Roman "Bikinis" and lingerie

[Zenobia of Palmyra]

A 3rd Century mosiac from Piazza Armerina in Sicily shows some young Roman women wearing what appear to be bikinis, or bras and panties, while they are exercising in a gymnasium. Similar garments have been found preserved in Britain, which would mean they were probably widespread in the Roman world.

I forget who (Juvenal, maybe?) but a 1st Century writer also specifically mentioned that there were merchants selling "lingerie" in Rome. Just what would have been "lingerie" in Rome, or in Iron Age Europe?

All this leads me to wonder what Roman women wore underneath their stolas. The "strophium" bra or "breast bandage" was apparently common in both the Roman and Greek worlds. But is there additional evidence for the panty or bikini-like clothes that the Sicilian and British bathers wore? Were such things only worn in the bathhouse, or were they used as an undergarment all the time? Were they an upper-class luxury, or did all classes use them?

Not a common topic for a Roman ARMY forum, but I'm very curious! I plan to write a story from a Roman woman's perspective at some point, so any intimate details into daily life for Roman women are very welcome.

[Zenobia of Palmyra]

Also, the word "subligaculum" has been applied to the loincloth worn by gladiators. Could this word have been used for the female "bikini bottom" as well?

[Graham Sumner]

Hello

You could try the following:

Greek and Roman Dress from A-Z, L.Cleland, G. Davies &L. Llewellyn-Jones.

The World of Roman Cosume, J. Sebeste 7 L. Bonfante.

Roman Clothing and Fashion, A. Croom.

All are readily available from Amazon.

There are also a number of specialist reports on the bikini briefs themselves, one at least by Carol Van Driel Murray.

Graham.

[Graham Sumner]

p.s

I will try and find a proper reference of the latter for you.

Graham.

[Zenobia of Palmyra]

Thank you a lot. It may seem odd but I'd like some detailed sources on stuff like this. Thank you!

[Nathan Ross]

Romans commonly bathed naked, so the garment worn by the women in the Piazza Armerina mosaics, and the one found in London, were more probably used for athletics or theatrical performance.

As for underwear generally, Kelly Olsen's Roman Underwear Revisited (2003, but sadly only available online via JSTOR) is a good recent survey. For women's underwear, she suggests that various sorts of undertunic might have been worn: subucula seems to be the most usual word for this garment, and could be worn by men or women. Nonius mentions indusium as 'a garment that clings to the body inside the clothes', but Apuleius has the same word referring to a luxurious outer tunic worn by beautiful slave boys and actors! Supparus or supparum seems to mean something similar - an undertunic, sometimes of pure linen, commonly worn by young girls or brides (Roman women were usually married between the ages of 12 and 14, so these two are not exclusive!). Lucan describes the supparum as narrow, hanging from the shoulders and enclosing the upper arm, and Nonius has it hanging to the thighs. Something like a petticoat or chemise seems to be indicated - in fact a later word seems to be camisia. Caltula is another sort of lingerie - Nonius quotes Varro as saying that it's a 'little mantle' worn girdled beneath the breasts, when women are not wearing the subucula. The strophium was a breastband, of course, and seems to have been pretty ubiquitous. Respectable women were supposed to wear them all the time, even in bed.

Olsen goes on to say that women almost certainly didn't wear any kind of close-fitting lower underwear. 'Female underpants were an invention of the mid nineteenth century' - she even suggests that having a woman's legs divided by fabric was considered obscene and unholy! The sort of 'bikini' worn by the girls on the mosaic was probably restricted to dancers and female athletes, who were not respectable, and could have underlined their rather depraved 'masculine' nature... There was something called a subligar, though, worn by both women and men, that was apparently a type of skimpy loincloth - Juvenal calls it an actors' garment. Martial tells 'the female fellatrix Chione' to wear a subligar over her face when she bathes, 'to cover the part which is more shameful'. Martial elsewhere calls a 'masculine' female athlete, Philaenis, subligata. Olsen draws from this that the garment worn by the Piazza Armerina 'bikini girls' is probably the subligar with a strophium, and that it was a 'disrespectable' garment, exclusively for dancers and female athletes.

The subligaculum, Olsen says, was a male loincloth usually worn by slaves, actors and soldiers (and gladiators, presumably) - it was also known as the campestre, which suggests a military origin. Romans like Cato sometimes wore a loincloth to emulate 'the ways of the forefathers', but were regarded as eccentric for doing so.

Cicero, in his speech against Clodius, mentions several female garments worn during the Bona Dea rituals (which Clodius infiltrated, dressed as a woman!) - these include purple fasceolae, which might refer to fabric leg wrappings, maybe worn in cold weather. Fasciola or fascia is elsewhere a generic term for a wrapping or bandages, and can also refer to the strophium. Olsen points out that all of these terms are rather obscure (even to Roman grammatists!), and perhaps interchangeable...

- Nathan

[Epictetus]

Ovid writes about women’s’ garments quite a bit, but he doesn’t have much to say about lingerie or undergarments of any sort. I found this:

Small pads suit high shoulder-blades; a band should surround a narrow chest.

Ovid, Art of Love III, 275 or thereabouts

Then he mentions a “tunicata,” which the Loeb translator has rendered “shift.”

Should she stand by you in her shift, cry “You inflame me!”

Ovid, Art of Love II, 301

[Zenobia of Palmyra]

Thank you, everyone, but especially Nathan Ross, for you extremely helpful replies.

I find it strange that no kind of panties or close-fitting lower underwear were acceptable for decent women. :?

It is funny to think that the bikini girls in that Sicilian mosiac, by the standards of THEIR culture, could have been considered cross dressers :mrgreen:

[Doc]

Nathan,

Not to go O.T. but I was under the impression that an undertunic of linen was also worn under the normal wool tunic by soldiers? I do not remember where I read this but I know I did.

Is this true and are there literary sources for this. I cannot find where I read the above statement.

[Nathan Ross]

Small pads suit high shoulder-blades; a band should surround a narrow chest.

Ovid, Art of Love III, 275 or thereabouts

This sounds like the strophium again. I think Olsen (above) quotes Ovid for an example of 'padding'!

Another one from Martial, the 'speech' of an amictorium (yet another name for a breastband, it seems):

"I fear busty women!: hand me to some young girl, that my linen may enjoy a bosom of snow!" (Epigrams CXLIX)

I was under the impression that an undertunic of linen was also worn under the normal wool tunic by soldiers? I do not remember where I read this but I know I did.

I'm not sure about soldiers, although they are recorded as wearing multiple layers of tunic, I think... Suetonius has Augustus wearing many tunics (whether wool or linen is not specified) - up to nine at one point, in the cold weather. These would presumably be of the subucula undertunic variety.

- Nathan