Cicero makes a distinction between the toga pulla and an ordinary toga deliberately "dirtied" by its wearer as a legitimate mark of protest or supplication. Wearing a toga pulla at the feast that ended mourning was irreligious, ignorant, or plain bad manners. A toga praetexta was also acceptable as mourning wear, if turned inside out to conceal its stripe so was a plain toga pura.
Toga pulla: a "dark toga" was supposed to be worn by mourners at elite funerals.Toga candida is the etymological source of the word candidate.
Thus Persius speaks of a cretata ambitio, "chalked ambition".
Toga virilis ("toga of manhood") also known as toga alba or toga pura: A plain white toga, worn on formal occasions by adult male commoners, and by senators not having a curule magistracy.There were many kinds of toga, each reserved by custom to a particular usage or social class. The Romans considered it unique to themselves, thus their poetic description by Virgil and Martial as the gens togata ('toga-wearing race'). It was considered formal wear and was generally reserved for citizens. The toga was an approximately semi-circular woollen cloth, usually white, worn draped over the left shoulder and around the body: the word "toga" probably derives from tegere, to cover. Some scholars believe this shows a toga picta, largely based on its colour and decorative detail others suggest that the straight edges make it a Greek-style cloak, and not a toga. Eventually, it was worn only by the highest classes for ceremonial occasions.īook illustration of an Etruscan wall painting from the François Tomb at Vulci. It gradually fell out of use, firstly among citizens of the lower class, then those of the middle class. When circumstances allowed, those otherwise entitled or obliged to wear it opted for more comfortable, casual garments. It was and is considered ancient Rome's "national costume" as such, it had great symbolic value however even among Romans, it was hard to put on, uncomfortable and challenging to wear correctly, and never truly popular. Various laws and customs restricted its use to citizens, who were required to wear it for public festivals and civic duties.įrom its probable beginnings as a simple, practical work-garment, the toga became more voluminous, complex, and costly, increasingly unsuited to anything but formal and ceremonial use. The type of toga worn reflected a citizen's rank in the civil hierarchy.
Women engaged in prostitution might have provided the main exception to this rule. As Roman women gradually adopted the stola, the toga was recognized as formal wear for male Roman citizens. In Roman historical tradition, it is said to have been the favored dress of Romulus, Rome's founder it was also thought to have originally been worn by both sexes, and by the citizen-military. It was usually woven from white wool, and was worn over a tunic. The toga ( / ˈ t oʊ ɡ ə/, Classical Latin: ), a distinctive garment of ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between 12 and 20 feet (3.7 and 6.1 m) in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. Statue of the Emperor Tiberius showing the draped toga of the 1st century AD.
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