lanam fecit

[Carlton Bach]

I was just reading Anastasia Pekridou-Gorecki: Mode im antiken Grieenland (Fashion in Ancient Greece) and I was struck by the breadth of decorative techniques and colourful combinations used (brocade-weaving, tablet weaving, kelim binding, embroidery and cloth painting).

Now, whenever a Roman woman's gravestone reads 'lanam fecit' I used to have the impression of a poor lady eternally, repetitively spinning and weaving monochrome wool into tunics, togas, pallas and underwear. But looking at this riot of not just color (I know the Romans did colourful) but pattern and decoration I ask myself: how many of these decorative techniques would a Roman housewife have been expected to master? Did the women of the Julian house interrupt their murderous intrigues to embroider tablecloth borders or tablet-weave swirl patterns?

Can anyone recommend good reading matter on that aspect of Roman clothing?

[Helena Pictoria]

Carlton, I'll be really interested to read replies to this query, too.

I'l also interested in the fabrics they used. I came across this quote on an Uni website, and was gobsmacked because I thought only prostitutes wore togas.
- "Women in ancient Rome, like the men, wore long togas made of silk in the summer or wool in the winter. " aparrently 'Togaman' is the expert in this area, so I'm hoping he might offer some thoughts on this!

One of the big issues I've found with researching anything Roman is that the civilisation spanned such a very long time, and less scholarly sources tend to make these blanket statements that might have been true at one time, but aren't always so.

Helena Pictoria

[Carlton Bach]

Matthias Pausch has looked at the toga in his dissertation on Roman tunicae recently. He has reached some - interesting - conclusions. Apparently, the link between the toga and Romanness was established only in the late Republic and instiottuionalised under Augustus, and dissolved under the strain of reality in the next two centuries.

The toga of prostitutes is another such issue that is hard to grasp. Bettina Eva Stumpp, in her study 'Prostitution in der römischen Antike' (one of the few such works not intended for one-handed reading) assumes there must have been subtle (or not so subtle) distinctions between this and the formal, upper-class toga, including colour (it is apparently referred to as a /toga pulla/, dark-coloured).

As to women wearing the toga, it is not all that unlikely given that the 'fpormal' distinctive dress of the Roman matron, the stola, became unpopular even faster than the full male toga. A female toga may have been a very different thing - an alternate name for a variant of what we usually call a /palla/ for all we know.

I do have my doubts about the silk, though. All types of mantle depend on friction to stay in place, and the Romans liked silk because it was so thin and fine. That kind of silk would probably not be comfortable as a toga or palla. Not to mention far too expensive for most people (but then, much the same was probably true of what we today consider the 'full' toga)