Senate Toga

[Cassius Loginus]

In 'ROME' HBO series - 2nd Season, Episode 5, the subtitles information system tells that the colour of the stripes on a Senator's Toga was purple. I thought the colour red was the striped colour.

 

Any comments?

[Vibius Tiberius Costa]

In 'ROME' HBO series - 2nd Season, Episode 5, the subtitles information system tells that the colour of the stripes on a Senator's Toga was purple. I thought the colour red was the striped colour.

 

Any comments?

 

I have not seen the episode but in history before Caesar it was almost considered sacrelidge to wear another colour on your toga, especially purple as purple was considered the colour of kings, which Rome famously did not have. However Caesar did put a stripe along his toga, i though (no evidence as of yet) it was purple not red.

[Nephele]

I have not seen the episode but in history before Caesar it was almost considered sacrelidge to wear another colour on your toga, especially purple as purple was considered the colour of kings, which Rome famously did not have. However Caesar did put a stripe along his toga, i though (no evidence as of yet) it was purple not red.

 

VTC, you're right that only emperors (mainly on state occasions), or extremely high-ranking Roman officials (when presiding over public games) might wear a completely purple toga, called the toga picta. In addition to being completely purple, the toga picta would be embroidered with gold.

 

However, a toga with purple stripes embroidered on the hem (called the toga praetexta) was commonly worn by citizen boys who had not yet officially reached manhood, and by the curule magistrates -- which would include not only emperors, but also dictators, masters of the horse, consuls, praetors, censors, and curule aediles.

 

Purple striping might also appear on a citizen's tunic to indicate his rank, provided the wearer was of suitable rank. An Equestrian, for example, could sport a narrow, lengthwise stripe of purple, called an angusticlavia, on both front and back of his tunic. A Patrician or Senator would sport a somewhat broader purple stripe down his tunic, called a laticlavia. Their toga would be draped so as to conspicuously reveal the tunic's purple striping.

 

The toga itself, even without distinguishing purple stripes, was forbidden to all but Roman citizens. However women prostitutes were known to wear togae, and I'm not certain if all of these might have been citizens.

 

-- Nephele

[caldrail]

Caligula had a foreign dignitary executed because he wore a purple cloak, something he regarded as his prerogative only.

[Flavia Gemina]

... Purple striping might also appear on a citizen's tunic to indicate his rank, provided the wearer was of suitable rank...

 

-- Nephele

 

Were the stripes on tunics purple or scarlet, Nephele? I always thought the narrow equestrian and broad patrician stripes were red. Or were scarlet and purple (both expensive) interchangeable?

 

This has always niggled at me...

 

Flavia

[Nephele]

... Purple striping might also appear on a citizen's tunic to indicate his rank, provided the wearer was of suitable rank...

 

-- Nephele

 

Were the stripes on tunics purple or scarlet, Nephele? I always thought the narrow equestrian and broad patrician stripes were red. Or were scarlet and purple (both expensive) interchangeable?

 

This has always niggled at me...

 

Flavia

 

Hi, Flavia. According to Professor William Sterns Davis (A Day in Old Rome) the stripes were purple.

 

I just now double-checked with some 'net sources. LacusCurtius also states that the stripes were purple.

 

This site also provides illustrations, as well as additional information on the laticlavia and angusticlavia. Reference source cited is William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (John Murray, London, 1875).

 

-- Nephele

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

... Purple striping might also appear on a citizen's tunic to indicate his rank, provided the wearer was of suitable rank...

 

-- Nephele

 

Were the stripes on tunics purple or scarlet, Nephele? I always thought the narrow equestrian and broad patrician stripes were red. Or were scarlet and purple (both expensive) interchangeable?

 

This has always niggled at me...

 

Flavia

 

Hi, Flavia. According to Professor William Sterns Davis (A Day in Old Rome) the stripes were purple.

 

I just now double-checked with some 'net sources. LacusCurtius also states that the stripes were purple.

 

This site also provides illustrations, as well as additional information on the laticlavia and angusticlavia. Reference source cited is William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (John Murray, London, 1875).

 

-- Nephele

 

 

I've often pondered this question as well, I was always under the impression that the stripe was purple through reading it in many books but when you see anything containing roman history on T.V. or at the movies the stripe always looks like a dark red, scarlet. Even in the illustrations on Lacus Curtis the stripe looks Scarlet.

 

Where the Romans descriptions or idea's of colour different to ours?

[Flavia Gemina]

OK, I've gone back to the sources. The encaustic paintings of Roman Egypt from the Ancient Faces catalogue. In portraits of equestrian males, the clavi range in colour from pink to red to dark red to scarlet to purple. Some of this might be accounted for by fading but not all. Here's a (not very brilliant) photo I took in the British Museum a few months ago. But still... the clavi look red to me!

 

This makes me think there may have been some flexibility not just in the equestrian tunic, but also the senatorial toga...

 

Flavia

Edited August 20, 2007 by Flavia Gemina

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Just found this in Johnston's Private Life of the Romans......

 

Colors. White was the prevailing color of all articles of dress throughout the Republic, in most cases the natural color of the wool, as we have seen . The lower classes, however, selected for their garments shades that required cleansing less frequently, and found them, too, in the undyed wool. From Canusium came a brown wool with a tinge of red, from Baetica in Spain a light yellow, from Mutina a gray or a gray mixed with white, from Pollentia in Liguria the dark gray (pulla), used, as has been said (in public mourning. Other shades from red to deep black were furnished by foreign wools. Almost the only artificial color used for garments under the Republic was purpura, which seems to have varied from what we call garnet, made from the native trumpet shell (būcinum or mūrex), to the true Tyrian purple. The former was brilliant and cheap, but likely to fade. Mixed with the dark purpura in different proportions, it furnished a variety of permanent tints. One of the most popular of these tints, violet, made the wool cost twenty dollars a pound, while the genuine Tyrian cost at least ten times as much. Probably the stripes worn by the knights and senators on the tunics and togas were much nearer our crimson than purple. Under the Empire the garments worn by women were dyed in various colors, and so, too, perhaps, the fancier articles worn by men, such as the lacerna and the synthesis . The trabea of the augur seems to have been striped with scarlet and "purple," the palūdāmentum of the general to have been at different times white, scarlet, and "purple," and the robe of the triumphātor "purple."

Edited August 20, 2007 by Gaius Paulinus Maximus

[Flavia Gemina]

Excellent article, Gaius!

 

And it nicely accounts for variations of 'purple' both in images from ancient times and in modern TV and film!

 

Gratias ago!

 

Flavia

[Flavia Gemina]

Just found this in Johnston's Private Life of the Romans......

Under the Empire the garments worn by women were dyed in various colors, and so, too, perhaps, the fancier articles worn by men, such as the lacerna and the synthesis ....

 

Speaking of the 'synthesis', this is another garment I would love to have a clear picture of. But I will add it as a new topic...

[Nephele]

Just found this in Johnston's Private Life of the Romans......

 

Probably the stripes worn by the knights and senators on the tunics and togas were much nearer our crimson than purple.

 

Ah, thanks for clearing up the scarlet/purple question, GPM! I'd noticed, too, that in a lot of the movies one sees what appears to be dark red stripes instead of purple, and I'd always wondered if the reason they used red instead of purple might have been because it showed up better on screen.

 

Flavia, thanks for that illustration -- yes, those stripes look dark red to me, too!

 

-- Nephele

[Flavia Gemina]

Just one more example of 'red' -- rather than 'purple' -- clavi, from the (bearded) Hadrianic period, but nice and clear...

 

Flavia

[Vibius Tiberius Costa]

For a good painting of the toga picta from the times visit this site it has an unclear toga picture as well where i can't determine the colour of the stripes.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm..._toga_picta.jpg

 

vtc

Edited August 21, 2007 by Vibius Tiberius Costa