CAUSIA

Form: Gr. Kausia.

A flat, broad-brimmed felt hat, worn in Macedonia and by the Macedonian soldiers. When worn by persons high in society it was coloured purple; the kings of Macedon surrounded it with the royal diadem, and thus the purple causia with the diadem continued to be the emblem of sovereignty in the kingdoms which arose from the empire of Alexander. The Macedonian hat was in later times adopted by fishermen and sailors at Rome, and in the imperial period was worn by the higher classes in the theatre as a protection against the sun.