Roman Civilization Clothing Most clothing made of wool

Roman Civilization

Clothing • Most clothing made of wool, some linen and silk • 2 types: indutus = put on amictus = wrapped • Subligaculum = loincloth/underwear • Tunica = tunic (long shirt) – Tunica manicata = long sleeve tunic – Tunica talares = floor length tunic

Clothing (cont. ) • Tunica angusti clavi = tunic worn by equites with narrow purple stripes • Tunica lati clavi = tunic worn by senators with wide purple stripes • Wrappings for warmth (worn only by old or ill people) legs=fasciae upper leg=feminalia lower leg=tibialia body=ventralia throat=focalia • Pants (worn only by barbarians) = braccae

Clothing (cont. ) • Toga was the mark of a Roman citizen • Regular toga = toga pura/virilis/libera • Toga candida/splendens = worn by men running for public office, candidati, bright white color • Toga praetexta = worn by boys before manhood and curule magistrates, purple border

Clothing (cont. ) • Toga picta = worn by triumphing generals and emperors, entirely purple • Toga sordidata/pulla = worn by people in mourning, dingy toga • Lacerna = more convenient mantle that eventually nearly replaced the toga, came in many colors, could have a hood (cucullus) • Military cloak = trabea, paludamentum, sagum, similar to lacerna but heavier

Clothing (cont. ) • Paenula = wrap used for protection from weather and cold, similar to a poncho, no sleeves • Synthesis = dinner garment • Laena, abolla = very heavy cloaks • Endormis = bath robe

Clothing (cont. ) • • • Sandals = soleae Shoes = calcei Mulleus = patrician’s shoe Calceus senatorius = senator’s shoe Perones = shoes of untanned leather Caligae = soldiers’ half boot

Clothing (cont. ) • Pilleus = felt cap, worn by lower classes, especially workmen • Causia/petasus = broad-brimmed felt hat worn for protection from the sun • Beards worn after the reign of Hadrian • Only jewelry worn by a roman citizen was a ring, often a seal ring, worn on the joint

Clothing (cont. ) • 3 main articles make up women’s clothing, tunica, stola, and palla • Tunica is similar to that of a man • Mamillare = band of soft leather worn similar to modern bra • Strophium = sash worn over tunica • Stola is the distinctive dress of a matron • Stola had a wide border (instita) at the lower hem and a girdle (zona)

Clothing (cont. ) • Palla = shawl-like wrap for outdoors • Women worn the same soleae and calcei as men • Nodus = hair gathered in a knot on the back of the neck • Reticula = hair nets • Vittae/taeniae/fasciolae = hair ribbons • Coronae = garlands of flowers

Clothing (cont. ) • • Umbraculum/umbella = parasol Flabellum = fan Sudaria = handkerchiefs Roman women wore many types of jewelry, rings, brooches, pins, coronets, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and pendants • Pearl was the favorite jewel

Living Arrangement • • Domus = house Atrium = main room Compluvium = pool to collect rain water Impluvium = hole in the roof of the atrium to let in light, air, and rainwater, 4 types – Tuscanicum = 2 pairs of beams at right angles – Tetrastylon = similar to Tuscanicum, but with pillars at the intersections – Corinthium = More pillars than tetrastylon – Displuviatum = roof sloping outward to carry water away, only rain falling directly went into the compluvium – Atrium testudinatum had no impluvium

Living Arrangement (cont. ) • Tablinum = Study/office • Arca = strong box for valuables, in atrium or tablinum • Alae = wider parts of the atrium • Peristylium = colonnaded courtyard behind the tablinum • Vestibulum = open court between the street and building

Living Arrangement (cont. ) • Ostium = entrance to the house, door and doorway, ianua/fores = specifically door • Limen = threshold • Culina = kitchen • Latrina = bathhouse • Triclinium = dining room, 3 couches • Cubiculum = bedroom • Bibliotheca = library

Living Arrangement (cont. ) • Sacrarium = private chapel • Oecus = sitting room/parlor, used also as a banquet hall • Exedra = room with permanent seats, probably for lectures or similar purpose • Solarium = place to sit in the sun, often on the flat roof, decorated with flowers and shrubs • Cella servorum = slaves’ quarters

Living Arrangement (cont. ) • Paries = wall, made of various materials, often fronted with marble stucco • Lateres crudi = stone or unburned brick • Opus quadratum = dressed stone • Opus caementicum = concrete • Lapis Puteolanus = concrete made of lime and volcanic ashes with pieces of stone • Lateres cocti = kiln-burned brick

Living Arrangement (cont. ) • Wall frontings, either opus incertum (flat faces of rocks with no particular shape or pattern) or opus reticulatum (flat faces of stone cut into uniform squares, giving a pattern like a net) • Solum = floor • Pavimentum = floor covered by stone, brick, tile, and potsherds, smoothed with a heavy rammer (fistuca)

Living Arrangement (cont. ) • Poorer homes had pavimentum floors, richer had stone slabs fitted together, some had concrete floors • Floors of upper stories were either made of wood or concrete • Tectum = roof, usually made of tiles • Tegula =tile, made with flanges to fit together • Imbrices = Tiles made to cover the flanges

Living Arrangement (cont. ) • 4 parts to doorway, threshold (limen) two jambs (postes) and lintel (limen superum) • Door hinge was a cylinder turning in sockets in the threshold and lintel, similar to a modern gate • Fores = double doors • Posticum = back door • Pessuli = bolts Serae = bars

Living Arrangement (cont. ) • • Fenestra = window Foculi = metal coal boxes used for heating Some wealthy homes had furnaces Water could be piped into the house from mains laid down in the middle of streets • Often a tank for water in the upper part of the house and a fountain in the court

Living Arrangement (cont. ) • • • Lectus = couch/bed Sedile = backless stool, most primitive seat Sella = stool, ordinary seat for one Subsellium = bench, used in the Senate Sella curulis = stool with curved, folding ivory legs, used by magistrates • Solium = high backed chair with solid arms • Cathedra = curved back chair with no arms

Living Arrangement (cont. ) • Mensa = table • Monopodium = table with one support, used often for a lamp • Abacus = rectangular top with raised rim, used just as a modern sideboard for dishes • Delphica = table with three legs • Some tables made with adjustable legs

Living Arrangement (cont. ) • • Lucerna = lamp Candelae = candles Candelabra = lamp or candle stand Faces = torches Arca = chest Armaria = cabinets Solarium = sun-dial Clepsydra = water clock

Food and Meals • Great variety of fruits and vegetables • Many were imported from the provinces, e. g. peach (malum Persicum), apricot (malum Armeniacum), pomegranate (malum Punicum), cherry (cerasus), and lemon (citrus) • Pork, beef, mutton, and goat was eaten, goat was poorest, pork most popular

Food and Meals (cont. ) • Domestic and wild fowl were eaten, as well as wild animals such as hare, boar, and dormouse (glis) • Fish was very popular, both fresh and salt water, as well as oysters (ostreae) • Dairy was commonly used as milk, cheese, cream, but not butter • Honey was used as a sweetener • Salt was used as seasoning and preservative

Food and Meals (cont. ) • Frumentum = grain, general term for any type of grain grown for food, including wheat, barley, rye, oats, and spelt (far) • Puls = porridge made from water and ground grain • Pistor = baker • Mola = mill, made of lower millstone (meta) and upper (catillus) that would rotate • Panis = bread, pure wheat (panis siligneus), lower quality (panis plebeius/castrensis/sordidus/rusticus)

Food and Meals (cont. ) • Olives were next in importance to grain, eaten themselves or used to make oil (oleum) • Grapes were eaten fresh and dried, but were most importantly used for wine • Best quality wine was from the ager Falernus • Mustum = freshly pressed grape cider • Defrutum = grape-jelly, half evaporated mustum

Food and Meals (cont. ) • Vinum = wine, mustum fermented in huge jars (dolia) for about nine days • After a year, stored in jars (amphorae) • Acetum = vinegar, spoiled wine • Mulsum = honeyed wine • Mulsa = fermented honey and water

Food and Meals (cont. ) • Ientaculum = breakfast, usually of bread • Prandium = lunch, cold food, bread, salad, cheese, fruits, nuts, or meat from previous night • Merenda = midday snacks • Vesperna = evening supper, only rural

Food and Meals (cont. ) • Cena = dinner, main meal of the day and social function, almost always being either host or guest • Umbrae = uninvited friends of guests • Three couches were called lectus summus, lectus medius, and lectus imus, counterclockwise • Each place on a couch was also locus summus, medius, and imus, left to right • Place of honor lectus summus, locus summus • Locus consularis = lectus medius, locus imus

Food and Meals (cont. ) • 3 parts of dinner, appetizer (gustus/promulsis/antecena), dinner proper (cena), and dessert (secunda mensa), each part could have several courses • If a dinner was going to be long, it would start earlier rather than go late (tempestiva convivia)

Food and Meals (cont. ) • Convivium = after dinner conversation over dessert and wine • Comissatio/compotatio/symposium = drinking party after dinner • Coronae convivales = garlands of flowers worn while drinking (the scent was thought to help prevent intoxication) • Rex/arbiter/magister bibendi = In charge of the proportion of wine to water and rules for the drinking, person chosen by dice throw

Food and Meals (cont. ) • Crater = large mixing bowl for wine • Pocula = drinking goblets • Cyathus = ladle for measuring wine, about 1/12 th of a pint or graduated by 12 ths • A guest proposed someone’s health and everyone immediately drank as many cyathi as were letters in the given name • Gambling was common at these drinking parties

Theater • Ludi scaenici = theater performances • 4 types of theater performances, comedies (comoediae), tragedies (tragoediae), farces (mimi), pantomimes (pantomimi) • Fabula palliata = plays in Greek costume depicting greek life • Actors were all male slaves • Grex = troupe of actors with a manager (dominus gregis)

Theater (cont. ) • Wigs were used to represent different characters, gray for old men, black for young men, red for slaves, etc • Ornamenta = props used onstage • At first, plays were staged at the bottom of a sloping hill, only later were temporary theaters built and the first permanent one in Rome was Pompey’s in 55 BC

Theater (cont. ) • The orchestra was assigned to the senators, the next fourteen rows of seating to the equites, the rest for everyone else, first come first served • Proscaenium = front line of the stage • Scaena = all behind the proscaenium, devoted to the actors • Cavea = all in front of the proscaenium, devoted to the spectators

Theater (cont. ) • Cunei = sections of seating, six in lower section, twelve in upper section • Praecinctio = semicircular passage separating lower and upper seating • Boxes were reserved for the giver of the show, the emperor, and the Vestals • Vela = awnings spread to protect people from the sun