Helbig’s articles, referred to at the close of the next section, should be consulted. J. Martha, L’Art étrusque, gives reproductions of the most important monuments. See also the works on Etruscan civilization named in the art. [Etruria].
v. Roman Costume.—We are told that the toga, the national garment of the Romans, was originally worn both by men and by women; and though the female dress of the Romans was in historical times essentially the same as that of the Greeks, young girls still wore the toga on festal occasions, as we see from the reliefs of the Ara Pacis Augustae. In early times no undergarment was worn save a loin-cloth (subligaculum), which seems to be a survival of early Mediterranean fashions (see above, sect. Aegean Costume), and candidates for office in historical times appeared in the toga and subligaculum only. In this period, however, the tunica, corresponding to the Greek chiton, was universally worn in ordinary life, and the toga gradually became a full-dress garment which was only worn over the tunica on important social occasions; Juvenal (iii. 171) tells us that in a great part of Italy no one wore the toga except at his burial!
The toga was a piece of woollen cloth in the form of a segment of a circle,[27] the chord of the arc being about three times the height of the wearer, and the height a little less than one-half of this length. One end of this garment was thrown over the left shoulder and allowed to hang down in front; the remainder was drawn round the body and disposed in various ways. In the cinctus Gabinus, which was the fashion adopted in early times when fighting was in prospect, the end of the toga was drawn tightly round the waist and formed a kind of girdle; this was retained in certain official functions, such as the opening of the temple of Janus in historical times.[28] In time of peace the toga was wrapped round the right arm, leaving the hand only free, much after the fashion of the Greek himation, and thrown over the left shoulder so as to fall down behind (see [Roman Art], Plate II., fig. 11, male figure to r.); or, if greater freedom were desired, it was passed under the right arm-pit. In religious ceremonies, the magistrate presiding at the sacrifice drew the back of the toga over his head; see in the same illustration the priest with veiled head, ritu Gabino, who also wears his toga with the cinctus Gabinus. Towards the end of the republic a new fashion was generally adopted. A considerable length of the toga was allowed to hang from the left shoulder; the remainder was passed round the body so as to rise like a baldric (balteus) from the right hip to the left shoulder, being folded over in front (the fold was called sinus), then brought round the back of the neck so that the end fell over the right shoulder; the hanging portion on the left side was drawn up through the sinus, and bulged out in an umbo (Plate, fig. 24). Later still, this portion, instead of forming a bundle of folds in the centre, was carefully folded over and carried up over the left shoulder, and in course of time these folds were carefully arranged in several thicknesses resembling boards, tabulae, hence called contabulatio (Plate, fig. 23). Yet another fashion was that adopted by the flamens, who passed the right-hand portion of the toga over the right shoulder and arm and back over the left shoulder, so that it hung down in a curve over the front of the body; the upper edge was folded over. The flamens are thus represented on the Ara Pacis Augustae.
The plain white toga (toga pura) was the ordinary dress of the citizen, but the toga praetexta, which had a border of purple, was worn by boys till the age of sixteen, when they assumed the plain toga virilis, and also by curule magistrates and some priests. A purple toga with embroidery (toga picta) was worn together with a gold-embroidered tunic (tunica palmata) by generals while celebrating a triumph and by magistrates presiding at games; it represented the traditional dress of the kings and was adopted by Julius Caesar as a permanent costume. The emperors wore it on occasions of special importance. The trabea, which in historical times was worn by the consuls when opening the temple of Janus, by the equites at their yearly inspection and on some other occasions, and by the Salii at their ritual dances, and had (according to tradition) formed the original costume of the augurs and flamens (who afterwards adopted the toga praetexta), was apparently a toga smaller in size than the ordinary civil dress, decorated with scarlet stripes (trabes). It was fastened with brooches (fibulae) and appears to have been worn by the equites, e.g. at the funeral ceremony of Antoninus Pius.
The tunica was precisely like the Greek chiton; that of the senator had two broad stripes of purple (latus clavus) down the centre, that of the knight two narrow stripes (angustus clavus). A woollen undergarment (subucula) was often worn by men; the women’s under-tunic was of linen (indusium). When women gave up the use of the toga, they adopted the stola, a long tunic with a border of a darker colour (instita) along the lower edge; the neck also sometimes had a border (patagium). The tunic with long sleeves (tunica manicata) was a later fashion. Over this the ricinium or rica, a shawl covering the head and shoulders, was worn in early times, and retained by certain priestesses as an official costume;[29] but it gave place to the palla, the equivalent of the Greek himation, and the dress of the Roman women henceforward differed in no essential particular from that of the Greek.
A variety of cloaks were worn by men during inclement weather; in general they resembled the Greek chlamys, but often had a hood (cucullus) which could be drawn over the head. Such were the birrus (so-called from its red colour), abolla and lacerna. The paenula, which was the garment most commonly worn, especially by soldiers when engaged on peace duties, was an oblong piece of cloth with a hole in the centre for the neck; a hood was usually attached to the back. It survives in the ritual chasuble of the Western Church. The Greek military chlamys appears in two forms—the paludamentum of the general (e.g. Trajan as represented on the Arch of Constantine, [Roman Art], Plate III., fig. 16), and the sagum worn by the common soldier (e.g. by some of the horsemen on the base of the Antonine column, [Roman Art], Plate V., fig. 21). When the toga went out of use as an article of everyday wear, the pallium, i.e. the Greek himation, was at first worn only by Romans addicted to Greek fashions, but from the time of Tiberius, who wore it in daily life, its use became general. Long robes bearing Greek names (synthesis, syrma, &c.) were worn at dinner-parties.
The Romans often wore sandals (soleae) or light shoes (socci), but in full dress (i.e. with the toga) it was necessary to wear the calceus, which had various forms by which classes were distinguished, e.g. the calceus patricius, mulleus (of red leather) and senatorius (of black leather). This was a shoe with slits at the sides and straps knotted in front; its forms may be seen on the relief from the Ara Pacis. The senators’ calceus had four such straps (quattuor corrigiae), which were wound round the ankle (cf. the flamen on the Ara Pacis), and was also adorned with an ivory crescent (lunula). A leathern tongue (lingula) is often seen to project from beneath the straps. The soldier’s boot (caliga, from which the emperor Gaius derived his nickname, Caligula) was in reality a heavy hobnailed sandal with a number of straps wound round the ankle and lower leg. A high hunting boot was called compagus. Women at times wore the calceus, but are generally represented in art with soft shoes or sandals.
Hats were seldom worn except by those who affected Greek fashions, but the close-fitting leather pileus seems to have been an article of early wear in Italy, since its use survived in the ceremony of manumission, and the head-dress of the pontifices and flamines (cf. the relief of the Ara Pacis already referred to) consisted in such a cap (galerus) with an apex, or spike, of olive wood inserted in the crown.
For personal ornament finger-rings of great variety in the material and design were worn by men, sometimes to the extent of one or more on each finger, many persons possessing small cabinets of them. But at first the Roman citizen wore only an iron signet ring, and this continued to be used at marriages. The jus annuli aurei, or right of wearing a gold ring, originally a military distinction, became a senatorial privilege, which was afterwards extended to the knights and gradually to other classes. Women’s ornaments consisted of brooches (fibulae), bracelets (armillae), armlets (armillae, bracchialia), ear-rings (inaures), necklaces (monilia), wreaths (coronae) and hair-pins (crinales). The tore (torques), or cord of gold worn round the neck, was introduced from Gaul. A profusion of precious stones, and absence of skill or refinement in workmanship, distinguish Roman from Greek or Etruscan jewelry; but in the character of the designs there is no real difference.
See Marquardt-Mau, Privatleben der Römer, pp. 550 seq. (gives a full collection of literary references); Cybulski, op. cit., pls. xix., xx., with Amelung’s text; articles by W. Helbig, especially Sitzungsberichte der bayrischen Akademie (1880), pp. 487 seq. (on headgear); Hermes xxxix. 161 seq. (on toga and trabea), and Mémoires de l’Académie des inscriptions, xxxvii. (1905) (on the costume of the Salii); articles by L. Heuzey in Daremberg and Saglio’s Dictionnaire des antiquités, also in Revue de l’art, i. 98 seq., 204 seq., ii. 193 seq., 295 seq. (on the toga). See also the general bibliography at the end.