The Romans referred to themselves as the "people of the toga," and even today, the toga is closely identified with the Romans. It was not an everyday garment, however, and was worn by citizens primarily on formal occasions. The toga was the mark of a citizen, and it was illegal for noncitizens to dress in it. A toga was made of heavy, bleached wool; when unrolled, it was a large, D-shaped piece of fabric approximately six meters long and two and a half meters wide. This was wrapped around the wearer and over his arms in a complex fashion, with much of the excess fabric draped upon the left shoulder. The toga developed over time from the republic to the empire, gradually becoming a bit larger and with the method of folding growing more ornate. By the early empire, the prescribed method of folding a toga included the creation of features known as the sinus and umbo, which could sometimes serve as pockets or be pulled over the head like a hood. Beneath the toga, a belted tunic was worn.
Togas reflected the general Roman preoccupation with rank and status. The basic white toga of the citizen was called the toga virilis (toga of manhood). If you were a magistrate, you were entitled to wear a special toga with a purple stripe on it known as the toga praetexta (bordered toga). The width of the stripe further indicated your wealth and status, since senators sported wide purple stripes called the latus clavus (broad stripe) whereas equestrians had to make do with thinner stripes known as the clavus angustus (narrow stripe). Interestingly, male children of citizens wore miniature toga praetextas complete with the purple stripe. Another
Figure Appendix lll. l Statue of the emperor Titus dressed in a typical toga of the early imperial period.
Type of specialized toga was the toga Candida {white toga), an extra-white toga that was only worn by candidates running for political office. It is from this term that our modem term candidate is derived. Finally, it is thought that victorious generals celebrating a triumph may have been allowed to wear an all-purple toga.
Figure Appendix 111.2 Roman woman with Flavian hairstyle. (Drawing by Alicia Aldrete, Phaeton Group, Scientific Graphic Services Division.)
While it was a distinctively Roman garment, the toga was by no means the only item of clothing available to the Romans. In casual everyday life, a short-sleeved tunic extending to the knees was the standard item of clothing for Roman men and was widely worn by children and slaves as well. The tunics of equestrians and senators also carried the purple stripes, and when they put on their togas, these tunics were worn underneath the toga. If it was raining or cold, the Romans used a large cloak called a lacerm, which could be thrown over the tunic or toga. Another variety of cloak, the paenula, may have been a more close-fitting and waterproofed variant.
Roman women were expected to dress modestly and to be largely covered up by their clothes. As a first layer, they wore a longer version of the tunic that reached down to their ankles and had longer sleeves, but the stereotypical garb of the adult Roman woman was the siola, a full-length dress with multiple folds. Women's clothes were often dyed bright colors and were made of a variety of materials. A related garment derived from the Greeks was the peplos, which was similar to a tunic but had an extra fold of cloth over the upper half of the body. When going out in public, aristocratic women donned an additional covering called the palla, a large, rectangular piece of cloth that could be wrapped around the body in a variety of ways.
What sort of undergarments the Romans wore is uncertain. They may well have worn nothing. In art, gladiators and athletes are sometimes shown wearing a kind of loincloth, and this may have been a variant of a standard undergarment.
Romans did not wear trousers or pants and in fact regarded the wearing of such with great disdain, as the mark of a barbarian. This attitude caused considerable discomfort to Roman troops posted to the frigid northern provinces, and eventually these soldiers gave in to reality and began wearing leather pants. For footwear, there was a wide range of leather boots and sandals to choose from. The most famous Roman footwear was the caligae, the hobnailed boots issued to Roman soldiers.
While ordinary Roman women probably had little time or money to spend on personal ornamentation, wealthy Roman women devoted considerable effort to decorating themselves with elaborate hairstyles and thick makeup. Rich women probably had several slaves whose full-time job it was to arrange their mistress's hair. These hairstylists achieved their effects through the use of curling irons, mousse-like stiffening agents, and various combs, pins, and fasteners. Roman sculptures record the various hairstyles that were popular in different periods. A famous bust of a Flavian woman depicts her with an enormous fan of curls, probably affixed to a wood or wire underframe, piled up on top of her head. In the second century ad, a more severe hairstyle seems to have dominated, with hair gathered into a tight bun or pulled back in plaits.
Women also commonly dyed their hair, and dying the hair red using henna seems to have been particularly popular. Experimenting with dyes was not without its risks, however. Ovid mentions an account of a dye job gone wrong, which resulted in a woman losing her hair (Ovid, Love Affairs 1.14.1-46). Since few Italians naturally have blond hair, blond wigs were very fashionable. The most common source for blond wigs was German prisoners of war, and the hair of many Germans ultimately ended up on the heads of Roman women.
Roman women wore a considerable amount of makeup. They started off with various foundations, and every woman had her own secret recipe that she would use. One that survives calls for a mixture of eggs, barley, ground antler, honey, lead, flowers, wheat, and crushed beans. To make the face whiter, they applied powdered chalk or a lead-based white substance. Black pigments would be used around the eyes, and red was applied to the lips and cheeks. Women could choose from an assortment of powerful perfumes, often made by some combination of flowers or herbs in an olive-oil base.
Finally, wealthy Roman women wore large quantities of jewelry in the form of rings, pins, necklaces, and earrings. Often these earrings were very large and heavy and dangled from the ears in a succession of levels. Such jewelry was fashioned from gold and studded with precious stones.
Roman men of the middle republic to the early empire were usually clean shaven. In the second century ad, emperors such as Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius adopted beards, and this fashion seems to have trickled down to the average Roman man. Roman men also wore rings, although sporting too many or excessively ostentatious ones was frowned upon.
Both sexes made use of a variety of metal clasps to hold their clothing together and to close their cloaks. These ranged from simple functional bronze fasteners to highly decorated and bejeweled brooches.
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World History
