that was folded again, placed around the body, pinned at the
shoulders, and oft en worn with a girdle. Th e himation, made
of a single six-by-nine-foot piece of cloth, swathed the body
without fi xed fastenings and was oft en worn under a tunic.
Th e poor sometimes wore only a himation. Th e tribon was
similar to the ordinary himation except that it was typically
brown or black and tattered. It was worn to demonstrate pov-
erty and contempt for earthly vanities. In Athens the tribon
also was worn by advocates at the bar.
Women wore a long tunic known as a peplos. Th e peplos
was basically a shawl completely open down one side, usually
the left. Th e open peplos was not normally belted at the waist,
but Greek women made a closed peplos by seaming together
the two free edges of the garment instead of leaving them
open to the thigh. Th ey folded up the edge of the garment,
shortening it to waist length, and used the fl ap to cover the
head or veil the face. Spartan girls wore short tunics, slit at the
sides, to make it easier to compete in athletic events.
Th e use of wool kept most garments in a tonal range of
off -whites, but ordinary people seem to have worn lighter-
colored tunics and cloa ks in dark colors, such as rust reds and
reddish brown. Color distinguished the costume of warriors,
and the chlamys was generally decorated with bands of color,
either along the upper edges on the neck and shoulders or
down the side seams. Th e borders had patterns of fl owers or
geometric designs. Youths in earlier times wore black tunics,
and those in later centuries wore white.
Linen was introduced to Greece by the Ionians. Th e
Ionic linen tunic had more elegant drapes than a woolen tu-
nic. Oft en pleated, the Ionic tunic was so long that the extra
material was pulled through the waistband to give a bloused
eff ect. Unlike the Doric tunic, the Ionic one did not require
fastening pins. Women dressed in Ionic style wore brilliant
colors, known as fl owered colors, including greens. It became
fashionable for women to wear a ground-length tunic with a
peplos on top. Th e peplos either hung loose to just below the
waist or was worn longer and fastened with a girdle. An alter-
native, known as a diploidion, was a piece of material left very
long in front and folded at the shoulders so that an extra fl ap
of material fell to waist level. Women from all parts of Greece
and a few men wore a tarentine, a white gown so thin that the
body was visible through it.
Th e Greeks usually went barefoot, wearing shoes only
as protection or for special occasions. Sandals worn by both
sexes were fastened with light leather throngs that left the foot
almost bare. Soles were made of cork or leather and occasion-
ally studded with nails. Closed shoes fi t either foot and had
elevated soles that added height to the wearer. A binding was
fastened to the sole and passed between the big toe and the
second toe, divided into two and passed through a latchet,
or a narrow leather strap, to secure the sole of the shoe to the
foot. Th e two bands were criss-crossed high on the legs and
then fastened. Greek women, who rarely left the house, wore
only sandals in public. By the fourth century b.c.e. shoes had
become more elegant, oft en red with yellow-edged soles.
A variety of hats were worn by Greek men and women
to protect them from the blazing sun of the region. Hunters
and travelers wore wide-brimmed hats. Th e petasos was a fl at,
cylindrical head covering worn by young men. Women wore
a similar round, semiconical head covering called a tholia.
Th e simplicity of Greek dress infl uenced the people who
came into contact with the Greeks, especially the Romans.
Greek dress refl ected the ancient habit of wearing tunics,
and the styles and patterns preferred by the Greeks spread
throughout the ancient world.ROME
BY LARISSA BONFANTE
Garments in ancient Rome were made of wool or linen. In the
time of Alexander the Great, in the 300s b.c.e., cotton was
introduced, as was silk, which was always an extravagant lux-
ury. Wool was woven in a great variety of textures, weights,
and colors, from the sturdy dark cloth of slaves’ tunics to the
fi ne purple wool of imperial togas. Linen, much of which was
imported from Egypt, was usually left in its natural color and
could be extremely fi ne-woven.
Th e basic dress of Roman male citizens, which visu-
ally distinguished them from Greeks wearing rectangular
mantles, was the woolen toga, a mantle with rounded bor-
ders like the earlier Etruscan tebenna, a shorter semicircu-
lar woolen mantle. With the toga were worn boots or calcei,
formal laced shoes worn with the toga outside the house.
Working men wore their tunics belted. Unlike the Greeks,
who normally wore sandals everywhere, the Romans wore
them only indoors.
Again unlike the Greeks, Roman men did not exercise in
the nude. Th ey shared the universal taboo against appearing
naked in public, though in their art they represented youth-
ful male fi gures in an idealized “nudity as costume,” adopt-
ing the Greek artistic convention. Th ey did strip in the public
baths, but when they exercised or had to be free of clothing to
work, they wore a type of loincloth, called a subligaculum or
a campestre because it was worn for military exercises in the
Campus Martius.
Citizens and slaves, male and female, old and young
wore shirts or tunics of various lengths, materials, and colors.
Greeks and lower-class Romans also wore a plain rectangu-
lar woolen mantle called a pallium, which could double as
a blanket in cold weather. Roman women wore linen tunics
that were longer and wider than those of men, but this gar-
ment was basically unchanging in shape, being made up of
one or more rectangular pieces of cloth, which were sewn,
buttoned, or pinned at the shoulders; belted at the waist; and
draped on the body, creating pleasing folds. Th e stola, which
looked much like a slip with thin straps, was worn over the
tunic from at least the time of Augustus (63 b.c.e.–14 c.e.) by
the Roman matrona, or married woman. Th e outer garment
of women was a rectangular mantle (palla). Only young girls
and disreputable women wore the toga.clothing and footwear: Rome 281