Attire of a Roman Citizen

Even though in Ancient Rome there were no advanced machines to make T-shirts, or denim pants, Romans still had unique costume, and fashion to go along with it. As today, the attire of a man was somewhat different than that of a woman, and the type of clothing Romans wore differed with each occasion. This, however, was not the only reason Romans wore clothing, apart from covering their body. They used clothes to signify their social status, governmental importance, and legal standing by changing the color of the cloth, the fabric it was made of, and the amount of fabric that the article was made of.

To find a place to begin, I will start with the men’s dress. The most commonly worn garment in Rome was not the toga, but the tunica. This tunica was a type of shirt, and the simplest of all the clothes. It was simply two pieces of square cloth sewn together, except where the head and arms had to come through. The man would have tied it at the waist with a belt, and pulled it through to just the right length. Even though the tunica had sleeves on occasion, this was not a common accessory, and was left off most of the time. The tunica played an important role in signifying a man’s status, as men wore it almost all of the time. The tunica varies from the undyed, rough wool that simpletons at the boddom of the ladder wore, to the wealthy man’s soft silky tunica, which acted as an undergarment.

Even though the tunica is the most commonly worn garment in Rome, the one that they are most known for is, of course, the toga. There were a vast variety of togas worn by many Romans. The toga came to the Romans from the Etruscans and Greeks, both of which had worn a long cloak to cover their bodies. The first togas of Rome, however, were developed as smallish pieces of oval cloth worn over the tunic in a complicated pattern of wrapping and folding. Like the tunica, the toga was heavily used as a distinction of class and status – much more so, in fact, than the tunica. Though the shape of the garment was consistent, the color and texture varied. The common toga of the not-so-wealthy middle class people was a simple woolen cloth, left its natural color. This was the toga virilis, the manly toga. Candidates campaigning for a public office often bleached the toga to draw attention to themselves. A contrast to this was the toga pulla, a darkly dyed toga worn when mourning losses. The toga praetexta was a toga with a purple stripe worn by children and important public officials. Finally, the toga traeba was worn by priests, and had red and purple stripes.

The women, however, were not to be outdone, and had several different clothes of their own. The most common garment of the married woman was the stola. This long, sleeveless gown that hung down to the ground was worn over the silky tunica that women wore under clothes. It was clinched at the shoulders with fibulae, and worn with two belts – one on the chest and one around the waist, because this made the folds numerous and beautiful. To wear a stola symbolised that the woman was married, and that was a sure way to raise yourself in the social ladder. Thus, the article of clothing not only served to look good, but like most Roman clothes, was used to show the status of the individual.

Just as the toga went hand in hand with the tunica for men, the palla went hand in hand with the stola for women. This was a big rectangular piece of woolen fabric, the simplicity of which allowed for many different uses. It could be a blanket at night, or a bathrobe, or worn as clothing over a tunica or a shirt, or toga, or a stola. Even though this object had so many uses, even the palla had significance in social status. The type of material it was made of clearly conveyed the wealth of the lady wearing the palla, and the use of expensive dyes and intricate designs helped to further prove this point.

When the Romans discovered the barbarians of the north, they were apalled at the “pants” these people were. To the Romans, wearing leg covering was seen as crude, and wrong. However, when the Romans took the time to study the conditions the barbarians lived in, they learned to understand that it was a simple matter of warmth and protection that drove the barbarians to wear pants, not some disgusting fashion. Thus, the Romans decided to experiment, and adapted a version of the pants called the feminalia, tight pants that reached to the knee, worn mostly by men. They did this to protect their own soldiers from the cold of Britain, as they saw the natives doing there. Eventually, the pants became more fashionable in Rome, and even the emperor Nero could have been seen wearing these.

Bibliography

Pendergast, Sara and Tom. Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages: Volume 1: The Ancient World. Detroit: U•X•L, 2004.

Payne, Blanche. The History of Costume: Second Edition. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1992.

Dersin, Denise. What Live Was Like when Rome Rulet the World. Richmond: Time Life, 1997.

Symons, David. Costume of Ancient Rome. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.