The Roman toga corresponded to the Greek peplum, but differed from it in shape, and was more ample, for while the peplum was square, or rather oblong, the toga assumed the form of two semicircles--a larger and a smaller one, or, more correctly speaking, a semicircle and the smaller segment of a circle, which was doubled over the semicircle before adjustment. One end of the toga was then placed upon the left shoulder in such a position that the end or point just touched the ground, the rest of the garment drawn round the back of the figure, underneath the right arm, and flung again over the left shoulder; a sort of loop or bag was then drawn out at the waist in front and served as a pocket. The toga measured 18 feet from tip to tip, or three times the height of a man. It was worn always over the tunic--at any rate during the later Roman time. Horace, in his fourth Epode, thus satirises an upstart:-- "Mark, as along the Sacred Way thou flauntest, Puffing thy toga, twice three cubits wide." [Illustration: THE TOGA. _From Hope's "Costume of the Ancients."_] The material of the toga was wool, in the earlier time and for the common people; afterwards silk and other materials were used, coloured or bordered according to the rank or station of the wearer. The mantle--that is, the simple square or oblong cloak which was derived from the Greek peplum--was worn in different ways from the Roman period onwards, either thrown loosely over the shoulders as was the peplum, or fastened at the shoulder or breast by means of fibulæ, rings, or cords. In a bas-relief found at Autun and engraved in Montfaucon, an archdruid is represented with a long mantle reaching to the ground, the ends drawn through a ring upon the left shoulder. The large coronation mantle of the Holy Roman Empire, preserved in the Imperial Treasury at Vienna, is semicircular in shape, of red silk, richly embroidered in gold thread, the outlines emphasised by rows of seed pearls. The design, which is divided in the middle by a representation of a palm tree, figures on either side a lion springing upon a camel, and is treated with that noble convention characteristic of early Sicilian design. On the border of the curved edge is worked an Arabic inscription (common in earlier Sicilian fabrics), stating that the robe was worked in the Royal factory at Palermo in 1134. One of the gifts which the five maidens present to Beryn from Duke Isope is a purple mantle-- "The thirde had a mantell of lusty fressh coloure The uttir part of purpell i-furred with peloure." _The Tale of Beryn._ The mantle was a distinguishing feature of the costume of the Franks, which was a variation of Roman or classic dress, _i.e._, the loose tunic and mantle, with the addition of hose or leg covering with cross gartering; both tunic and mantle were often elaborately bordered in a style of ornament which strongly betrayed, in fact, was a development of, Byzantine influences.