#2 Romans and Romanish Things

The Roman Epire.  It was freaking HUGE and for 200 years in the middle there was the pax Romana, meaning 200 years of peace within the empire.  The phrase pax Romana also kind of means "do what we say and be good or we will kill you."  So that's fun.

The Romans were folks from an Italian city-state called Rome (you may have heard of it) who overthrew their king and established a republican form of government sometime around 500 B.C.  They then proceeded to beat up their neighbors until the size of the Roman Empire by 117 A.D. covered 2,509,664 square miles.

"But what about the Greeks?" you ask.  "If they were so influential and invented so many neat things, how did this Roman stuff get so out of hand?"

"To-ga! To-ga!"

Well, the Greeks knew about the Romans.  They considered them uneducated barbarians and beneath their notice.  The Romans thought the Greeks were a bunch of pansies who should shut up about truth, beauty, and ethics and learn how to fight.

The Romans won.  However, in the process, the Romans realized that the Greeks had a lot of cool stuff going on.  Eventually, the Romans absorbed a lot of Greek culture, and the richer Romans collected Grek statues and books.  However, the Romans still thought the Greeks were girly so there weren't any Romans running around in "I Geek for Greeks!" t-shirts.

Though they totally should have..

Instead Romans collected Greek stuff and had Greek slaves teach their kids and basically pretended that they didn't love all things Greek while totally ripping them off.  Which, really, is what conquerors do.

But, we are here for FASHION.  So, let's take a look!

Everybody wore a tunica.  Tunica is where we get our word "tunic,"  Tunica are remarkably like a chiton.

"No, it's not a chiton!  It's a tunica! Duh!"

When the tunic first came along, men wore them with no sleeves.  When it got cold, they just put another sleeveless tunic on over their first one.  Then another if it was still cold.  Because sleeves are for girls and not for big mean tough (dumb) Romans.

The big thing, though, which showed citizenship in the Roman Empire, was a toga.  In the early days they wore them without shirts, just like the Greek himation, but over time they wore tunics under them.   Only citizens of Rome could wear a toga.  (And your citizenship was based on how much money you had and who you were related to.)  Here is what an early toga-and-tunic looked like:

"Taxi!"

And here is what the toga-and-tunic evolved into:

"Mine is so complicated I have to be dressed by someone else each morning."

Eventually, by the end of the Empire, the Emperor had to pass laws telling men they HAD to wear their togas to events because they were such a huge bother.  And, really, they were.  Let's look at pictures.

Step 1: get a RIDICULOUSLY HUGE piece of fabric

Step 2: Throw one end over your shoulder and wad up the rest of it in interesing ways.

Step 3: throw that whole mess over your shoulder again

Step 4: Prance!  But not too much 'cause it will fall off.

Contrast that with a tunic pattern --

"Hi. I'm a tunic"

and you will see why tunics were more popular.

So, that's what Roman men wore.  They didn't wear pants because that was something barbarians in the north did.  Pants were for chumps.  Tunics were for everyone.

Now, you may notice that the tunic pictured above has two red stripes.  Those stripes mean something.  In fact, what a Roman wore always meant something.  There are even special names for each of the different types of toga and strict rules about who could wear them.  It's kind of boring to list them all so I won't.  However, it's important to note that what you wore literally told everyone who you were and your place in society.  In fact, here's a quote:

“Dress for a Roman often, if not primarily, signified rank, status, office, or authority. . . . The dress worn by the participants in an official scene had legal connotations. . . . The hierarchic, symbolic use of dress as a uniform or costume is part of Rome's legacy to Western civilization.” (Larissa Bonfante. "Introduction.” The World of Roman Costume. Ed. Judith Lynn Sebesta and Larissa Bonfante. University of Wisconsin Press, 1994. Pp. 5-6)

Women had a few more rights in Roman society than in Greek.  They could own property, get divorces, run businesses, and learn stuff like midwifery.   Unmarried women wore long tunics.

Here I am pouring perfume from one bottle to another..

and married women wore stola.   A stola is a dress on top of your tunic.  It usually didn't have sleeves but it really was up to the woman.  

"My tunic is blue, my stola is white"

Women also wore a palla over their tunic and stolla.  A palla is a long bit of fabric which kind of drapes like a mini toga.  It could also be draped over the head... just like a himation

"I am ready to PARTY!"

Women wore any color they liked and any pattern they liked.  The richer women wore a TON of jewelery including diadems, bracelets, rings, earrings, and necklaces... and all at the same time.  

"I just barely have enough jewlery on"

Hairstyles were elaborate as well, with all sorts of extreme styles being experimented with.

Pretty in the front...

and where-did-your-hair-go? in the back

Roman women totally dyed their hair (with yellow-red being the prefered color), wore wigs, put fake hair into theirs to make it seem bigger, and wore makeup.

Ancient Roman sandal and shoe up top
Replica sandal and shoe below

Shoes for the Romans also had rules.  Sandals were worn inside a house.  Shoes (closed toe) were always worn outside the house.  One would never been seen wearing sandals outside or shoes inside.   So, if you went to someone's house to visit, you would take sandals with you and change into them when you got there.  If you were someone important, like a curule magistrate, you got to wear shoes dyed red to match the stripe of importance on your toga. 

Children in Rome wore different clothing as well.  When a child was born it was given to the father to be inspected.   If the child was sick, weak, or unacceptable, it was left outside to die.  If the father accepted the child he just rocked it to sleep.  When the baby was nine days old, there was a ceremony to name the child and a bulla was placed around the baby's neck.  A bulla looks like this:

The word bulla means bubble or blister.  It's a hollow thingy which children wore to protect them from evil spirits.   When a girl got married she took off her bulla and presented it in the temple to the gods along with all of her childhood toys.  Boys did a similar thing when they turned 13 or 14 except they kept the bulla and wore it on great occassions to protect themselves from the envy and ill-wishing of other men.

So, what does all this stuff tell us?

"And this has better be interesting, Susan, because I am BORED!"

Romans are not indiviualistic like Greeks.  Romans believed in rigid heirarchies and in letting everyone else know how important you are in that structure. There were rules about everything, including your shoes (though the one time an emperor tried to tell women they couldn't wear fancy clothes there was a revolt by the women.  The law didn't last long.)  Unlike the Greeks, fashion did evolve a little bit in the Roman empire, and it changed in a way which reflected the change in social structure.   Togas became cumbersome and for rich men only.  Tunics and the specialized armor and clothing of soldiers became more common as generals took over more parts of the government.   Silk, linen, and cotton became available through trade in the farthest parts of the empire.  Clothing became more and more decadent as the empire began to crumble from within.

And, I'm done.  Please see the below link for your quiz!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dDUwTTl1LS1Tbm9NMGUzN3hjQmZ0VFE6MQ