Clothing

=Cities of Vesuvius =

- Syllabus Content -


 * Clothing**

bottom paragraph p.123; Women - last paragraph before "Dinner Parties" p.125




 * [[image:295px-Theatre-statue-Calatorius.JPG align="right"]]There are few archaeological remains to provide evidence for clothing: some fabric, shoe leather, metal fasteners and pins.
 * Evidence comes from **busts**, **statues** and **frescoes**.
 * **Busts** and **statues** are __representations of the elite__ and show them in clothes that would not have been worn every day.
 * **Marcus Nonius Balbus** and **Marcus Calitorius** (Herculaneum) wear the heavy Roman toga which would only have been worn on rare formal occasions.
 * **Marcus Halconius Rufus** (Pompeii) wears a military uniform with cuirass. This represents his honorary position as military tribune.




 * Usual clothing for men: a knee-length tunic with purple stripes on the back and front. A winder stripe signified one’s higher rank in society.
 * Respectable women wore an ankle-length stola and a woollen //palla// or mantle. These signified her chastity and modesty.




 * Frescoes of everyday life show the clothes that were commonly worn.
 * Frescoes from the **Praedia of Julia Felix** show textiles being sold, a school boy being punished and shoes being sold.

Above: **Punishment of a schoolboy**. A group of at least seven schoolboys, standing or seated with a writing tablet on the knees, beneath a high-columned portico, observe the punishment of a classmate by two male figures who strike him with a whip. The youth, naked for the punishment, is held by the arms and raised from the ground on the shoulders of a classmate, while another restrains his legs. On the left is the magistrate, recognisable by the long tunic and the goatee beard.

Above: **The selling of textiles**. Two ladies seated on a bench are examining a cut of red cloth. Behind them, a serving girl watches the scene. On the right, another vendor with a roll of green cloth on his shoulders is in animated discussion with two ladies: the old one wears a yellow cloak (//palla//) and has her hair gathered in a bonnet; the younger one wears a long red tunic.