Dictionary
TOGA	100.00%
The distinctive garb of the Roman citizen when appearing in public (see cut). Its use was forbidden to exiles and to foreigners; it was indispensable on all official occasions, even in imperial times, when more convenient garments had been adopted for ordinary use. It consisted of a white woollen cloth of semicircular cut, about five yards long by four wide, a certain portion of which was pressed by the fuller into long narrow plaits. This cloth was doubled lengthways, not down the centre, but so that one fold was deeper than the other. It was next thrown over the left shoulder in such a manner that the end in front reached to the ground, and the part behind was about twice a man's height in length. This end was then brought round under the right arm, and again thrown over the left shoulder so as to cover the whole of the right side from the arm-pit to the calf. The broad folds in which it hung over were thus gathered together on the left shoulder. The part which crossed the breast diagonally was known as the sinus, or bosom. It was deep enough to serve as a pocket for the reception of small articles. In earlier times the Romans wore the toga even in warfare, although one of considerably less width. It was worn on such occasions in a peculiar mode called the cinctus Gabinus (or girding in the Gabian manner, after the town Gabii). In this, the end which, in the other mode, was thrown over the left shoulder, was drawn tightly round the body, so that in itself it formed a girdle, leaving both arms free and preventing the garment from falling off. This garb was subsequently retained only for certain ceremonial rites, as at the founding of towns, at the ambarvalia, during incantations, at the opening of the temple of Janus, and at sacrificial observances of diverse kinds. After the sagum had been introduced as a military garment, the toga served as the exclusive garb and symbol of peace. Women also in olden times used to wear the toga: afterwards this was only the case with prostitutes; and disgraced wives were forbidden to wear the stola, the matron's dress of honour. The colour of the toga, as worn by men (toga virilis), was white: a dark-coloured toga (brown or black, toga pulla or sordida) was only worn by the lower classes, or in time of mourning, or by accused persons. A purple stripe woven in the garment was the distinctive mark of the curule magistrates and censors, of the State priests (but only when performing their functions), and afterwards of the emperors. This, which was called the toga proetexta, was also worn by boys until they attained manhood, and by girls until marriage. The toga picta was a robe adorned with golden stars; it was worn by a general on his triumph, by the magistrate who was giving public games, in imperial times by consuls on entering office, and by the emperor on festal occasions. On the toga candida, seeCANDIDATUS. The foot-gear appropriate to the toga was the calceus (q.v.).
CANDIDATUS	76.74%
The Latin term for a competitor for a public office. He was so called from the peculiar dress in which he usually showed himself to the people in the Forum. This was the toga candida, a new toga whitened with chalk. No one could appear as a candidatus unless his name had been given in to, and accepted by, the authorities presiding over the election.
SAGUM	44.85%
The military cloak of the Roman soldiers, which consisted of a four-concered piece of cloth worn over the armour and fastened upon the shoulder by a clasp. It was a symbol of war, as the toga was the symbol of peace.
LAENA	39.02%
An ancient Roman garment. It was a woollen mantle, fastened by a brooch, of a coarse, shaggy material, twice as thick as an ordinary toga. Under the Empire it was very generally worn as an outer cloak by all classes of society, especially on going out to supper.
PALLA	36.74%
A Roman mantle worn by women, consisting of a square piece of cloth, which matrons wore over the stola, in the same way as the men wore the toga. They let one third fall down in front over the left shoulder, but drew the rest away over the back, and then either brought it forward over the right shoulder, or drew it under the right arm, but in either case threw the end back over the left arm or shoulder (see cut). The palla could also be drawn over the head, just like the toga. Other women, who were not privileged to wear the stola, wore the palla over the tunic, folded together about the body, fastened together on the shoulders with buckles, and open on the right side, or held together in the same way with buckles. It then lay double over the breast and back, but fell down in one thickness to the feet.
TUNICA	36.07%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A garment for men and women worn next the person. With men it was a loose shirt of woollen stuff, consisting of pieces sewn together at the sides, and having either no sleeves or only short ones reaching half way down the arm. Longer sleeves were considered effeminate, and first came into general use in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. Ordinarily the tunica was girded up over the hip, and reached to the knees only. It was considered unbecoming to allow it to appear beneath the lower part of the toga. It was worn by the Roman at home and at work, and also by slaves and strangers. Senators and patricians were distinguished by a tunica with a broad purple stripe (latus clavus, hence tunica laticlavia) extending from the neck to the under seam; the knights by a narrow one (angustus clavus, hence tunica angusticlavia). The purple tunica, adorned with golden palm-branches (tunica palmata), was, with the toga picta (see TOGA) the dress of a general on the occasion of a triumph (q.v.). It very early became the custom to wear beneath the tunic proper a tunica interior, which was of wool. Linen shirts did not come into use until the 4th century A.D. Women also wore a double tunic, an under one consisting of a garment fitting closely to the body and reaching over the knee, and over this the stola (q.v.).
LACERNA	29.08%
The Latin term for a coarse, dark-coloured cloak, fastened on the shoulder by a brooch, which was in use as a protection against rain. It was provided with a hood. In later times the name was given to a light and elegant mantle, either white or dyed in Tyrian purple, which was worn over the toga to complete the costume at games or other outdoor occasions. In the time of Augustus, who forbade its use in the Forum or Circus, it formed part of the military uniform. It was afterwards commonly worn even in Rome itself.
PALUDAMENTUM	28.32%
The short, red mantle of Roman generals, fastened on the left shoulder and worn over the armour. They assumed it on the Capitol on their departure to the war, but on their return they exchanged it for the toga, the garb of peace, before their entry into the city. Under the Empire, when the emperor was the commander-in-chief, the purple paludamentum became exclusively a token of imperial power. It only became the usual attire of the emperors in the 3rd century after Christ. Accordingly, after that time entrance on imperial power was termed "assuming the purple."
TIROCINIUM	27.20%
The Roman term for the interval between the assumption of the toga virilis (in the 16th or 17th year) which marked the beginning of independence and of liability to compulsory military service, and the entrance on a military career or official activity in general. Under the Republic this time was fixed at a year. It was looked upon as the last stage of education, and in this a youth qualified himself either in the army for service in war or in the Forum for a political life. In the latter instance the young man was handed over to the care of a man of proved experience in public affairs, whom he attended in the Forum and in the law-courts. In the former case he followed in the train (cohors) of a general, where, without performing the service of a common soldier, he fitted himself for the position of an officer.
EDUCATION	25.72%
TRIUMPH	24.37%
The Roman festal procession at the head of a victorious host through the city to the Capitol, the highest distinction which could be accorded to a victorious commander. Only the regular holder of the highest command (imperium), a dictator, consul, or praetor, was entitled to this honour, and that too even when the decisive victory had not been fought under his immediate direction. It was also essential that the victory should be an important one gained in a regular war; i.e. not against citizens or rebellious slaves. Permission to celebrate a triumph was granted, with the necessary expenses, by the Senate. Up to the day of the triumph, the general was obliged to remain before the city, because his command expired at the moment he entered it. Accordingly it was outside the city, generally in the temple of Bellona, that the Senate assembled to receive his report. On the day of the triumph, the procession, starting from the Campus Martius, proceeded through the Porta Triumphalis into the Circus Flaminius; then, after entering the city through the Porta Carmentalis, it marched on into the Circus Maximus, and thence to the Via Sacra, and up this across the Forum to the Capitol (see plan under FORUM). The streets were adorned with garlands, the temples opened, and, as the procession passed by, the spectators greeted it with the acclamation, Io triumphe! The procession was headed by the State officials and the Senate. Then followed trumpeters, and after them the captured spoils (see fig. 1); next came painted representations of the conquered country, models of the captured fortresses, ships, etc., either carried on men's shoulders or placed in chariots; then the crowns of honour dedicated to the triumphant general by the towns of the province, originally of bay leaves, later of gold. Then the white bulls intended for sacrifice on the Capitol, with gilded horns, decorated with ribands and garlands, and accompanied by youths and boys in holiday attire, carrying gold and silver chalices. Then followed in chains the distinguished captives who had been spared for the triumph, and whose fate it was, when the triumphal car reached the slope of the Capitol, to be dragged off to prison, there almost invariably to meet with immediate execution. Behind these followed the lictors of the general in purple tunics, with their fasces wreathed in bay leaves; then a body of musicians playing on the lyre, and priests with censers; and lastly the triumphal car, gilded, and garlanded with bay leaves, and drawn by four white horses, which were also wreathed with garlands. On it stood the general; in earlier times his body was dyed with vermilion [Pliny, N. H. xxxiii 111]. His head was wreathed with bay, and he wore the garb of the Capitoline Jupiter, furnished him from the treasury of the Capitoline temple; viz. a purple tunic embroidered with golden palm-shoots (tunica palmata), a toga decorated with golden stars on a purple ground (toga picta), gilded shoes, and an ivory sceptre in his left hand, with an eagle on the top; in his right he carried a branch of bay. Over his head a public slave, standing behind >>>>> 656 TRIUMPHAL ARCHES. him, held the golden crown of Jupiter, and, while the people shouted acclama- tions, called to him, "Look behind you, and remember you are mortal." [Tertullian, Apol. 33.] He also guarded himself against envy and the evil eye by an amulet which he wore either on his person or tied to the car. With him on the car, and some- times on the horses, sat his youngest chil- dren, while his grown up sons rode behind with his lieutenants and officers. The soldiers brought up the rear, all wearing decorations, and shouting Io triumphe! In accordance with ancient custom, they also alternately sang songs in praise of their general, and uttered ribald jests at his expense. On arriving at the temple of Capitoline Jupiter, the general, as a token of his victory, placed on the lap of the god the bay leaves wreathed around the fasces, together with his own branch of bay, or (in later times) a palm-branch, the fasces, and his laurel-shoot. He then offered the sacrifice of thanksgiving (cp. fig. 2). The festival, originally limited to one day, gradually extended itself to several. It concluded with a banquet to the State officials and the Senate, and sometimes also with an entertainment for the soldiers and people. If the permission to celebrate the ordinary triumph were refused to a general, he could undertake one on his own account to the temple of Jupiter Latiaris on the Alban Hill. If the conqueror had not fought under his own auspices, or if his exploits did not appear to merit the highest form of triumph, he was allowed to hold one of an inferior kind called an ovatio. In this the conqueror entered the town either on foot (as in earlier times) or on horseback, clad in the toga proetexta, and with a wreath of myrtle on his brow. Under the Empire, only the emperors triumphed, because the generals commanded as their lieutenants (legati Augusti), under the auspices of the emperors, and not under their own. Victorious generals were then obliged to content themselves with the ornamenta triumphalia; i.e. the right of appearing on holiday occasions in the insignia of triumph, the tunica palmata, or toga picta, and wreath of bay leaves. After Trajan's time, even this kind of military distinction ceased, as all consuls were permitted to wear the triumphal deco- rations during festal processions.
COURTESANS	24.25%
were tolerated in Rome as in Greece; and no objection was raised to the intercourse of unmarried men with these persons. They were under the charge of the aediles, and from the time of Caligula they had to pay a tax to the imperial exchequer. Steeped as they were in infamy, the law even refused to accept their testimony as valid. They were distinguishable from respectable women by their costume; they wore neither stola nor palla, but a shorter tunic without fringe, over which was a toga of darker colour; they were not permitted to adopt the characteristic head-gear of matrons. In the best times the trade was only carried on by slaves and freed-women, but afterwards by free-born women also.
PRAETEXTA OR PRAETEXTATA	23.36%
A class of Roman tragedies, which found its materials, not in the Greek myths, but, in the absence of native legendary heroes, in ancient and contemporary Roman history. The name was derived from the fact that the heroes wore the national dress, the toga praetexta, the official garb, edged with purple, of the Roman magistrates. Naevius introduced them, and, following his example, the chief representatives of tragic art under the Republic, Ennius, Pacuvius, and Accius, composed, in addition to tragedies imitated from Greek originals, independent plays of this kind, which were however cast in the form they had borrowed from the Greeks. We also hear of some plays of this class written by poets of imperial times. The solitary example preserved to us is the tragedy of Octavia, wrongly ascribed to Seneca (q.v.), which perhaps may date from 1 A.D. (Cp. TOGATA.)
BULLA	22.55%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A round or heart-shaped box containing an amulet, worn round the neck by free-born Roman children. The fashion was borrowed from the Etrurians. To wear a golden bulla was originally a privilege of the patricians, which was in later times extended to the equites, and generally to rich and distinguished families. Leather bulloe were worn by the children of families and of freedmen. Boys ceased to wear the bulla when they assumed the toga virilis. It was then dedicated to the Lares, and hung up over the hearth. Girls most probably left it off on marriage. It was sometimes put on by adults as a protection against the evil eye on special occasions, as, for instance, on that of a triumph.(See FASCINUM).
ASCONIUS PEDIANUS	20.69%
a Roman grammarian and historian, probably born at Patavium about the year 3 A.D. He lived latterly at Rome, where he enjoyed the favour of men in high place. During the reigns of Claudius and Nero, having carefully studied the literature of the Ciceronian age, and availing himself of state-papers then existing, he composed for the use of his own sons his valuable historical Commentaries on Cicero's Orations, of which only those on five orations (In Pisonem, Pro Scauro, Pro Milone, Pro Cornelio, In toga candida) are preserved, unfortunately in a very fragmentary condition. The commentaries on the Verrine Orations, which bear his name, belong probably to the 4th century A.D. They treat chiefly of grammatical points. No other works by Asconius have survived. He died, after twelve years' blindness, about 88 A.D.
STOLA	20.59%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The outer garment worn by Roman matrons above the tunica intima or chemise. It was longer than the body, slit open at the top on either side and fastened together by clasps, while below it was provided with a border (instita) woven on to it, and was gathered up below the breast by a girdle so as to form broad falling folds (rugoe). It had either no sleeves or half-sleeves, according as the under tunic had or had not half-sleeves. For the garb of women unmarried or in disgrace, see TOGA. Under the Empire the stola fell gradually out of use. After the 4th century A.D. there appears in its stead the dalmatica, worn by men and women, a kind of tunic with sleeves.
HEBE	20.52%
Daughter of Zeus and Hera, goddess of eternal youth. She was represented as the handmaiden of the gods, for whom she pours out their nectar, and the consort of Heracles after his apotheosis. She was worshipped with Heracles in Sicyon and Phlius, especially under the name Ganymede or Dia. She was represented as freeing men from chains and bonds, and her rites were celebrated with unrestrained merriment. The Romans identified Hebe with Iuventas, the personification of youthful manhood. As representing the eternal youth of the Roman State, Iuventas had a chapel on the Capitol in the front court of the temple of Minerva, and in later times a temple of her own in the city. It was to Jupiter and Juventas that boys offered prayer on the Capitol when they put on the toga virilis, putting a piece of money into their treasury.
LARES	19.41%
The Latin name for the good spirits of the departed, who even after death continue to be active in bringing blessing on their posterity. The origin of the worship of the Lares is traced to the fact that the Romans buried their dead in their own houses, until it was forbidden by the laws of the Twelve Tables. Every house had individually a lar familiaris, who was the " lord " tutelary spirit of the family; his chief care was to prevent its dying out. His image, habited in a toga, stood between the two Penates, in the lararium or shrine of the Lares, beside the household hearth, which in early days was in the atrium; the group as a whole was also commonly called either the Lares or the Penates. The ancient Roman and his children saluted it daily with a morning prayer and an offering from the table; for, after the chief meal was over, a portion of it was laid on the fire on the hearth. When the hearth and the Lares were not in the eating-room, the offering was placed on a special table before the shrine. Regular sacrifices were offered on the calends, nones, and ides of every month and at all important family festivities, such as the birthday of the father of the family, the assumption by a son of the toga virilis, the marriage of a child, or at the reception of a bride, or the return of any member of the family after a long absence. On such occasions the Lares were covered with garlands and cakes and honey; wine and incense, and animals, especially swine, were offered up. Out of doors the Lares were also honoured as tutelary divinities, and in the chapels at the cross-ways (compita) there were always two lares compitales or vicorum (one for each of the intersecting roads) which were honoured by a popular festival (Compitalia) held four times a year (cp. cut). Augustus added to the Lares the Genius Augusti, and commanded two regular feasts to be held in honour of these divinities, in the months of May and August. Further, there were Lares belonging to the whole city (lares proestites). They were invoked with the mother of the Lares, also called Lara, Larunda, or Mania (q.v.), and had an ancient altar and temple to themselves in Rome. The Lares were invoked as protectors on a journey, in the country, in war, and, on the sea. In contrast to these good spirits we have the Larvae (q.v.).
AEDILES	18.79%
The two Plebeian Aediles were appointed B.C. 494 at the same time with the Tribuneship of the Plebs, as servants of the Tribunes, and at first probably nominated by them till 471, when, like them and under their presidency, they began to be elected by the whole body of the Plebs. They took their name from the temple (aedes) of the plebeian goddess Ceres, in which their official archives were kept. Beside the Custody of the plebi-scita, and afterwards of the senatus-consulta, it was their duty to make arrests at the bidding of the tribunes; to carry out the death-sentences, which they passed? by hurling thecriminal down from the Tarpeian rock; to look after the importation of corn; to watch the traffic in the markets; and to organize and superintend the Plebeian and Roman Games. Like the tribunes, they could only be chosen from the body of the Plebs, and wore no badge of office, not so much as the toga praetexta, even after they became an authority independent of the tribunes.
TRIBUNI MILITUM	17.04%
The superior officers of the Roman legions, six in number, two of whom always held the command for two months on alternate days. They were appointed before the levy took place, as they themselves had to be in office at that time. Originally they were nominated by the consuls; afterwards partly by them and partly by the people, inasmuch as the people elected twenty-four out of the number of candidates in the comitia tributa for the four legions which were levied regularly every year, while the consuls retained the appointment for the remaining legions. They were not as a rule taken from veteran centurions, but for the greater part from young men of senatorial or equestrian rank, who had served their first campaign in the train or on the staff of a general, and then began their political career with this office. As a mark of distinction, all of them wore the gold ring of the equestrian order. They also wore a narrow or broad purple stripe on their toga, according as they were of equestrian or senatorial rank respectively. In the time of the Empire, they always led the legion on the march and in battle. They did not, however, as under the Republic, rank immediately below the commanders-in-chief, but under the legatus legionis, the commander of the legion and its auxiliary troops.