Clothing in ancient Rome

Statue of the Emperor Tiberius showing the draped toga of the 1st century AD.

Clothing in ancient Rome generally comprised the toga, the tunic, the stola, brooches for these, and breeches.

The act of putting on outer garments such as the toga or pallium was described as amicire, which led to any individual outer garment sometimes being identified as an amictus without it being thought necessary to specify which outer garment was referred to.^[1] The equivalent term for the donning of undergarments, such as the tunica, was induere (indutus).^[1]

Rank and status

Citizens and non-citizens

Silenus holding a lyre (left); demi-god Pan and a nymph sitting on a rock, nursing a goat (centre); woman with coat (right); fresco from the Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, Italy, c. 50 BC

Rome was a patriarchy, broadly divided into three ranks of citizenship. A small number of extremely wealthy, landowning aristocrats occupied most seats in the Senate, competed among themselves for election to the state's most prestigious civil offices, and monopolised the highest military and religious offices. The more numerous equites ("knights") were less wealthy but were socially mobile. Citizen-commoners were by far the most numerous group, but held limited political powers unless voting en masse.

Only male citizens were entitled to vote. Women of good reputation and family were citizens, but could not vote, or stand for public office. Some women were politically and socially influential nevertheless, overtly or "behind the scenes".

Freedmen and foreigners ranked below citizens. Slaves occupied the lowest position of all. In law, they were chattel; however, they could buy their freedom, or be granted it by their master, and thus become freedmen. In Roman tradition and law, an individual's place in this hierarchy - or outside it - should be immediately evident in their clothing.^[2] Any individual's apparent qualification as citizen could be subjected to official scrutiny.

Togas

The Orator, c. 100 BC, an Etrusco-Roman bronze sculpture depicting Aule Metele (Latin: Aulus Metellus), an Etruscan man of Roman senatorial rank, engaging in rhetoric. He wears senatorial shoes, and a toga praetexta of "skimpy" (exigua) Republican type.^[3] The statue features an inscription in the Etruscan alphabet

Romans referred to themselves as the gens togata ("togate race"), and claimed descent from a tough, virile, intrinsically noble peasantry of hard-working, toga-wearing men and women. The toga's origins are uncertain; it may have begun as a simple, practical work-garment and blanket for peasants and herdsmen. It eventually became formal wear for male citizens; at much the same time, respectable female citizens adopted the stola. Respectable citizens could thus be distinguished from freedmen, foreigners, slaves and infamous persons.

The basic, unadorned toga virilis ("toga of manhood") was a semi-elliptical, white woolen cloth some 6 feet in width and 12 feet in length, draped across the shoulders and around the body, over a plain white linen tunic. A commoner's toga virilis was a naturally off-white; the senatorial version was more voluminous, and brighter. The toga praetexta of curule magistrates and some priesthoods added a wide purple edging, and was worn over a tunic with two vertical purple stripes. It was also worn by some youths, and represented their protection under civil and divine law. Equites wore the trabea (a shorter, "equestrian" form of white toga or a purple-red wrap, or both) over a white tunic with two narrow vertical purple-red stripes. The toga pulla, used for mourning, was made of dark wool. The rare, prestigious toga picta and tunica palmata were entirely purple, save for their gold embroidery; they were originally awarded to Roman generals for the day of their triumph, and later worn by emperors and Imperial consuls.

From at least the late Republic onward, the toga became increasingly unsuited to manual work or physically active leisure. It was heavy, hot and sweaty, hard to keep clean, costly to launder and challenging to wear. A toga worn "correctly" constrained both posture and gait; it was best suited to stately processions, oratory, sitting in the theatre or circus, and displaying oneself before one's peers and inferiors while "ostentatiously doing nothing".^[4] The vast majority of citizens had to work for a living, and avoided wearing it whenever possible.^[5] Several emperors tried to compel its use as the dress of true Romanitas but none were particularly successful; by the late 1st century AD, Tacitus could disparage the urban commons as a vulgus tunicatus ("tunic crowd".^[6] The aristocracy clung to the toga as a mark of their prestige, but eventually abandoned it in favour of the more comfortable and practical pallium.

Patrons and clients

Patrons offered sponsorship in business and politics to those of lesser rank or wealth (clients), in return for political support and other favours, such as investment in business. Clients attended their patron en masse in formal, early-morning "greeting sessions" (salutationes). A client who dressed well and correctly showed respect for himself and his patron, and might stand out among the crowd. A canny patron might equip his entire family, freedmen, even his slaves, with elegant, costly and impractical clothing, to imply a condition of "honorific leisure" (otium), buoyed by limitless wealth.^[7]

For citizens, salutationes meant wearing the toga appropriate to their rank.^[8] For freedmen, it meant whatever dress disclosed their status and wealth; a man should be what he seemed, and low rank was no bar to making money. Freedmen became clients of their former master. Notwithstanding the commonplace snobbery and mockery of their social superiors, some freedmen and freedwomen were highly cultured and well-connected. Those with an aptitude for business could amass a fortune; and many did. They could function as patrons, own grand town-houses, and "dress to impress".^[9][10]

Women's clothing

Roman marble torso from the 1st century AD, showing a woman's clothing

Besides tunics, married citizen women wore a simple garment known as a stola (pl. stolae) which was associated with traditional Roman female virtues^[11] and usually followed the fashions of their Greek contemporaries. Stolae typically comprised two rectangular segments of cloth joined at the side by fibulae and buttons in a manner allowing the garment to drape freely over the front of the wearer.

Over the stola, women often wore the palla, a sort of shawl up to 11 feet long, and five wide. It could be worn as a coat, or draped over the left shoulder, under the right arm, and then over the left arm. No respectable woman went bareheaded in public, so the palla could also serve as a hooded cloak.^[12][13] In contrast, high-class female prostitutes (meretrices) appearing in public were expected to wear the toga, to mark their "infamous" status and reputation.^[14]

Children's clothing

Roman infants were usually swaddled. Apart from those few, typically formal garments reserved for adults, most children wore a scaled-down version of what their parents wore. Girls often wore a long tunic that reached the foot or instep, belted at the waist and very simply decorated, most often white. Outdoors, they might wear another tunic over it. Boy's tunics were shorter. Among the freeborn, the toga praetexta was formally worn by children of both sexes until boys put on the toga virilis at puberty, dedicating their toga praetexta to the household lares, and girls were of a marriageable age, when they would discard the toga praetexta.^[15]

Undergarments (indutus)

The basic garment for both sexes and all classes was the tunica (tunic), often worn beneath one or more additional layers. In its simplest form, the tunic was a single rectangle of fabric, originally woolen, but from the mid-republic onward, increasingly woven from more comfortable linen. It was sewn into a sleeveless tubular shape and pinned around the shoulders like a Greek chiton. Sleeves could be added. Most working men wore knee-length, short-sleeved tunics, secured at the waist with a belt. Some traditionalists considered long sleeved tunics appropriate only for women, very long tunics a sign of effeminacy in men, and short or unbelted tunics as marks of servility. Women's tunics were usually ankle or foot-length, long-sleeved, and could be worn loosely or belted.^[16] Though essentially simple in basic design, tunics could also be luxurious in their fabric, colours and detailing.^[17] Women might also wear a strophium or breast cloth. Garments to cover the loins, known as subligacula or subligaria, might also be worn.

Footwear

Left image: The goddess Diana hunting in the forest with a bow, and wearing the high-laced open "Hellenistic shoe-boots" associated with deities, and some images of very high status Romans. From a fresco in the Via Livenza Hypogeum, Rome, c. 350 AD
Right image: Detail of the "Big Game Hunt" mosaic from the Villa Romana del Casale (4th century AD), Roman Sicily, showing hunters shod in calceii, wearing vari-coloured tunics and protective leggings

Romans used a wide variety of practical and decorative footwear, all of which were flat soled (without heels). Outdoor shoes could be hobnailed for grip and durability.^[18] The commonest were a one-piece shoe (carbatina), sometimes with semi-openwork uppers: a usually thin-soled sandal (solea), secured with thongs: a laced, soft half-shoe (soccus): a usually hobnailed, thick-soled walking shoe (calcea): and a heavy-duty, hobnailed standard-issue military marching boot (caliga). Thick-soled wooden clogs, with leather uppers, were available for use in wet weather, and by rustics and field-slaves^[19]

Shoemakers employed sophisticated strapwork and delicate cutting to create intricate decorative patterns. Indoors, most reasonably well-off Romans of both sexes wore slippers or light shoes of felt or leather.^[19] Brides on their wedding-day may have worn distinctively orange-coloured light soft shoes or slippers (lutei socci).^[20]

Public protocol required red ankle boots for senators, and shoes with crescent-shaped buckles for equites, though some wore Greek-style sandals to "go with the crowd". ^[21][22] Cato the younger, an arch-traditionalist, showed his impeccable Republican morality by going publicly barefoot. Many images of the Roman gods, and later, statues of the semi-divine Augustus, were unshod. Rustics and the urban poor might have gone unshod through poverty, rather than choice.^[23][24]

Fashions in footwear reflected changes in social conditions. For example, during the unstable middle Imperial era, the military was overtly favoured as the true basis for power; at around this time, a so-called "Gallic sandal" - up to 4 inches broad at the toe - developed as outdoor wear for men and boys, reminiscent of the military boot. Meanwhile, outdoor footwear for women, young girls and children remained elegantly pointed at the toe.^[19]

Military costume

Levy of the army during the taking of the Roman census, detail from the marble-sculpted Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, 122-115 BC, showing two Polybian-era soldiers (pedites) wearing chain mail and wielding a gladius and scutum, opposite an aristocratic cavalryman (eques)

Marble statue of Mars from the Forum of Nerva, wearing a plumed Corinthian helmet and muscle cuirass, 2nd century AD

For the most part, common soldiers seem to have dressed in belted, knee-length tunics for work or leisure. In the northern provinces, the traditionally short sleeved tunic might be replaced by a warmer, long-sleeved version. Soldiers on active duty wore short trousers under a military kilt, sometimes with a leather jerkin or felt padding to cushion their armour, and a triangular scarf tucked in at the neck.^[25] For added protection from wind and weather, they could wear the sagum, a heavy-duty cloak also worn by civilians. When not on active duty, citizen-soldiers wore togas for formal occasions. Cicero's "sagum-wearing" soldiers versus "toga-wearing" civilians are rhetorical and literary trope, referring to military and civil power.^[26][27] When on duty in the city, the Praetorian guard concealed their weapons beneath their white "civilian" togas.^[28]

The sagum distinguished common soldiers from the highest ranking commanders, who wore the paludamentum, a purple-red cloak larger than the sagum.^[29] The colour of the ranker's sagum is uncertain.^[30] Roman military clothing was probably less uniform and more adaptive to local conditions and supplies than is suggested by its idealised depictions in contemporary literature, statuary and monuments.^[31] In Mediterranean climates, soldiers typically wore hobnailed "open boots" (caligae). In colder and wetter climates, an enclosing "shoeboot" was preferred.^[32] Some of the Vindolanda tablets mention the despatch of clothing - including cloaks, socks, and warm underwear - by families to their relatives, serving at Brittania's northern frontier.^[33]

During the early and middle Republican era, conscripted soldiers and their officers were expected to provide or pay for all their personal equipment. From the late republic onwards, they were salaried professionals, and bought their own clothing from legionary stores, quartermasters or civilian contractors. Military needs were prioritised. Clothing was expensive to start with, and the military demand was high; this inevitably pushed up prices, and a common soldier's clothing expenses could be more than a third of his annual pay. In the rampant inflation of the later Imperial era, as currency and salaries were devalued, deductions from military salaries for clothing and other staples were replaced by payments in kind, leaving common soldiers adequately clothed but with little cash for their dependents, or eventual retirement.^[34]

Religious offices and ceremonies

The Vestal Virgins tended Rome's sacred fire, in Vesta's temple, and prepared various sacrificial materials employed by different cults of the Roman state. Their presence was required at various religious and civil rites and ceremonies. They were highly respected, and possessed unique rights and privileges; their persons were sacred and inviolate. Their costume was predominantly white, woolen, and had elements in common with high-status Roman bridal dress. They wore a white, priestly infula, a white suffibulum (veil) and a white palla, with red ribbons to symbolise their devotion to Vesta's sacred fire, and white ribbons as a mark of their purity.^[35]

Roman statue of a Virgo Vestalis Maxima (Senior Vestal)

Most priesthoods were reserved to high status, male Roman citizens, usually magistrates or ex-magistrates. Most traditional religious rites required that the toga praetexta be worn respectfully capite velato (head covered [by a fold of the toga]) when performing augury, reciting prayers or supervising at sacrifices.^[36] Where a rite prescribed the free use of both arms, the priest could employ the cinctus Gabinus ("Gabine cinch") to tie back the toga's inconvenient folds.^[37]

Statue of a Gallus priest, 2nd century, Musei Capitolini.

The Flamen priesthood, dedicated to various deities of the Roman state, wore the laena, a long, semi-circular "flame-coloured" cloak fastened at the shoulder with a brooch or fibula; and a close-fitting, rounded cap (Apex) topped with a spike of olive-wood. Their senior, the Flamen dialis, was the high priest of Jupiter, and was married to the Flamenica dialis. He was not allowed to divorce, leave the city, ride a horse, touch iron, or see a corpse. The laena was thought to predate the toga.^[38]

Rome recruited many non-native deities, cults and priesthoods as protectors and allies of the state. Aesculapius, Apollo, Ceres and Proserpina were worshiped using the so-called "Greek rite", which employed Greek priestly dress, or a Romanised version of it. The priest presided in Greek fashion, with his head bare or wreathed.^[39]

In 204 BC, the Galli priesthood were brought to Rome from Phrygia, to serve the "Trojan" Mother Goddess Cybele and her consort Attis on behalf of the Roman state. They were legally protected but flamboyantly "un-Roman". They were eunuchs, and told fortunes for money; their public rites were wild, frenzied and bloody, and their priestly garb was "womanly". They wore long, flowing robes of yellow silk, extravagant jewellery, perfume and make-up, and turbans or exotic versions of the "phrygian" hat over long, bleached hair.^[40][41]

Roman clothing of Late Antiquity (after 284 AD)

Roman fashions underwent very gradual change from the late Republic to the end of the Western empire, 600 years later.^[42] In the later empire after Diocletian's reforms, clothing worn by soldiers and non-military government bureaucrats became highly decorated, with woven or embellished strips, clavi, and circular roundels, orbiculi, added to tunics and cloaks. These decorative elements usually comprised geometrical patterns and stylised plant motifs, but could include human or animal figures.^[43] The use of silk also increased steadily and most courtiers in late antiquity wore elaborate silk robes. Heavy military-style belts were worn by bureaucrats as well as soldiers, revealing the general militarization of late Roman government. Trousers — considered barbarous garments worn by Germans and Persians — achieved only limited popularity in the latter days of the empire, and were regarded by conservatives as a sign of cultural decay.^[44] In early medieval Europe, kings and aristocrats dressed like late Roman generals, not like the older toga-clad senatorial tradition.^[45]

Fabrics

An elaborately-designed golden fibula (brooch) with the Latin inscription "VTERE FELIX" ("use this with luck"), late 3rd century AD, from the Osztropataka Vandal burial site

Animal fibres

Wool

Wool was the most commonly used fibre in Roman clothing. The sheep of Tarentum were renowned for the quality of their wool, although the Romans never ceased trying to optimise the quality of wool through cross-breeding. For most garments, white wool was preferred; it could then be further bleached, or dyed. Naturally dark wool was used for the toga pulla and work garments subjected to dirt and stains.^[46]

The carding, combing, spinning and weaving of wool were part of daily housekeeping for most women. Those of middling or low income could supplement their personal or family income by spinning and selling yarn, or by weaving fabric for sale. In traditionalist, wealthy households, the family's wool-baskets, spindles and looms were positioned in the semi-public reception area (atrium), where the mater familias and her familia could thus demonstrate their industry and frugality; a largely symbolic and moral activity, rather than practical necessity.^[47] Augustus was particularly proud that his wife and daughter had set the best possible example to other Roman women by spinning and weaving his clothing.^[48] High-caste brides were expected to make their own wedding garments, using a traditional vertical loom.^[49]

Ready-made clothing was available for all classes, at a price; the cost of a new cloak for an ordinary commoner might represent three fifths of their annual subsistence. Clothing was recycled down the social scale, until it fell to rags. Centonarii ("patch-workers") made a living by sewing clothing and other items from recycled fabric patches.^[50] Self-sufficiency in clothing paid off. Owners of slave-run farms and sheep-flocks were advised that whenever the opportunity arose, female slaves should be fully occupied in the production of homespun cloth; this would likely be good enough for clothing the better class of slave or supervisor.^[51]

Most fabrics were woven on vertical looms, as closely as possible to their intended final shape, and with minimal cutting and sewing thereafter. Once a woven piece of fabric was removed from the loom, its loose end-threads could be tied off, and left as a decorative fringe, or used to add differently coloured "Etruscan style" borders, as in the purple-red border of the toga praetexta, and the vertical coloured stripe of some tunics;^[52] a technique known as "tablet weaving".^[53] Weaving on an upright, hand-powered loom was a slow process. The earliest evidence for the transition from vertical to more efficient horizontal, foot-powered looms comes from Egypt, around 298 AD.^[54] Even then, the lack of mechanical aids in spinning made yarn production a major bottleneck in the manufacture of cloth.

Most fabric and clothing was produced by professionals whose trades, standards and specialities were protected by guilds; these in turn were recognised and regulated by local authorities.^[55] In the provinces, private landowners and the State held large tracts of grazing land, where large numbers of sheep were raised and sheared. Their wool was processed and woven in dedicated manufactories. Britannia was noted for its woolen products, which included a kind of duffel coat (the Birrus Brittanicus), fine carpets, and felt linings for army helmets.^[56]

Silk

A maenad wearing a silk gown, a Roman fresco from the Casa del Naviglio in Pompeii, 1st century AD

Silk and cotton were imported, from China and India respectively. Silk was rare and expensive; a luxury afforded only to the rich.

Wild silk, that is, cocoons collected from the wild after the insect had eaten its way out, was also known.^[57] Wild silk, being of smaller lengths, had to be spun. A rare luxury cloth with a beautiful golden sheen, known as sea silk, was made from the long silky filaments or byssus produced by Pinna nobilis, a large Mediterranean clam.^[58]

Plant fibres

Linen

Pliny the Elder describes the production of linen from flax and hemp. After harvesting, the plant stems were retted to loosen the outer layers and internal fibres, stripped, pounded and then smoothed. Following this, the materials were woven. Flax, like wool, came in various speciality grades and qualities. In Pliny's opinion, the whitest (and best) was imported from Spanish Saetabis; at double the price, the strongest and most long-lasting was from Retovium. The whitest and softest was produced in Latium, Falerii and Paelignium. Natural linen was a "greyish brown" that faded to off-white through repeated laundering and exposure to sunlight. It did not readily absorb the dyes in use at the time, and was generally bleached, or used in its raw, undyed state.^[59]

Other plant fibres

High quality fabrics were also woven from nettle; poppy-stem fibre was sometimes interwoven with flax, to produce a glossy smooth, lightweight and luxuriant fabric. Preparation techniques were much the same as those for linen.^[60]

Colours and dyes

Workers hanging up clothing to dry, wall painting from a fuller's shop (fullonica) at Pompeii

From Rome's earliest days, a wide variety of colours and coloured fabrics would have been available to those who could afford them; in Roman tradition, the first association of professional dyers dated back to the days of King Numa. Dyers would certainly have had access to the same locally produced, usually plant-based dyes as their neighbours, producing various shades of red, yellow, blue, green, and brown; blacks could be achieved using iron salts and oak gall. Other dyes, or dyed cloths, could have been obtained by trade, or through experimentation. For the very few who could afford it, cloth-of-gold (lamé) was almost certainly available, possibly as early as the 7th century BC.^[61]

Throughout the Regal, Republican and Imperial eras, the fastest, most expensive and sought-after dye was imported Tyrian purple, obtained from the murex. Its hues were variable, the most desirable being a dark "dried-blood" red.^[62] Purple was thought to sanctify and protect those who wore it, and was officially reserved for the border of the toga praetexta, and for the solid purple toga picta. Edicts against its wider use were not particularly successful; it was also used by wealthy women and, somewhat more disreputably, by some men.^[63][64] Counterfeit versions of tyrian purple were available.^[65]

For red hues, madder was one of the cheapest dyes available. Saffron yellow was much admired, but costly. It was a deep, bright and fiery yellow-orange, and was associated with purity and constancy. It was used for the flammeum (meaning "flame-coloured"), a veil used by Roman brides and the Flamenica Dialis, who was virgin at marriage and forbidden to divorce.^[66]

Specific colours were associated with chariot-racing teams and their supporters. The oldest of these were the Reds and the Whites. During the later Imperial era, the Blues and Greens dominated chariot-racing and, up to a point, civil life in Rome and Constantinople. Though the teams and their supporters had official recognition, their rivalry sometimes spilled into civil violence and riot, both within and beyond the circus venue.^[67]

Laundering and fulling

The so-called "Togatus Barberini", a statue depicting a Roman senator holding the imagines (effigies) of deceased ancestors in his hands; marble, late 1st century BC; head (not belonging): mid 1st century BC.

The almost universal habit of public bathing ensured that most Romans kept their bodies clean, reducing the need for frequent washing of garments and bedsheets. Nevertheless, dirt, spillage and staining were constant hazards, and most Romans lived in apartment blocks that lacked facilities for washing clothes on any but the smallest scale. Professional laundries (fullonicae, singular fullonica) relied on various "earths" and extremely pungent materials, which included human urine - preferably well-aged to increase its ammonia content - and sulphur. Laundries were highly malodorous but essential and commonplace features of every city and town. New cloth and clothing may also have been laundered; the process would have partially felted and strengthened woolen fabrics. Small fulling enterprises could be found at local market-places; others operated on an industrial scale, and would have required a considerable investment of money and manpower, especially slaves. Front of house, fullonicae were run by enterprising citizens of lower social class, or by freedmen and freedwomen; behind the scenes, their enterprise might be discretely supported by a rich or elite patron, in return for a share of the profits.^[68]

Basic laundering and fulling techniques were simple, and labour-intensive. Garments were placed in large tubs containing aged urine, then well trodden by bare-footed workers. They were well-rinsed, manually or mechanically wrung, and spread over wicker frames to dry. Whites could be further brightened by bleaching with sulphur fumes. Some colours could be restored to brightness by "polishing" or "refinishing" with Cimolian earth. Others would have required separate treatment. In the best-equipped establishments, garments were further smoothed under pressure, using screw-presses. ^[69] The process was punishingly harsh to fabrics, but purity and cleanliness of clothing was in itself a mark of status. The high-quality woolen togas of the senatorial class were intensively laundered to an exceptional, snowy white, using the best and most expensive ingredients. Lower ranking citizens used togas of duller wool, more cheaply laundered; for reasons that remain unclear, the clothing of different status groups might have been laundered separately.^[70] The Roman elite seem to have despised the profession as ignoble; though perhaps no more so than they despised all manual trades. Fullers evidently thought theirs a respectable and highly profitable profession, worth celebration and illustration in murals and memorials.^[71] Pompeian mural paintings of launderers and fullers at work show garments in a rainbow variety of colours, but not white; fullers seem to have been particularly valued for their ability to launder dyed garments without loss of colour, sheen or "brightness", rather than merely whitening, or bleaching.^[72]

Leather and hide

The Romans had two methods of converting animal skins to leather: mineral tanning, and "tawing" in a solution of alum and salt. Roman leather-working tools closely resemble those used in the Middle Ages. The Roman military consumed large quantities of leather.^[73]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ancient Roman fashion.

• Clothing in the ancient world
• Biblical clothing
• Byzantine dress
• Clothing in ancient Greece
• Ancient Roman military clothing
• Roman jewelry

References

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ancient Roman fashion.

• Braund, Susanna, and Osgood, Josiah, A Companion to Persius and Juvenal, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012 ISBN 978-1-4051-9965-0
• Edmondson, JC and Keith, Alison, Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture, University of Toronto Press, 2008
• Erdkamp, Paul (Editor), A Companion to the Roman Army, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World, Blackwell Publishing, 2007
• Flohr, Miko, The World of the Fullo; Work, Economy, and Society in Roman Italy, Oxford University Press, 2013
• Phang, Sar Elise, Roman Military Service : Ideologies of Discipline in the Late Republic and Early Principate, Cambridge University Press, 2008
• Rodgers, Nigel. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire, Lorenz Books, ISBN 978-0-7548-1911-0
• Sebesta, Judith Lynn, and Bonfante, Larissa, editors, The World of Roman Costume: Wisconsin Studies in Classics, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1994,
• Vout, Caroline, "The Myth of the Toga: Understanding the History of Roman Dress", Greece & Rome, 43, No. 2 (Oct., 1996), pp. 204–220

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