The Insubres and Boii were clothed in their breeches and light cloaks; but the Gaesatae from vanity and bravado threw these garments away, and fell in in front of the army naked, with nothing but their arms; believing that, as the ground was in parts encumbered with brambles, which might possibly catch in their clothes and impede the use of their weapons, they would be more effective in this state.
Is the middle guy nude?! What a power move
Polybius’s Histories
I’d be intimidated, ngl
Charging naked through brambles? Yeah uhh, see you in back in Rome guys, fuck that.
Fun fact: the Bantu king Shaka Zulu in the 19th century ordered his own troops to stomp on thorns in their bare feet to harden their soles.
Really cuts down on the laundry bill, too.