In the early days of Rome the use of a _tunica dalmatica_ stamped the wearer with the stigma of effeminacy and utter want of self-respect. The parents of Cornelius Scipio and of Fabius are said to have openly disgraced them in their boyhood, as a punishment _ad corrigendos mores_, by compelling them to appear in public in this attire. The despicable emperors Commodus and Elagabalus offended all persons of good taste by coming out before all the people in the same costume: the latter impudently calling himself another Scipio or Fabius, in reference to the incident just related.[22] This, however, cannot mean that the scandal lay in the adoption of the luxurious _tunica dalmatica_ in preference to the _colobium_ (for Rome in the time of Elagabalus was too deeply steeped in luxury and vice to feel shocked at an Emperor merely preferring an under-garment with sleeves to one without those appendages); it rather consisted in his neglecting to put on his _pallium_, or outer dress, over it. In fact, the _tunica dalmatica_ must have quite ousted its severer rival in popular favour by the time of Elagabalus: for we find that in 258, only thirty-six years after the death of that emperor, St Cyprian of Carthage wore a _tunica dalmatica_, over which was a _byrrhus_, or cloak, when led out to martyrdom.[23] It is absurd to suppose that Cyprian, on such a solemn occasion, would have assumed a merely luxurious garment, and equally absurd to imagine that he would have worn ecclesiastical vestments at the time, as some commentators on the passage have held. There remains only one other alternative—that the _tunica dalmatica_ was the form of tunic which was in regular use at the time, and this seems quite the most satisfactory hypothesis. The most important mention of the _tunica dalmatica_ in connection with ecclesiastical matters is in the decree of Sylvester, Bishop of Rome, 253-257. That prelate ordained 'that deacons should use the _dalmatica_ in the church, and that their left hands should be covered with a cloth of mingled wool and linen.'[24] Various authors supplement this passage; thus, the anonymous author of the tract 'De Divinis Officiis,' formerly attributed to Alcuin, tells us that 'the use of _dalmaticae_ was instituted by Pope Sylvester, for previously _colobia_ had been worn.'[25]