Toga
It was and is considered ancient Rome's "national costume"; as such, it had great symbolic value; however even among Romans, it was hard to put on, uncomfortable and challenging to wear correctly, and never truly popular.[18] Norma Goldman believes that the earliest forms of all these garments would have been simple, rectangular lengths of cloth that served as both body-wrap and blanket for peasants, shepherds and itinerant herdsmen.Once a boy came of age (usually at puberty) he adopted the plain white toga virilis; this meant that he was free to set up his own household, marry, and vote.In Livy's history of Rome, the patrician hero Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, retired from public life and clad (presumably) in tunic or loincloth, is ploughing his field when emissaries of the Senate arrive, and ask him to put on his toga.[37] Donning the toga transforms Cincinnatus from rustic, sweaty ploughman – though a gentleman nevertheless, of impeccable stock and reputation – into Rome's leading politician, eager to serve his country; a top-quality Roman.[39][40] Traditionalists idealised Rome's urban and rustic citizenry as descendants of a hardy, virtuous, toga-clad peasantry, but the toga's bulk and complex drapery made it entirely impractical for manual work or physically active leisure.Family, friendships and alliances, and the gainful pursuit of wealth through business and trade would have been their major preoccupations, not the otium (cultured leisure) claimed as a right by the elite.[50] Despite the overwhelming quantity of Roman togate portraits at every social level, and in every imaginable circumstance, at most times Rome's thoroughfares would have been crowded with citizens and non-citizens in a variety of colourful garments, with few togas in evidence.The toga's apparent natural simplicity and "elegant, flowing lines" were the result of diligent practice and cultivation; to avoid an embarrassing disarrangement of its folds, its wearer had to walk with measured, stately gait,[41] yet with virile purpose and energy.A good patron offered advancement, security, honour, wealth, government contracts and other business opportunities to his client, who might be further down in the social or economic scale, or more rarely, his equal or superior.Clients seeking patronage had to attend the patron's early-morning formal salutatio ("greeting session"), held in the semi-public, grand reception room (atrium) of his family house (domus).When the patron left his house to conduct his business of the day at the law courts, forum or wherever else, escorted (if a magistrate) by his togate lictors, his clients must form his retinue.[59][60] The emperor Marcus Aurelius, rather than wear the "dress to which his rank entitled him" at his own salutationes, chose to wear a plain white citizen's toga instead; an act of modesty for any patron, unlike Caligula, who wore a triumphal toga picta or any other garment he chose, according to whim; or Nero, who caused considerable offence when he received visiting senators while dressed in a tunic embroidered with flowers, topped off with a muslin neckerchief.Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria (circa 95 AD) offers advice on how best to plead cases at Rome's law-courts, before the watching multitude's informed and critical eye.He should employ to good effect that subtle "language of the hands" for which Roman oratory was famed; no extravagant gestures, no wiggling of the shoulders, no moving "like a dancer".[63][64] To a great extent, the toga itself determined the orator's style of delivery: "we should not cover the shoulder and the whole of the throat, otherwise our dress will be unduly narrowed and will lose the impressive effect produced by breadth at the chest.If, on the other hand, the "toga falls down at the beginning of our speech, or when we have only proceeded but a little way, the failure to replace it is a sign of indifference, or sloth, or sheer ignorance of the way in which clothes should be worn".[66] Aulus Gellius claimed that the earliest Romans, famously tough, virile and dignified, had worn togas with no undergarment; not even a skimpy tunic.He ordered that any theater-goer in dark (or colored or dirty) clothing be sent to the back seats, traditionally reserved for those who had no toga; ordinary or common women, freedmen, low-class foreigners and slaves.Infuriated by the sight of a darkly clad throng of men at a public meeting, he sarcastically quoted Virgil at them: "Romanos, rerum dominos, gentemque togatam" ("Romans, lords of the world and the toga-wearing people"), then ordered that in future, the aediles ban anyone not wearing the toga from the Forum and its environs – Rome's "civic heart".In this context, modern sources understand the toga – or perhaps merely the description of particular women as togata – as an instrument of inversion and realignment; a respectable (thus stola-clad) woman should be demure, sexually passive, modest and obedient, morally impeccable.[75] Until the so-called "Marian reforms" of the Late Republic, the lower ranks of Rome's military forces were "farmer-soldiers", a militia of citizen smallholders conscripted for the duration of hostilities,[81] expected to provide their own arms and armour.[83] From at least the mid-Republic on, the military reserved their togas for formal leisure and religious festivals; the tunic and sagum (heavy rectangular cloak held on the shoulder with a brooch) were used or preferred for active duty.Late republican practice and legal reform allowed the creation of standing armies, and opened a military career to any Roman citizen or freedman of good reputation.[84] A soldier who showed the requisite "disciplined ferocity" in battle and was held in esteem by his peers and superiors could be promoted to higher rank: a plebeian could achieve equestrian status.A traditional, high-status mater familias demonstrated her industry and frugality by placing wool-baskets, spindles and looms in the household's semi-public reception area, the atrium.The sinus (literally, a bay or inlet) appears in the Imperial era as a loose over-fold, slung from beneath the left arm, downwards across the chest, then upwards to the right shoulder.[104] The most complex togas appear on high-quality portrait busts and imperial reliefs of the mid-to-late Empire, probably reserved for emperors and the highest civil officials.[106] High-status (consular or senatorial) images from the late 4th century show a further ornate variation, known as the "Broad Eastern Toga"; it hung to the mid-calf, was heavily embroidered, and was worn over two pallium-style undergarments, one of which had full length sleeves.[110] In the West, the kings and aristocrats of new European kingdoms styled their dress after that of late military generals rather than the senatorial order, and the toga thus did not survive the end of centralized Roman governance.
( Via Labicana Augustus ) .
Toga (disambiguation)TiberiusClassical LatinAncient RomeRoman historical traditionRomulusRoman womenmale Roman citizensadulteryprostitutionlaws and customsVirgilMartialsenatorscurule magistracyLiberaliaCurule magistratesKings of RomelunulaPontificesTresviri EpulonesaugursArval brotherscandidatespublic officePersiusmournersfuneralstriumphsconsulsequestrian rankangusticlaviaFlamenSuetoniushimationEtruscanTullus HostiliusGreco-RomanenkyklondivinerArtemidorus DaldianusArcadianMycenaean GreeceMycenaean GreeksenatemagistraciescommonerstribunesEquitesFrançois TombmagistratesTyrian purpleVestal Virginsmenarcheformula togatorumItalian alliesRomanized"infamous" careercensushistory of Romepatrician heroLucius Quinctius CincinnatusdictatorfrescoPompeiiCompitaliaSacred WayJuvenalRomanitasTogatus BarberiniRoman senatorportrait bustsPatronageatriumequestrian classSaturnalialictorsMarcus AureliusCaligulaThe OratorEtruscobronze sculpturerhetoricEtruscan alphabetQuintilianInstitutio OratoriaAulus GelliusCato the YoungertransparentAppianPrincipateAugustusVia Labicana Augustusaedilesgenderspudicitiaequestrian statueCloeliaprostitutesmeretrices"infamous and disreputable"porphyryCuria JuliaMarian reformscursus honorumGabine cinchScipio AfricanusAntoninus PiusNy Carlsberg Glyptotekplebeianequestrianhonourable dischargeinfamiaPompeyimperatorPraetorian Guardreligious festivalslibationaugurysulcus primigeniuscolonies"Gabine cinch" or "robe"Etruscan priestly dressdeclarations of warArchaeological Museum of Olympiapowers to avert misfortune