roman cavalrymen were killed on the battlefield. The losses were especially serious for the knights properly so-called (equo publico): Livy relates how, after Cannae, the gold rings of dead Roman knights formed a pile one modius (ca. 9 litres) large.[23] In the succeeding years 214-203 BC, the Romans kept at least 21 legions in the field at all times, in Italy and overseas (and 25 legions in the peak year).[24][full citation needed] This would have required the knights to provide 220 senior officers (120 tribuni militum, 60 decuriones and 60 praefecti sociorum). It was probably from this time that the 18 centuriae of knights became largely an officer class, while the 6,300 Roman cavalrymen required were raised from the rest of the First Class.
The cavalry of Roman armies before the Second Punic War had been exclusively Roman and confederate Italian, with each holding one wing of the battleline (the Romans usually holding the right wing). After that war, Roman/Italian cavalry was always complemented by allied native cavalry (especially Numidia), and was usually combined on just one wing. Indeed, the allied cavalry often outnumbered the combined Roman/Italian force e.g. at Zama, where the 4,000 Numidians held the right, with just 1,500 Romans/Italians on the left.[25] One reason was the lessons learnt in the war, namely the need to complement heavy cavalry with plenty of light, faster horse, as well as increasing the cavalry share when engaging with enemies with more powerful mounted forces. It was also inevitable that, as the Roman Republic acquired an overseas empire and the Roman army now campaigned entirely outside Italy, the best non-Italian cavalry would be enlisted in increasing numbers, including (in addition to Numidians) Gallic, Spanish and Thracian horse.[26][full citation needed] Towards the end of the republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire, the Roman cavalry itself was rendered less and less of a powerful force, with Rome meeting its cavalry needs with auxiliary, allied cavalry instead.
Nevertheless, Roman and Italian confederate cavalry continued to form an essential part of a Roman army's line-up for over a century. They were again, less successful against elusive tribal cavalry, such as the Lusitanians under Viriathus in their bitter resistance to Roman rule (151-140 BC) and the Numidians themselves under king Jugurtha during the latter's rebellion (112-105 BC), when they were obliged to rely heavily on their own Numidian allied horse[27][full citation needed] and the Romans were deprived of their strongest cavalry.
End of the citizen cavalry[edit]
A Greek rider seizes a mounted Amazonian warrior (armed with a double-headed axe) by her Phrygian cap; Roman mosaic emblema (marble and limestone), 2nd half of the 4th century AD; from Daphne, a suburb of Antioch-on-the-Orontes (now Antakya in Turkey)
The Jugurthine War is the last war in which Roman/Italian confederate cavalry is attested as having played a significant part. After that references to the citizen cavalry become rare and the Roman army seems to have become largely dependent on non-citizen cavalry, either recruited in the subject provinces or supplied by allied kings. As part of the army reforms of Gaius Marius around 107 BC, citizen legionary cavalry was abolished and entirely replaced by native allied cavalry.[28][full citation needed] This process may have happened gradually as a result of the grant of Roman citizenship to all of Rome's Italian confederates after the Social War (91-88 BC), which led to the abolition of the old Italian confederate alae and the recruitment of all Italians into the legions. For the cavalry, the abolition of the alae had the radical result of reducing the Roman/Italian cavalry to just a quarter of its previous size, since legions contained only a third as many horse as confederate alae. Legionary cavalry was thus reduced to a fraction of a Roman army's overall cavalry complement: a consular army of two legions now contained about 20% cavalry (i.e. ca. 4,000 horse), of which, at most, only 600 were Romans. Indeed, the Roman element may now have numbered just 240, as it is possible that around this time, the legionary cavalry contingent was reduced to 120. It also appears that from this time onwards, Roman knights were no longer levied for cavalry service, which was now recruited from Italian commoners.[29][full citation needed] By the time of Gaius Julius Caesar's Gallic War (58-51 BC), it appears that legionary cavalry may have disappeared altogether, and that Caesar was entirely dependent on allied Gallic contingents for his cavalry operations.[30][full citation needed] This is deduced from an incident in 58 BC when Caesar was invited to a parley with the German king Ariovistus and needed a cavalry escort. Since he didn't yet trust the allied Gallic cavalry under his command, he instructed them to lend their horses to some members of the Tenth Legion, which thereafter acquired the nickname equestris ("mounted legion").[31] (However, this incident leaves open the possibility that Roman cavalry still existed, but was not large enough to satisfy the needs of the moment).
The question arises as to why the Romans allowed their citizen cavalry to lapse in this way, given its record as a highly effective and useful force. The main reason is probably the limited pool of available equites and First Class members. The equites had long since become exclusively an officer class (a role they retained throughout the Principate), as the empire had become simply too large and complex for aristocrats to serve as ordinary troopers. At the same time, many of the First Class of commoners had developed major business interests and had little time for military service. Although Italian commoners of the lower classes could, of course, have been recruited and trained as cavalrymen in larger numbers, that must have seemed costly and unnecessary when subject countries such as Gaul, Spain, Thrace and Numidia contained large numbers of excellent native cavalry which could be employed at much lower pay than citizens.[26][full citation needed]
Allied cavalry[edit]
Further information: Auxilia
Roman always relied on their allies to provide cavalry. These were known as the Foederati. A typical Consular army of the 2nd Punic War would have much more Italian cavalry. As the Italian citizens gained citizenship by the time of Social War and the Legionary cavalry became less, most cavalry were provided by allied nations from Numidia, Greece, Thrace, Iberia, Gaul and Germania. Such as at the Battle of Zama where the majority of cavalry were Numidians. Most the cavalry in Caesar's campaigns were Gauls and Germans. These units were not part of the regular Roman army and were bound by treaties. These often were armed with their own native equipment and were led by native chiefs.
Imperial cavalry (30 BC – 476 AD)[edit]
Roman cavalry from a mosaic of the Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily, 4th century AD
When the Republic transitioned into the Empire, Augustus made a regular Auxilia corp of non-citizen soldiers. These professional Roman soldiers, like the Legions, were subjects recruited from the non-citizens in provinces controlled by Rome that had strong native cavalry traditions. These men, unlike the Allied Foederetii cavalry, were a regular part of the Roman army and were paid and trained by the Roman State. Arrian describes them as well-equipped and performing well-executed maneuvers. A typical cavalrymen of the Ala would be paid 20 percent more than a typical citizen legionary.
Roman Auxilia cavalry were usually heavily armored in mail and armed with a short lance, javelins, the Spatha long sword, and sometimes bows for specialist Horse archer units. These men primarily served as Medium missile cavalry for flanking, scouting, skirmish, and pursuit. As opposed to more modern cavalry units where the horses were kept in stables separate from the riders, Roman cavalry housed the riders and horses in the same barracks.[32]
By the time of the 3rd century, the Constitutio Antoniniana granted all peoples citizenship rights, and citizen cavalry was in use technically. Gallienus in 260 created a mobile reserve cavalry corps to respond to the empire's threats. By the 4th century, large numbers of heavily armored cavalry units such as cataphractarii, clibinarii, started to appear. These units were armed with a large spear, a sword and a bow.[33] However, the primary strength of the Roman army remained the infantry.
Although Augustus created regular Auxiliaries, irregular allied forces were still used. For example, Marcus Aurelius recruited Sarmatian allied cavalry to be stationed in Britain. By the 4th century, Romans relied heavily on irregular allies from the migrating Germanic tribes and the Huns.
Roman cavalry did not have a stirrup. The device was introduced to Europe by invading tribes after the collapse of the Roman Empire.[34]
See also[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roman cavalry.
Roman army
Roman military structure
Equestrian order
Ala (Roman military)
Byzantine army
References[edit]
Notes
Jump up ^ Livy I.36
^ Jump up to: a b Livy I.43
Jump up ^ Based on figures in Polybius II.24
Jump up ^ Cornell (1995) 193
Jump up ^ Cornell (1995) 245
Jump up ^ Cornell (1995) 250
Jump up ^ Cornell (1995) 238, 446 note 32
Jump up ^ Online 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica Equites
Jump up ^ Polybius I.
Jump up ^ 1955-, Roth, Jonathan P., (2009). Roman warfare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521537261. OCLC 231745643.
Jump up ^ Goldsworthy (2000) 49
Jump up ^ Goldsworthy (2003) 27
Jump up ^ Polybius II.19, 39
Jump up ^ Polybius VI.20
^ Jump up to: a b Polybius VI.25
Jump up ^ Sidnell (2006) 152
Jump up ^ Polybius VI.23
^ Jump up to: a b Sidnell (2006) 161
Jump up ^ Sidnell (2006)160
Jump up ^ Sidnell (1995) 161
Jump up ^ Sidnell (2006) 150
Jump up ^ Plutarch Pyrrhus 15-17
Jump up ^ Livy XXIII.12
Jump up ^ Brunt (1971) 418
Jump up ^ Livy XXX.29
^ Jump up to: a b Sidnell (2006) 208
Jump up ^ Sidnell (2006) 197-205
Jump up ^ Sidnell (2006) 205-6
Jump up ^ Keppie (1996) 272
Jump up ^ Goldsworthy (2000)
Jump up ^ Caesar De Bello Gallico I.42
Jump up ^ "Where were the stables?". Archaeology. 70 (3): 31. May–June 2017. ISSN 0003-8113. Retrieved 8 July 2017 – via EBSCO's Master File Complete (subscription required)
Jump up ^ 1955-, Roth, Jonathan P., (2009). Roman warfare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521537261. OCLC 231745643.
Jump up ^ Azzaroli 1985, p. 157
Sources
Azzaroli, A. (1985). An Early History of Horsemanship. E.J. Brill/W. Backhuys. ISBN 9789004072336. Retrieved 2015-05-17.
Sidnell, Philip (2006). Warhorse: Cavalry in Ancient Warfare. Continuum. ISBN 1-85285-374-3.
External links[edit]
Ross Cowan, 'Head-Hunting Roman Cavalry', Military Illustrated 274 (March 2011), 32-39
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text:
Nude swimming
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
"Skinny dip" redirects here. For other uses, see Skinny dip (disambiguation).
Boys swimming in a sacred tank in India, 2006
Nude swimming, or skinny dipping, is the practice of bathing naked, originally in natural bodies of water, but also in swimming pools or hot tubs. The term dipping was the practice of being immersed in spring waters, for health reasons at spa towns.
The widespread social convention and practice today is for swimmers especially in public places to wear swimsuits. Most countries do not have specific laws proscribing nude swimming, and the matter is regulated largely by social convention and practice. Nude swimming takes place on nude beaches, or at naturist facilities, segregated public swimming areas or in private swimming pools. Some countries around the world regard nude swimming as public nudity, which is treated in a variety of ways, ranging from tolerance to strict enforcement of prohibitions against it.
The term skinny-dip was first recorded in English in 1947[1] and is most commonly used in the United States.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
1.1 Established practice
1.2 18th century
1.2.1 Spa towns
1.2.2 Sea bathing resorts
1.2.3 Notable American
1.3 19th century
1.4 20th century
1.4.1 Indoor pools
1.4.2 Outdoors
1.5 Naturist movement
2 Modern prevalence
2.1 World record
3 Art
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
History[edit]
Established practice[edit]
Bathing by both sexes together had occurred since time immemorial and is documented in neolithic cave drawings and Roman mosaics and frescos. The woodcut illustrations in Everard Digby's, 1587 book The Art of Swimming (De Arte Natandi) and later, the 40 copperplate etchings in Melchisédech Thévenot's 1789 instruction book, also called The Art of Swimming, illustrate that swimming was normally costume free. When working people started visiting the coast to be 'dipped' for health or to 'bathe' for leisure cannot be determined but had been happening for 'some time' in 1709.[2][3]
18th century[edit]
For the common folk, splashing in rivers and swimming was a leisure activity and always done naked by boys and men and often by the women and girls. Bathing in the sea by the lower classes was noted in Southampton by Thomas Gray in 1764, and in Exmouth by shoals of Exeter damsels in unsufferable undress in 1779.[4] Lancashire working people bathed naked in the sea without any segregation in 1795:
lower classes of people of both sexes made an annual pilgrimage to Liverpool where they dabbled in the salt water for hours at each tide in promiscuous numbers and not much embarrassing themselves about appearance.[4]
Spa towns[edit]
Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath in 1668. He became interested in the curative properties of the waters and he wrote A discourse of Bathe, and the hot waters there. Also, Some Enquiries into the Nature of the water in 1676. This brought the health-giving properties of the hot mineral waters to the attention of the aristocracy.[5] Doctors and quacks set up further spa towns such as Harrogate, Bath, Matlock and Buxton soon after taking advantage of mineral water from chalybeate springs.[6] Here cures were guaranteed by 'taking the water' or being 'dipped' by bathing attendant in cold water. Treatment was received in the nude. Until the 1670s nude female bathing in the spas was the norm and only after that restrictions were imposed. As time progressed the resorts had to address two questions; was it right that men and women bathed together, and was it right that clothes should be worn. Establishments sought to impose dress codes.
Each town was free to make its own laws, and some chose to. For example, the Bath Corporation official bathing dress code of 1737 prohibited men and women to swim nude either in the day or in the night. Bath's specific rules were prescribed as follows:
It is Ordered Established and Decreed by this Corporation that no Male person above the age of ten years shall at any time hereafter go into any Bath or Baths within this City by day or by night without a Pair of Drawers and a Waistcoat on their bodies. No Female person shall at any time hereafter go into a Bath or Baths within this City by day or by night without a decent Shift on their bodies.[7]
Female bathing costumes were derived from those worn at Bath and other spas.
Sea bathing resorts[edit]
In the early 1730s, fashionable sea bathing initially followed the inland health seeking tradition. At English resorts such as Scarborough and Whitby, natural springs emerged from the cliffs allowing fresh water to be ingested and cold dip in the sea.[8] The resorts modelled themselves on Bath, and provided promenades, circulating libraries and assembly rooms.[2]
While sea bathing or dipping, men and boys were naked. Women and girls were encouraged to dip wearing loose clothing. Scarborough was the first resort to provide bathing machines for changing. Some men extended this to swimming in the sea and by 1736 it was seen at Brighton and Margate, and later at Deal, Eastbourne and Portsmouth, [8] Seeing them frolicking in the sea attracted sightseers to the sea spa resort.
Working people also started to visit the coast to be dipped or bathe. In 1709, Walton records a man from Crosby having his daughters dipped in the sea to cure a skin complaint.[2]
Notable American[edit]
Among notable Americans, Benjamin Franklin, an avid swimmer, possessed a copy of The Art of Swimming by Melchisédech Thévenot, which featured illustrations of nude swimmers.[9] American president John Quincy Adams was known to skinny-dip.
19th century[edit]
At the beginning of the Victorian period, working people of both sexes bathed for pleasure without clothes. The genteel classes were bathing for health from using bathing machines, the men and boys swam naked while the girls and women dipped alongside them.[10] Near the University of Oxford an area for male nude bathing was known as Parson's Pleasure.
The rise of the influence of Christian Evangelicals caused arrangements for mixed bathing to be reassessed. Moral pressures forced some town councils to establish zones for the women and men to bathe separately. A half-hearted attempt was made to suggest to men that torso-suits would be fashionable, but this was resisted by genteel swimmers who believed that torso-suits restricted the contact between the skin and the saltwater.[10]
These areas were not policed, and around 1860–75,[11] under pressure from the church ever stricter bylaws were passed but not enforced. Mixed bathing was a popular activity for families, who would take their custom to the next resort along the coast if mixed bathing was imposed.[12] Resorts were trying to placate the Evangelicals without upsetting traditional bathers by designating separate areas of the beach.[13]
Henry Scott Tuke, Ruby, Gold and Malachite (1902)
Drawers, or caleçons as they were called (fr:caleçon de bain), came into use in the 1860s. Even then there were many who protested against them and wanted to remain in the nude. Rev. Francis Kilvert, an English nude swimmer, quoted by Cinder described men's bathing suits coming into use in the 1870s as "a pair of very short red and white striped drawers". Excerpts from Kilvert's diary show the transition in the England of the 1870s from an acceptance of nude bathing to the acceptance of bathing suits. Kilvert describes "a delicious feeling of freedom in stripping in the open air and running down naked to the sea."[14]
There are very few records of magistrates enforcing the bylaws. In 1895 Cosmopolitan reported: "At most English resorts, buff bathing is available before eight o'clock in the morning"[15] while Brighton, Worthing, Hastings, Bexhill, Bognor and Folkestone still tolerated nude bathing at any time of the day, in areas away from the central bathing areas.[15]
In 1895, The Daily Telegraph, Standard, Daily Graphic and Daily Mail newspapers ran a campaign to reintroduce mixed bathing in all resorts, pointing out that its prohibition split up families and encouraged them to take their holidays abroad. Commercial pressure defeated the moral pressures. Sea bathing had ceased to be done for health reasons, and was done overwhelmingly for pleasure. As the segregated beaches in town disappeared, bathing costumes for men became part of the commercial package, and nude bathing ceased.[16] Nude bathing continued to be practised outside resorts on isolated pieces of coast; a very few of these known beaches and coves later got local authority recognition as nude beaches.
The introduction of mixed bathing throughout Europe and elsewhere certainly created pressure towards bathing costumes being worn by both genders. However, well into the latter days of the Victorian Era, whereas all females were routinely wearing modest bathing attire, many boys well into their teens in Victorian England, even when in a mixed gender setting, were still swimming and playing at the beach resorts completely naked. An article published on August 23, 1891 in the Syracuse Sunday Herald suggests naked boys of up to 15 years in age were problematic for American parents with daughters, and read:
A 'Bewildered American' writes to the London Standard that he can't take his little girl to play in the sand at a British seaside resort without her being surrounded by crowds of naked boys. An English friend told him that they let their daughters play with naked boys of ten years of age, but draw the line at fifteen.[17]
All this was very much an English problem and one of attitude. In France discreet nude bathing for both sexes remained acceptable anywhere along the coast or on river banks apart from those in the town or village centres. In Germany, provision for nude swimming is made in major city centre parks such as the English Garden in Munich.
Thomas Eakins, The Swimming Hole (1885)
In America, skinny dipping by boys was common. The Dixon, Illinois Evening Telegraph 1890 published a request: "for boys swimming in the mill race to be more modest as women felt they can't go down Water Street for fear of seeing them."[18]
Swimming was not only a sport for the residents of Victorian East London, Eastern Cape, but due to periodic water shortages, sometimes a necessity. From 1873 the town council promulgated measures to control swimming hours, apparel and especially separate swimming areas for men and women. These regulations were too conservative and constraining for the taste of the residents of this coastal town and for several decades they were the subject of legal battles, or were simply ignored. The dispute was finally settled in 1906 when mixed bathing was permitted with the proviso that both men and women should wear suitable swimming costumes.[19]
20th century[edit]
American president Theodore Roosevelt describes nude swims in the Potomac with his "tennis cabinet" in his Autobiography: "If we swam the Potomac, we usually took off our clothes.[20]
Ernest Thompson Seton describes skinny dipping as one of the first activities of his Woodcraft Indians, a forerunner of the Scout movement, in 1902.[21]
In a 1909 New York elementary schools swimming competition, boys in the 80 lb division competed naked; their bathing suits slowed them down.[22]
Indoor pools[edit]
The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was set up in 1842 with a mission to provide an education program and healthy sports to young men. The YMCA was responsible for providing swimming classes to countless numbers of American boys and teenagers. This included swimming in indoor pools. Swimming trunks were not permitted in their pools.[23] In Lincoln, Nebraska in 1958, for example, learners were told just to bring a towel and not to bring trunks. In Sheboygan, Wisconsin in 1954, the Recreation Department reported that 404 youngsters had attended an 11-day swimming course where the boys were unhampered by bathing suits.[24] When the YMCA began to admit females in the early 1960s, the wearing of bathing suits became a requirement.
In Portland, Ohio in 1915, all boys and girls wore torso swimming costumes. The problem was that woollen bathing suits were unhealthy and harboured the cholera bacteria and typhus bacteria which infected the water in the pool. Both the cholera and the typhus diseases could be fatal. As a precaution, the pool was completely drained every 10 days. In 1910, sand filtration was introduced which reduced the number of bacteria present, but the safest way was not to wear woollen suits, and this approach was endorsed by the American Public Health Association (APHA). American high school and junior high school swimming in many states had policies that followed APHA guidelines. The guideline were published every three years, and from 1926 until 1962 every edition recommended nude swimming. In other states, all boys and girls bathed in clothes. The 1937 Administration of Health and Physical Recreation training manual stated, "Nude bathing for boys is practiced universally, in a few schools girls may swim nude and this is the most sanitary method."
Nude female swimming was not allowed in most schools, both for modesty reasons and because it would be awkward to accommodate menstruating girls. The Detroit public schools briefly allowed nude female swimming in 1947; this policy was revoked after three weeks due to protests from parents.[citation needed]
Although chlorination was effective, it was difficult to manage the pH of the water, as chlorine could cause burning of the skin if wrongly administered. A simple test was devised in 1939 which made chlorination practical. World War II delayed its introduction until the early 1950s. The October 16, 1950 Life magazine had a large illustration of boys swimming together in the indoor pool of New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, and the caption didn't mention they were naked.[25] The practice continued in the states that had a tradition of nude swimming.
During the 1960s, as baby boomers were entering high school, there was a growing backlash against enforced nude male swimming and by the 1970s, it had largely been phased out along with gender integration of pools. Male students protested the double standard of being required to go nude due to wool lint from swimwear clogging pool filters when it did not appear to cause a problem with girls' swim costumes. In any case, rising living standards post-WWII created a greater desire for privacy.
In some English schools, Manchester Grammar School for example, nude swimming was compulsory until the 1970s. It was discontinued when it started admitting girls.[26] This was also the case for some American high schools.[27] and junior high schools and in some summer camps. John Torney in his 1937 article on Swimming and Lifesaving programs for summer camps wrote that boys and girls enjoy the thrill of swimming nude and costumes can be discarded for a night swim.[28] A 2006 Roper poll showed that 25% of all American adults had been skinny dipping at least once, and that 74% believed nude swimming should be tolerated at accepted locations.[29]
Outdoors[edit]
A girl swimming nude in a lake in 1942.
In the United States, states, counties and municipalities may enact their own dress codes, and many have. According to an Australian magazine, "In the early 1900s, women were expected to wear cumbersome dress and pantaloon combinations when swimming. In 1907, at the height of her popularity, Annette Kellerman was arrested on Revere Beach, Massachusetts, for indecency – she was wearing one of her fitted one-piece costumes."[30] In 1919, Ethelda Bleibtrey was arrested for nude swimming at the beach of Manhattan—she removed her stockings at a pool where it was forbidden to bare "the lower female extremities for public bathing". The subsequent public support for Bleibtrey led to the abandonment of stockings as a conventional element in women’s swimwear.[citation needed]
The 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden were the first Olympic Games to feature female swimming as an event and the costumes used, which became translucent when wet, caused somewhat of a scandal. The United States protested that the event was "obscene" and refused to send a female swim team to the Olympics. Eventually an American women's swim team participated in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium.[citation needed]
Nude swimming is fairly common in rural areas, where unexpected visitors are less likely. However, in some places even that type of swimming is prohibited by law. There is no federal law against nudity. Nude beaches, such as Baker Beach in San Francisco, operate within federal park lands in California. However, under a provision called concurrent jurisdiction, federal park rangers may enforce state and local laws, or invite local authorities to do so. Today, many swimmers in the United States confine nude swimming to private situations due to concerns about attitudes to public nudity.[citation needed]
Naturist movement[edit]
A couple at the beach in Brighton, England, after completing the World Naked Bike Ride, 2014
Since the early 20th century, the naturist movement has developed in western countries that seeks a return to non-sexual nakedness when swimming and during other appropriate activities.[31] In some places around the world, nude beaches have been set aside for people who choose to engage in normal beach activities in the nude.
Modern prevalence[edit]
In many countries today nude swimming mostly takes place at nude beaches, naturist facilities, private swimming pools, or secluded or segregated public swimming areas. Some Western countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, have no laws prohibiting nude swimming in public areas, but some countries around the world strictly enforce various laws against public nudity, including nude swimming. Some jurisdictions which maintain laws against public nudity may turn a blind eye to incidents of skinny dipping depending on the circumstances, as police officers on the spot decline to make arrests.[32]
Conflicts have arisen in the United States on federally-designated beaches, which are nevertheless patrolled by local police, since there is no federal law against nudity in these areas, but there may well be local ones. Skinny-dippers generally deal with this by keeping an eye out for local patrols, who generally do not go out of their way to find violators, as long as it is not flagrant.
In Germany nude bathing is more widespread than many other countries. A 2014 study revealed Germans (28%) were the most likely of all nations surveyed to have been nude at a beach.[33]
World record[edit]
The current world record for the most people naked swimming is held by BW Summer Festival and The Edge. The official figure is 744 people and was achieved on December 31, 2013 at Midway Beach, Gisborne, New Zealand. The annual Skinny Dip World Record attempt is part of BW Summer Festivals annual events program.[34]

Art[edit]
Charles Shannon, The Pursuit - Nudes Swimming (1922)
J. C. Leyendecker, Saturday Evening Post (August 19, 1911)
Nude swimming was a common subject of Old Masters – painters from before the 1800s – and Romantic oil paintings, usually bucolic or in a mythological or historical settings. For example, Swedish painters Georg Pauli and Anders Zorn painted a number of nude swimming scenes.[35][better source needed]
Late in the 19th Century painters started to render nude boys and men in a realistic setting. Daumier's Bathers shows youths clumsily hauling off their clothes (a symbol of repression) and a naked short stocky youth stepping cautiously into the water that represents freedom. Seurat's Bathers Asnières uses similar symbolism to show the bathers removing their every day identities to step into the momentary sunlight.[36]
The bathers in Thomas Eakins's The Swimming Hole each represent different stage in the artist's life. He prepared for this canvas by taking multiple photographs of his students frolicking at this location- and overall portrays a happy physical unselfconsciousness seen through the perspective of age- a nostalgia for youth. By the 1880s this nostalgia for youth was a veneer carefully disguising a latent homosexuality. In contrast there were poets and painters who would contrast free young beauty of bodies in the water with the approaching grind of maturity and responsibility. Henry Tuke loved to paint naked bathers in a soft idealised style deliberately avoiding overt sexuality.[36]
Cezannes monumental male bathers derive from memories of a happy childhood rather than direct observation. This was described by his friend Emile Zola as a time when "they were possessed with the joys of plunging (naked)into the deeper pools where thye waters flowed, or spending the days stark naked in the sun, drying them selves on the burning sand, diving in once more to live in the river..."[37][36]
In later periods, depictions of nude swimming scenes became rarer, but more likely to depict straightforward contemporary scenes. The cover of the August 19, 1911 edition of the Saturday Evening Post had a Leyendecker painting of three boys;[38] the cover of the June 4, 1921 edition had Norman Rockwell's painting No Swimming, depicting boys in various states of undress escaping from the local authorities.
See also[edit]
Naturism
References[edit]
Notes
Jump up ^ "skinny dip". Oxford English Dictionary (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. 1933.
^ Jump up to: a b c Travis 1997, p. 9.
Jump up ^ Walton 1983, pp. 10,11.
^ Jump up to: a b Travis 1997, p. 11.
Jump up ^ Burns 1981.
Jump up ^ Travis 1997, p. 8.
Jump up ^ Byrd 1987, p. 50.
^ Jump up to: a b Travis 1997, p. 12.
Jump up ^ Thévenot 1789.
^ Jump up to: a b Travis 1997, p. 30.
Jump up ^ Travis 1997, p. 19.
Jump up ^ Travis 1997, p. 21.
Jump up ^ Travis 1997, p. 22.
Jump up ^ Cinder 1998, pp. 331-3.
^ Jump up to: a b Travis 1997, p. 23.
Jump up ^ Travis 1997, pp. 23,29.
Jump up ^ The Sunday Herald & August 23, 1891.
Jump up ^ Dixon, Illinois Evening Telegraph, 18 June 1890
Jump up ^ Tankard 1992.
Jump up ^ Roosevelt 2014, p. 53.
Jump up ^ Seton 1951, p. 297.
Jump up ^ New York Times 1909.
Jump up ^ Tate 2001.
Jump up ^ Jarvis 1954.
Jump up ^ LIFE. Time Inc. 16 October 1950. pp. 106–. ISSN 0024-3019.
Jump up ^ Cohen 2005.
Jump up ^ NPR 2006.
Jump up ^ Torney 1937.
Jump up ^ Roper poll online, Naturist education, 2006 .
Jump up ^ "Herstory: Annette Kellerman", The Dawn (54), March 2004, archived from the original on 2005-11-18, retrieved 2010-09-27
Jump up ^ British Naturism (BN), ISSN 0264-0406, archived from the original on 2012-03-31, retrieved 2011-08-30
Jump up ^ Goodman 2013.
Jump up ^ Bridge, Adrian (July 14, 2017) "Germans most likely to go nude" The Telegraph
Jump up ^ "Largest skinny dipping (swimming naked)". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
Jump up ^ Canu, John F. "ART / 4 / 2DAY". www.safran-arts.com.
^ Jump up to: a b c Walters, Margaret (1978). Nude Male : a New Perspective. New York and London: Paddington P. pp. 238–252. ISBN 0-7092-0871-5. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
Jump up ^ Dorival, Bernard (1949). Cezanne. London. p. 63. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
Jump up ^ Meyer, Susan E. "J.C. Leyendecker." In America's Great Illustrators, 136–159. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1978.
Bibliography
Monographs
Cinder, Cec (1998). The Nudist Idea. Riverside, California: Ultraviolet Press. ISBN 978-0-9652085-0-5.
Roosevelt, Theodore (2014). Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography. Floating Press. ISBN 978-1-77653-337-4.
Seton, Ernest Thompson (1951). Trail of an Artist Naturalist. London: Hodder and Stoughton. p. 297. ISBN 0-405-10734-X.
Thévenot, Melchisédec (1789). The Art of Swimming: Illustrated by Forty Proper Copper-plate Cuts, ... With Advice for Bathing. By Monsieur Thevenot. Done Out of French. To which is Prefixed a Prefatory Discourse Concerning Artificial Swimming, ... (Third ed.). London: John Lever.
Travis, John (1997). "Sea-bathing from 1730 to 1900". In Fisher, Stephen. Recreation and the Sea. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. ISBN 978-0859895408.
Journal articles
Byrde, Penelope (1987). "‘That Frightful Unbecoming Dress’ Clothes for Spa Bathing at Bath". Costume. 21 (1): 44–56. ISSN 0590-8876. doi:10.1179/cos.1987.21.1.44.
Burns, D. Thorburn (1981). "Thomas Guidott (1638–1705): Physician and Chymist, contributor to the analysis of mineral waters". Analytical Proceedings including Analytical Communications: Royal Society of Chemistry. 18 (1): 2–6. doi:10.1039/AP9811800002. Retrieved 10 December 2007.
Tankard, Keith (1992). "Bathing habits in Victorian East London." (pdf). Contree (32). Retrieved 2014-08-15.
Torney, John A. (1937). "Swimming and Lifesaving program for summer camps". Journal of Health and Physical Education. University of Washington. 8 (6): 360–392. doi:10.1080/23267240.1937.10619786.
Newspaper articles
Cohen, Michael (December 2005), "Swimming Naked at MGS" (PDF), The Mancunian, Old Mancunians, archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-06-17, retrieved 2007-11-27
Goodman, J. David (July 17, 2013). "Daring Enough to Bare It All for a New York Swim". New York Times. Retrieved 15 Aug 2014.
"A "Bewildered American"". The Sunday Herald. Syracuse. August 23, 1891. p. 4 col B. Retrieved 15 Aug 2014.
Naked in High School: Bad Dreams Do Come True, National Public Radio, Aug 1, 2006, retrieved 2007-11-27
"N.L. skinny dipper hosts TV travelogue". The Canadian Press. Newfoundland and Labrador. Nov 9, 2009. Retrieved 15 Aug 2014.
Jarvis, Mrs Richard J. (22 June 1954). "Recreation Department conducts eleven day swimming instruction court at Central H.S. pool". Sheboygan Press. p. 10 col E. Retrieved 2015-11-17 – via Newspaper Archive. (Subscription required (help)). boys swim unhampered by suits and only bring a towel
"Young Swimmers in Championships". New York Times. 18 April 1909. p. 30 col C. Retrieved 2015-11-17 – via Newspaper Archive. (Subscription required (help)).
Online
Tate, Cassandra (14 March 2001). "Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of Greater Seattle - Part 3: Readjustment, 1930-1980". historylink.org. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Skinny dipping.
Look up skinny-dipper in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The Naturist Society (us)
South Florida Free Beaches (Haulover Beach Park)
Naturist Education Foundation (us)
Crown Prosecution Service -Nudity in Public - Guidance on handling cases of Naturism (UK specific)

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