COSTUME AND PERSONAL ADORNMENT
=65. The Type of Roman Garments.=--How is it possible to mention Roman
women and Roman weddings without thoughts also of Roman costume and
personal adornment? Seldom, indeed, has there been or will there be
an age in which fine wearing apparel, and jewelry, and elaborate hair
dressing can occupy so great a place in the thoughts of both sexes as
it does in this era of the Roman Empire.
Good clothes and fine rings are in fact so important that if you do
not possess them, on many social occasions you must hire them. There
were several guests at Statilia’s wedding who appeared in gala robes
with handsome jewels to match. With them went attendants who passed
for confidential freedmen; yet it was whispered they were actually the
agents of costume purveyors charged to see that every hired banqueting
gown and topaz-set ring was promptly returned.
Roman garments are like the Greek: they are usually _wrapped on_,
they are not like those of a later age which must be _put on_. Pins,
buckles, and brooches usually take the place of buttons. Sometimes,
however, costumes of a different type can be met with in the
cosmopolitan crowds in the fora. Occasionally are seen Persians and
Parthians wearing tight-fitting leathern casings around their lower
limbs, like the articles that another day will style “trousers”; and
more frequently are met blond or red-headed Gauls wearing _caracallæ_,
close-fitting garments with long sleeves, slit down in front and
reaching to the knee.[33] Such dresses are, however, exceptional.
Loose shawl-like apparel prevails in Rome just as with nearly all the
classical Mediterranean peoples.
[Illustration: ROMANS WEARING THE TOGA.]
=66. The Toga, the National Latin Garment.=--But Roman tailors have
never been servile imitators of Sparta or Athens. Long before Greek
costumers became familiar visitors by the Tiber, the Latin folk had
found their own national garment--the _toga_. Every true Roman is
proud of the right to wear this distinctive garment, and its use
is prohibited to non-Romans, however princely or wealthy. A group
of ex-slaves has just come from the prætor, where their master has
emancipated them--thereby making them Roman citizens. In a body they
are flocking to the clothiers’ stalls whence they can emerge as
arrogant _togati_--lawful members of the imperial race. An unfortunate
senator has lately been condemned for malfeasance in office and
sentenced to banishment. It is not the least of his penalty that
he must also divest himself of his toga: it can never be worn by a
degraded exile. Clients have to wear this gown _de rigueur_ when they
visit their patrons in the morning--he would feel insulted if they
omitted it.
Anybody also having the least official business at the palace must
wear the toga; and the reigning Hadrian has just issued an edict
commanding all senators and equites to wear the garment on the city
streets at all times except when returning from dinner parties; while
the distinguished rhetorician Titus Castricius has lately delivered a
public lecture,--probably by imperial request, on “the proper costume
for senators walking about Rome,” urging obedience to the law. The toga
in short occupies a place in Roman manners hardly equaled by any other
garment in any other nation.
Nevertheless, many a client or nobleman, as he dons this mantle,
inwardly curses the folly of the men of “the good old times” in
selecting the toga as the national garment. It is very hot, very
clumsy, very hard to drape around one’s self without expert assistance.
Everybody knows the story of old Cincinnatus, how when he was out
plowing and the committee of Senators suddenly appeared to say, “You
are named dictator; make haste to save the imperilled army”, would
not receive them until his wife had run and fetched his toga and he
was suitably clad. In his day, however, the toga was almost the only
garment worn and was hardly more than a small-sized woolen shawl. Now
one always wears a _tunica_ as a house and undergarment, and the
toga has been growing ever larger and more elaborate. Dandies still
wear togas so huge as to justify Cicero’s sneer: “They wrap themselves
in _sails_ not in togas.” But even for decent citizens the
garment is disagreeably complicated. The use thereof is one of the
penalties for the splendid right to boast, “Civis Romanus sum!”
=67. Varieties of Togas.=--The normal toga is always of wool and is
usually of a dull white, the natural color of the wool; but in the
Republican days seekers for election to public office would have their
togas bleached to a conspicuous snowy whiteness, and hence their name,
_Candidati_--“extra-white” men. Boys wear the _toga prætexta_, a toga
with an elaborately embroidered purple hem. When they put this off on
reaching manhood (fourteen to sixteen) they proudly assume the pure
white toga, inwardly hoping, however, that they can some day reappear
in the _prætexta_--for it is also the official robe of the high
“curule” magistrates.
More glorious still is the _toga picta_ entirely of purple and with
gold embroidery, which can be worn by great officials while they are
presiding over public games, and which is used by the Emperors on
all state occasions. Quite different, of course, is the gloomy _toga
pulla_, dyed to some dark color, and worn as mourning or to excite
sympathy in some threatened calamity; _e.g._ if one is the defendant in
a dangerous lawsuit.
=68. Draping the Toga.=--The plain white toga, however, suffices
in most cases for most Romans. Of course, there is a vast difference
between the dirty shawls not without moth holes, which some of Calvus’s
clients have thrown around them the morning we visit his mansion, and
the garment which his special valet, Parmenio, drapes about him when
presently the Senator announces, “I must visit the Forum.”
Parmenio has to be assisted by no less than three other slaves while
he literally winds the soft white mass of fine Milesian wool around
his master. When skillfully draped, the toga appears to be an easy and
elegant garment, leaving the right arm at liberty, and flowing around
the person in noble lines implying dignity and deliberation. Well can
it be called “one of the handsomest dresses ever worn by man”; but who
can tell the pains required to get the huge semi-circular fabric into
shape.[34]
Every fold has to settle with precision; every corner has to trail to
exactly the right length; and the whole has to be so adjusted that
Calvus can walk easily without fear of dislocating his toga, although
it is without brooches or other fastenings. When at last, however, all
is ready, the results justify the effort. Its wearer appears every inch
a Senator: one of the leaders of the arrogant imperial race.
=69. The Tunica.=--The toga has to be worn everywhere in public,
but the instant he is back from the hot Forum, Calvus is more than
glad to fling it off. Indoors he, with all other Romans, wears the
_tunica_. The tunic is a comparatively new garment in Italy. In
early Rome probably the toga was the only clothing worn at all except
a simple undershirt or loin cloth. The tunic in fact resembles closely
the Greek _chiton_,[35] and is made much the same for men and
for women. It is a kind of long shirt fashioned by sewing two pieces
of cloth together, with holes for the arms or with short sleeves, and
secured around the waist by a girdle. Long sleeves (Gallic style) are
not unknown but they are accounted very effeminate. Without the belt
the tunic falls well down to the ankles, but it is easily shortened by
drawing the cloth up through the girdle and letting it tumble around
the waist in a loose fold.
In warm weather the tunic is often the only garment that a Roman wears
indoors. In cold weather he will put a second tunic (or two or three
extra, as did Augustus) under his outer one. Like the toga the tunic is
ordinarily made of white wool, the finer the better, but, unlike the
toga, if the wearer is of the nobility, the tunic is never plain. When
the owner is an eques a narrow strip of purple (_angusticlavia_),
if a senator a broad strip (_laticlavia_), runs down the entire
length of the garment both behind and in front. This is the official
token of his rank, that all men may reverence his nobility, and one of
the chief tasks of a great man’s valets is to hang the toga so that the
purple strips on the tunic will always peep out conspicuously from the
undergarment.
=70. Capes, Cloaks, and Gala Garments.=--The toga and the tunic are
the two standard male garments in peace times, but they do not meet
every requirement. On festival days, unless the imperial edict is very
strictly enforced, most of the younger citizens will be seen streaming
to the theater or circus in the _lacerna_. This, at first, was merely
a short sleeveless mantle of light stuff thrown over the toga to
protect against dust or rain. Presently it was made into a more festive
garment, usually of brilliantly dyed wool, and was substituted for the
toga outright. There is a hood usually attached and it is convenient,
therefore, to wear the lacerna if one is not anxious to be recognized
on the streets; it is so very easy to conceal one’s face.
In bad weather, and with poor country people in general, however, the
_pænula_ is more useful. This is much like the lacerna, a sleeveless
(“Shaker”) cloak or cape, also provided with a hood, but always made
of coarse heavy material. Most travelers wear the pænula, and it is a
common garment for the slaves.
Like the pænula in turn is a third type of swinging cloak, but usually
cut shorter,--the _sagum_, issued to soldiers. Sometimes it is of
rough material for the severest purposes, sometimes it is a truly
elegant garment for officers, floating in bright colors over flashing
armor. The generals wear a special sagum of conspicuous red, the
_paludamentum_. The sagum is, in fact, so decidedly the military cloak
that the phrase “changing the toga for the sagum” has become a regular
way of saying “being suddenly called to arms.”
One can see many Oriental and Greek-style garments in Rome, but
native gentlemen have only one other article of apparel that must
be mentioned. Everybody ought to keep a gauzy and brilliantly dyed
_synthesis_ for indoor wear at formal dinner parties, to wear over
the tunic. It can never be worn outdoors except during the jolly riot
of the Saturnalia, but indoors it is light, comfortable, and a fine
contrast to the heavy togas. Saffron, amethystine, and azure are the
favorite colors, and at ultra-fashionable parties it is good form for
a male guest to rise between courses and put on a new synthesis of a
different hue, held ready by his slaves.
=71. Garments of Women: the _Stola_ and the _Palla_.=--Calvus, of
course, keeps many specimens of all these garments in his wardrobe.
The average poor citizen gets along with a toga, a tunic or two, and
probably a pænula. Gratia’s clothes chests and presses are inevitably
more ample than her husband’s, but the garments of a Roman lady
resemble those of a Greek--they are far more like the masculine
garments than are those of women of a later age. Gratia really seldom
wears any save three kinds of garments: her tunics, her stolæ, and her
pallæ.
Roman ladies anxious about their figures cannot squeeze themselves
with corsets, but sometimes they do wear bands of soft leather pressed
tightly around their bodies. Then comes the tunic, extremely like the
inner tunic worn by the men, but it fits the body rather more closely;
sometimes it has no sleeves, and it falls only to the knee and it needs
no belt. Over this single garment is the essential dress of the Roman
matrona, her _stola_. It is decidedly more elaborate than the outer
tunic of the men. In the main it is not sewn, but is held together by
a whole series of clasps and pins--giving an admirable opportunity for
the display of gem-set buckles. There is a girdle, passing high, above
the waist; the many folds tumble to the feet, but at the very bottom
there is an embroidered flounce or hem, and with noble women at least
this flounce is always of purple as is the border around the neck.
[Illustration: A ROMAN MATRON: showing the
_stola_ and _palla_.]
Like the toga, the stola is an extremely ample garment, giving its
owner a chance to display innumerable graceful folds; and like the
toga, good taste requires that it should usually be of clear white. To
wear the stola is the proud privilege of Roman matrons, and in it no
woman of light character is permitted to flaunt herself.[36] Girls put
on the stola immediately after their marriage, and even more than the
toga it is a garment of grace, permitting beautiful poses of statuesque
dignity.
Outdoors a Roman lady will wrap herself in her _palla_. This is merely
a large shawl, although often with elaborate arrangement. Gratia’s
maids usually throw one third of its length over her left shoulder,
letting the end trail almost to her feet, while the remainder is
carried behind the back and wound skilfully around the wearer, although
if a head covering is needed, one can draw up some of the cloth and
form a loose and convenient hood.
Every woman in Rome possesses a palla; and the wealthy, of course, own
whole arsenals of them in every possible size, weight, material, color,
and embroidery, suitable for all purposes from winter travel to snaring
susceptible youths beside one in the theater.
=72. Materials for Garments. Wool and Silk.=--So much for the types of
garments. Needless to say that their fabrics and details are infinite.
_Wool_ is still the standard material. Even now “in these degenerate
days” the best Roman matrons keep the spindles and distaffs working
with their maids in the peristylia, and make up a large part of all the
coarser garments needed by the household. Calvus takes pride in wearing
and exhibiting a really handsome toga and in telling his friends “my
Gratia made that”; but various other senators can utter like boasts,
their wives merely imitating such empresses as Livia, who wove all
Augustus’s everyday garments.
On the great villa estates the slaves are kept from busy idleness in
winter by weaving cloth, not merely for themselves, but for their
masters’ families in the city. But such fabrics, ordinarily, are
decidedly coarse. There are really fine woolens made in southern Italy,
but the very best comes from the East. “Milesian wool” is a trade name
in every market, though very likely much of it actually is from Tyre,
Sidon, or Alexandria. A good deal of linen is woven up into comfortable
house dresses. Enough cotton comes in from the Orient to make it no
rarity for superior garments, but it is too scarce for any common use.
What every Roman of fashion dotes upon, however, is _silk_.
Far away in the East is a half-mythical land, _Serica_ or _Seres_.
Hardly any European has ever penetrated there,[37] but caravan traders
pass along small parcels of a wonderful material alleged to grow on
trees. Garments made thereof are incomparably lovely; but the material
is worth its full weight in gold or even more. As a result the stuff is
spun up into the flimsiest and gauziest gala dresses imaginable, and
these are often partly made of cotton. Seneca has written in disgust
“We see silken garments, if indeed, they can be called ‘garments’ which
neither afford protection to the body, nor concealment to modesty.”
For all that women like Statilia and her mother will be miserable if
they have not plenty of “Serician tissues” wherewith to float into the
Amphitheater or Circus and dazzle their rivals in a city where, as
complains Juvenal: “Everybody always dresses above his means.”
=73. Styles of Arranging Garments. Fullers and Cleaners.=--With
garments so simple in their sewing as togas and stolas there is little
call in Rome for exclusive tailoring establishments or for fashionable
makers of “gowns.” Practically all purchased clothing, however costly,
is “ready-made,” although the shifting styles in girding, arranging the
folds, buckles, etc., are infinite. For example, there is a special
arrangement of the toga in peculiarly ample folds known as the
“Gabinian cincture,” and this form is practically required every time a
man joins in an important sacrifice.
If, nevertheless, the dressmaker’s skill is simple, there is constant
demand for that of the _cleaner’s_, whose art is brought to great
perfection. The huge squares of fine woolen seem continually going
to or coming from the fullers’ establishments. The fullers pass for
peculiarly jovial, friendly people, and the “jolly fuller” is a stock
character in comedy.
Soap is a Gallic invention and it is just coming into fairly common
use. Garments are still cleansed, however, with “fuller’s meal,” a
kind of alkaline earth. Wherever you go around the humbler parts of
Rome you hear a monotonous song being trolled over and over, and
coming usually from a pungently smelling establishment. It is the
fullers’ _tripudium_ (“three step”), sung as they tread out the
clothes in the great vats all day long. After the direct cleaning, a
fine garment has to be recarded to bring up the soft nap, then it is
carefully smoothed in a large wooden press with powerful screws.[38]
Every household can do its own laundry work, but in no later age will
the “cleaner” reign with the supremacy which he enjoys in Rome. His
justification comes when, at great public assemblies, thousands of
togas and stolas veritably shine under the Italian sun like newly
fallen snow.
=74. Barber Shops. The Revived Wearing of Beards.=--Rome, too, is
a city of barbers. Their shops abound everywhere and are great places
for lounging and gossip. Most men have their hair clipped quite short,
although a good many dandies delight in wearing fringes or rows of
short crisped curls (as did Nero) often reeking with pomatum. People
who dislike appearing old sometimes use black hair dye; and not a few
elderly senators are said to wear wigs.
[Illustration: SCENE BEFORE A BARBER SHOP.]
The barber shops, however, have recently received a terrific blow;
and loud is the lament of the entire profession shared in by all
those private “house barbers” who care for the wealthy. Since not
long after 300 B.C. Romans have been smooth shaven, beards ordinarily
being counted the sign of rusticity or of poverty; although teachers
of philosophy wore long whiskers as a kind of professional badge. The
day when a youth shaved off his first beard was celebrated almost as
elaborately as the day he assumed the pure white “manly” toga. But to
general consternation the reigning Emperor Hadrian, in his passionate
admiration for Periclean Athens, has astonished all Rome by appearing
with a full beard. Of course, every courtier and government official
has loyally imitated him. Of course, every senator and eques has with
equal loyalty done likewise. Feminine protests have been utterly
vain. Beards, sometimes closely trimmed, sometimes long and venerable,
have blossomed on almost every manly chin across the entire Empire.
Imperial Rome will henceforth continue bearded until the era of
Constantine, nearly two hundred years, when the razor will suddenly
resume its sway. Such is the power of Cæsarian example!
[Illustration: ROMAN FEMALE HEADS: showing elaborate
arrangement of the hair.]
=75. FASHIONS IN WOMEN’S HAIRDRESSING. HAIR ORNAMENTS.=--If the
barbers are unhappy, their gentler rivals, the _ornatrices_, who
dress the hair of ladies, still reign in full glory. No Roman girl
dreams of cutting off her hair, but the modes of arranging it are, as
says Ovid, “More numerous than the leaves on the oak or the bees on
Mount Hybla.” Fashions come and go with astonishing rapidity, and we
have seen how Gratia’s statue was devised so that a new coiffure could
be substituted for the old (see p. 53).
As a rule young girls bind back their hair in simple coils or clusters
of curls, but some of the styles permitted to them from the moment
they become matrons defy easy description. The prevailing mode rather
favors building up the hair in an elaborate semi-circular mound in
front with ringlets and plaits behind; but many a lady appears with
a perfect tower-like structure that would collapse instantly were it
not an affair compacted with extreme art. Of course, such edifices put
a premium on false hair, preferably blonde from Germany, or even on
wigs. Auburn hair, however, is extremely fashionable, and many a lady
buys the expensive “Batavian caustic” supposed to bleach to the proper
shade. Even very modest women can rejoice in great treasure chests of
hair ornaments, elaborate hair pins, and combs made of precious metal
or fine boxwood, ivory, and tortoise shell; besides all kinds of snoods
and wimples usually of scarlet, amethystine, or ivory. Noble dames
will keep at least one _diadem_, a long band of golden chains set
with as many pearls and jewels as possible. On simple social occasions
they will wear their hair in a net of gold thread. As for the very
wealthy, they have one simple and favorite method of displaying their
riches--that of bidding their maids, almost every day, to sprinkle the
whole coiffure liberally with pure gold dust.
=76. Elaborate Toilets.=--Needless to say, the toilet is, to ladies
of fashion, a slow and serious business, consuming most of the
morning.[39] Statilia’s mother, for example, who is now old enough to
have to guard her complexion, has as her first duty that of suffering
her maidens to peel off the thick layer of cosmetic paste smeared upon
her face ere retiring. She complains that her husband is stingy because
he will not let her imitate Poppæa (Nero’s Empress), who took a bath in
asses’ milk every morning to improve her looks.
Such a lady, of course, requires two maids to dress her and to pile the
masses of hair upon her head; the pair being supported and directed by
an old freedwoman who “assists at the council,” skilfully improves and
flatters, and who perhaps can do something to assuage the domina’s fury
if the latter’s silver mirror reveals a misplaced curl, and she stabs
the clumsy maid’s arm with a sharp hairpin, or even shrieks out in
wrath “Bring in the whipper!”
Blessed with such “tiers and storys” upon their heads, Roman women
seldom need anything else out-of-doors except a veil or hood in extreme
heat or bad weather. There are no milliners’ shops along the Via
Lata or Vicus Tuscus. The men likewise seldom bother about hats, and
everybody on normal days goes about town bareheaded, although travelers
have the hoods upon their pænulas. Workingmen, however, who are
continually exposed to the weather, wear small conical felt hats--the
pilei; and travelers who find hoods irksome can keep off the sun by a
comfortable broad-brimmed hat, the _petasus_.
=77. Sandals and Shoes.=--Shoes, however, are more necessary and
nobody but a slave goes barefooted around the streets. In the house
nevertheless it is sufficient to wear very light and simple sandals,
mere leather soles fastened to the foot with thongs; and even these are
laid aside when you stretch out on the couch for meals. To “call for
your sandals” is the same thing as “leaving the table.”
[Illustration: SANDALS.]
Outdoors one often puts on the _calceus_, which is practically
like the shoe of other ages, although fastened not so much by lacings
as by a complicated system of straps. Women’s shoes are much like
men’s, although inevitably lighter and more often made of brightly
colored leathers. High magistrates are proud to wear red “Patrician
shoes” with an extra elaborate scheme of bands and an ivory ornament
“C” conspicuous upon the outside of the ankle.[40] Ordinary senators
wear red shoes without the “C”; and equites a kind of tall boot
recalling the days when to be an eques really implied being a horseman.
Soldiers naturally clatter about in hob-nailed _caligæ_, ponderous
sandals with such heavy straps and thongs that they become practically
marching boots. As for stockings, they are all but unknown in Rome.
=78. The Mania for Jewels and Rings.=--But what dandy and what
fashionable woman is content to appear merely with the standard
quantity of clothing? The mania for jewelry is inordinate. Teachers of
oratory have to warn their pupils as did the great Quintilian that “the
hand [of a good public speaker] should not be covered with rings, and
especially these should not be set below the middle joint.” Exquisites
of both sexes, in fact, often wear half a dozen rings at once; all with
as fine jewels as possible, and with a separate “light” set of rings
for summer, and a “heavy” set for winter.
[Illustration: ROMAN JEWELRY AND ORNAMENTS.]
The jewelry work is, of course, exquisite. In the best shops by
the Campus Martius can be seen rings of magnificent chasing and
carving, set with onyx, sard, banded agate, amethyst, ruby, and
sapphire,[41]--some plain, some engraved, and all of a beauty which
any later age can envy. Inevitably there are pendants, coronets, and
innumerable brooches, and buckles every whit as fine.
In addition, every Roman of equestrian or senatorial rank will wear
with pride one perfectly _plain_ gold ring (like a later wedding
ring) as the token of his own nobility, and as the memorial of a time
when a simple gold ring was the sign of real wealth. Every person of
consequence also will wear a special signet ring, often an intaglio cut
with some mythological character. The impression of this frequently
takes the place of a personal signature, and the illicit use of such a
ring constitutes the gravest kind of forgery.
=79. Pearls in Enormous Favor.=--Time fails to speak of the beautiful
cameos, intaglios, engraved medals, and huge engraved gems which are
the triumphs of the lapidaries, and which many rich connoisseurs put
in their collections; but one must not omit certain precious objects
which Romans seem to prize above all others: _pearls_. The more pearls
apparently that the fashionable can spangle upon shoes, dress, fingers,
and (for women) upon the hair, the better. The great jewelers will say
that they sell more pearls than all the ordinary gems put together.
The imperial councilors protest in vain at the ceaseless export of gold
to India to pay for the unprofitable imports of pearls from Taprobane
(Ceylon), but the mania for such gems continues. People still tell
how Julius Cæsar gave to Servilia, the mother of Marcus Brutus, a
single weight pearl worth six million sesterces ($240,000); or how
the inordinately rich Lollia Paulina, one of Caligula’s overnumerous
wives, appeared at a dinner party, with great pearls spangled over
her unlovely person worth all together every whit of forty million
sesterces ($1,600,000).[42] There are no such tantalizing collections
as hers now in Rome, but many a lady of modest means has in her coffers
a few pearls large and beautiful; and the cynics declare that in a
crowd “the sight of a big pearl in a woman’s ear is better than a
lictor to clear the way for her.”
=80. Perfumes: Their Constant Use.=--Nevertheless, something else is
needful for a fine toilet beyond clothes, rings, and pearls, namely,
perfumes. The old-line Italians were a coarse and hardy folk; and
later the Orientals, whom slavery or self-interest has brought into
Italy, have a truly barbaric love for powerful odors. Even modest
women, therefore, of reputed good taste like Gratia, will appear in
public charged with scents which another generation would find highly
unwelcome.
There is no alcohol in which to carry perfumery. The odorous substances
have to be dissolved in olive oil, making them at best greasy and
liable to grow flat and obnoxious after a little exposure. But
perfumery is practically indispensable. Men use it hardly less than do
women. At fine banquets vials of perfumery are passed among the guests
to pour over their heads and hands. The foppish youths who wave the
hair on their heads, and render the rest of their bodies sleek and
shiny with depilatories, simply reek with strong perfumery.
On almost every important street you can find the little shops, usually
kept by women, where are sold scented powders, fragrant oils for
bathers, and the precious bottles of gold, silver, glass, and alabaster
for the unguents, as well as the standard perfumes themselves.
Profitless it is to catalogue these last; Pliny the Elder has listed
twenty-one standard varieties mostly named after favorite flowers
(_e.g._ narcissus) or Oriental spices (cinnamon, etc.).[43] Every
funeral demands its supply of myrrh; every sacrifice a quantity of
Arabian frankincense. The perfume trade with the East is an important
factor in Roman commerce, but very many of the popular unguents are
compounded in Italy. The great city of Capua in Campania grows rich
by the industry;[44] and the “perfumery interest” is one of the prime
business elements in the economic life of the Empire. So much for the
garments and ornaments which typical Romans put upon their persons. It
is now right to ask concerning a more important matter still--what do
they have for dinner?