Roman Dress Codes Enforcement

[magnificentbeast]

I've read about certain roman dress codes. Only married matrons should wear a stola, purple stripes on the toga for senators rank, purple fabrics declared off limits if you weren't the emperor, I saw a no trousers law somewhere. Some of these restrictions seem more official than others. But, my question is, who would enforce any of this? If a prostitute wore a stola who is gonna do anything about it? Was it just occasionally enforced mafia style by gangs of slaves on behalf of their offended patrician owner? Or is it more of a ridicule and social pressure situation? 

[caldrail]

Firstly one might try remonstrating with the individual. Possibly you might be in a position to use coercion to get that person to comply or else. Or you could complain to a magistrate and have him picked up by urban guards or other soldiers for a stiff telling off, physical punishment, or if considered a severe case, used in some humorous but ultimately fatal way in the next games as a lesson for others not to try this sort of thing.

[magnificentbeast]

So were the urban guards a sort of police force? Who was in charge of them? 

Edited January 15, 2022 by magnificentbeast

[Novosedoff]

Btw, is it true, caldrail,  that in Britain in the beginning of the 20th century women in trousers would be taken to the nearest police station? 🙂

In the US even in the mid of the 20th century women wouldn't be allowed to open a bank account without first securing permission from their husbands. But that is easier to enforce by telling them off.

I suspect that in the majority of cases such misbehaviour would be reported to the authorities by own relatives, neighbors or "friends", so they should be blamed for bringing the Praetorians to enforce the order

[caldrail]

Things like that did happen. There's a picture of Marlene Dietrich arriving at a railway station in France before WW2 and she's in a trouser suit, looking very fashionable and daring with a crowd of hangers on (all male), but moments later she got arrested. I have seen photos of a female climbing club in La Belle Epoque, ascending a tough rock face in long dresses (I am told they sometimes climbed in knickers when blokes weren't around because the dress was heavy and cumbersome. So whether you got away with pushing the frontiers of public sensibility was always the same as now. Fame, wealth, confidence, support, opportunity.

Same with ancient Rome. Women were expected to be demure and dutiful, but as Rome got wealthy on the back of conquest, so women started taking risks and pushing at social boundaries. One lady called Sempronia absolutely shocked polite society but a generation later in the Principate, her antics would only have raised an eyebrow. 

We have women like Julia, Augustus' daughter, who was so annoyed and frustrated at her father's moral crusade and stifling family atmosphere that she rebelled and became very wayward. Eventually her father found out about her hedonistic lifestyle and was so angry he had her exiled to a small island. The public heckled him in the street to bring her home.

Or Agrippina the Younger? Never overt, but a woman who had gossip and controversy follow her like attendants. Did she sleep with her brother Caligula? Was she trying to get off with her son Nero at a social dinner? We don't know.

Or on a different theme, Julia Ferox in Pompeii, who after the death of her husband hired out her home as a social club and apparently did roaring business.

But - and I say this advisedly - it is interesting that clothes were labels as much as accoutrements to the Romans, and taking a privilege you weren't entitled to, or trying something new was worse than actual bad behaviour.

[James Lawrie]

On 1/15/2022 at 10:40 AM, caldrail said:

Firstly one might try remonstrating with the individual. Possibly you might be in a position to use coercion to get that person to comply or else. Or you could complain to a magistrate and have him picked up by urban guards or other soldiers for a stiff telling off, physical punishment, or if considered a severe case, used in some humorous but ultimately fatal way in the next games as a lesson for others not to try this sort of thing.

In addition to this, as people were usually part of a larger family unit it'd be scandalous for a member of your group to be wandering around aping an equestrian for instance. It wouldn't be unlikely I think for the patria familia to drag an offender to an aedile as an example of how upstanding and obedient to mos maiorum the family was. Similarly, neighbours might indignantly do the same thing. 

[caldrail]

So were the urban guards a sort of police force? Who was in charge of them?

Sorry MagnificentBeast, I missed this one. The cohortes urbanae were formed from a few cohorts of the Praetorians, both to keep the Praetorians in order and to operate as a form of police force to help keep the streets safe. They were led by their own Urban Prefect. Much less contentious than Praetorians, the only time I remember them getting a mention was when magistrates used them to seize power in Rome after the assassination of Caligula. That lasted a day or two until the Praetorians got their own way and had Claudius made Princeps.

[Novosedoff]

17 hours ago, caldrail said:

They were led by their own Urban Prefect. Much less contentious than Praetorians, the only time I remember them getting a mention was when magistrates used them to seize power in Rome after the assassination of Caligula

What's interesting is that their functions partially intersected with the Vigiles', although the Vigiles are said to be operating as police force only at nighttime. However when Sejanus was about to be denunciated and executed (the whole performance took place at dawn), instead of using the more militarised urbanae cohortes to counterbalance the Praetorians Tiberius used the Vigiles.

[caldrail]

Not quite. It was Macro who got Sejanus to enter the Temple of Apollo where the Senate were meeting, then ordered the Praetorians back to barracks and had the Vigiles station themselves around the temple in case of public disorder - more or less an ordinary task for them. Sejanus was actually taken into custody by praetors and tribunes. The soldiery were in fact rather upset they hadn't been trusted.