The Private Life of the RomansJohnston, Harold Whetstone
History
The Private Life of the Romans
Johnston, Harold Whetstone
Rome -- Social life and customs
§268. Dress of Children and Slaves.--The picture from Herculaneum
(§119) shows that schoolboys wore the _subligāculum_ and _tunica_, and
it is probable that no other articles of clothing were worn by either
boys or girls of the poorer classes. Besides these, children of
well-to-do parents wore the _toga praetexta_ (§246), which the girl
laid aside on the eve of her marriage (§76) and the boy when he
reached the age of manhood (§127). Slaves were furnished a tunic,
wooden shoes, and in stormy weather a cloak, probably the _paenula_
(§248). This must have been the ordinary garb of the poorer citizens
of the working classes, for they would have had little use for the
toga, at least in later times, and could hardly have afforded so
expensive a garment.
§269. Materials.--Fabrics of wool, linen, cotton, and silk were used
by the Romans. For clothes woolen goods were the first to be used, and
naturally so, for the early inhabitants of Latium were shepherds, and
woolen garments best suited the climate. Under the Republic wool was
almost exclusively used for the garments of both men and women, as we
have seen, though the _subligāculum_ was frequently, and the woman's
tunic sometimes, made of linen. The best native wools came from
Calabria and Apulia, that from near Tarentum being the best of all.
Native wools did not suffice, however, to meet the great demand, and
large quantities were imported. Linen goods were early manufactured in
Italy, but were used chiefly for other purposes than clothing until in
the Empire, and only in the third century of our era did men begin to
make general use of them. The finest linen came from Egypt, and was as
soft and transparent as silk. Little is positively known about the use
of cotton, because the word _carbasus_, the genuine Indian name for
it, was used by the Romans for linen goods also and when we meet the
word we can not always be sure of the material meant. Silk, imported
from China directly or indirectly, was first used for garments under
Tiberius, and then only in a mixture of linen and silk (_vestēs
sēricae_). These were forbidden for the use of men in his reign, but
the law was powerless against the love of luxury. Garments of pure
silk were first used in the third century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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