Post by Zadkiel on Jan 28, 2016 15:57:36 GMT
This myth has been stereotyped so often that most people believe it! Few Romans ever wore the toga and then only occasionally.
The toga was a formal costume, reserved for a few very special occasions. It wasn’t a sheet, as most people think, but a huge semicircle of cloth which wrapped around the body in a highly complex way. You needed help from two people to put it on and then, you had to hold up your left arm awkwardly or it would just fall off again. In some places, it was made a legal requirement for politicians. They were supposed to be wearing it in the first place, but until it was made law, they preferred to simply not bother.
The toga evolved through Roman history from simpler, more practical ancestors and was then kept around for symbolic reasons. Only Romans were allowed to wear them and it came to be an iconic symbol for Rome itself. That’s probably why they went down in history so much more than day-to-day clothes. Even if you preferred not to, the fact that you could wear a toga was a sign you were a true Roman.
So if togas were so rare, what did the Romans really wear? Well the most important part of Roman costume was a tunic – a simple, neat garment a bit like a long T-shirt. If you were a woman, you’d then wear something over the top called a stola, which was a dress fastened at the shoulders with brooches. Despite another popular misconception, Roman clothes were almost never white – apart from being boring, that would show the dirt far too easily. Much like with modern fashions, all sorts of things were popular, but blue seems to have been a particular favourite colour.
The toga was a formal costume, reserved for a few very special occasions. It wasn’t a sheet, as most people think, but a huge semicircle of cloth which wrapped around the body in a highly complex way. You needed help from two people to put it on and then, you had to hold up your left arm awkwardly or it would just fall off again. In some places, it was made a legal requirement for politicians. They were supposed to be wearing it in the first place, but until it was made law, they preferred to simply not bother.
The toga evolved through Roman history from simpler, more practical ancestors and was then kept around for symbolic reasons. Only Romans were allowed to wear them and it came to be an iconic symbol for Rome itself. That’s probably why they went down in history so much more than day-to-day clothes. Even if you preferred not to, the fact that you could wear a toga was a sign you were a true Roman.
So if togas were so rare, what did the Romans really wear? Well the most important part of Roman costume was a tunic – a simple, neat garment a bit like a long T-shirt. If you were a woman, you’d then wear something over the top called a stola, which was a dress fastened at the shoulders with brooches. Despite another popular misconception, Roman clothes were almost never white – apart from being boring, that would show the dirt far too easily. Much like with modern fashions, all sorts of things were popular, but blue seems to have been a particular favourite colour.
