[Illustration: FIG. 137.--STATUE OF SOPHOKLES WEARING THE _Himation_.]
For men there was also a tunic similar to that worn by the Greeks;
but in place of the himation the Roman _toga_ was worn, a garment of
entirely different shape. In the relief of a cutler's shop, which
is exhibited in Case 41, the shopman wears the tunic without a belt,
while the customer, who has just come in from the street, wears the
toga as well (fig. 193). In that of the forge, in Case 48, both the
smiths have the tunic alone, with but the right shoulders unfastened
and the skirts girt up to the knee in Greek fashion (fig. 192; compare
fig. 135). Yet the Roman tunic seems already to have departed from the
Greek pattern in having sleeves, though only to the elbows. Sleeved
tunics were not unknown to the Greeks, whose slaves are often
represented in this dress; but it was a foreign habit, and as such
avoided.
[Illustration: FIG. 138.--A HORSEMAN WEARING THE _Chlamys_.]
[Illustration: FIG. 139.--DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING THE SHAPE OF THE TOGA.]
The shape of the toga was roughly semicircular, the straight edge
being about six yards long and the width in the middle about two
yards, as in the diagram (fig. 139). The simplest mode of putting it
on was to place one end on the left shoulder, with the straight edge
nearest the centre of the body and the point almost touching the
ground. The left hand would be just covered by the curved edge. The
rest was then passed behind the back, over or under the right arm,
and over the left shoulder again, so that the point hung almost to the
ground behind. This was also a method of wearing the Greek himation,
and it is difficult to distinguish the two garments when so arranged;
but a close examination will discover the sharp point and the curved
edge in the case of the toga. At the end of the Republic and under the
Empire, to which period most of the monuments belong, more elaborate
fashions were developed, as in fig. 140, from a statuette in the
Bronze Room.
We turn to the accessories of the dress and the toilet in Table Case
F.
[Illustration: FIG. 140.--BRONZE STATUETTE OF A ROMAN WEARING TUNIC
AND TOGA. 1:2.]
=Greek and Roman Footwear.=--The general distinction was that the
Greeks wore both sandals, and also boots or shoes. The Romans wore the
boot, the _calceus_, but disapproved of the sandal. Part of Cicero's
charge against Verres was that he wore sandals, as well as other Greek
dress.
The objects shown in Case F are either actual shoes and sandals
or representations of them from works of art, such as fragments of
statues; or applications of the device of a foot to the decoration of
such things as vases, lamps, tripod-feet, etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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