Ancient Rome

Values and History:

Founded on the Palatine hill along the river Tiber. Rome eventually became a republic ruled by Senators. It became a powerful empire, using its armies to conquer neighboring lands. Eventually became a dictatorship, ruled by a series of emperors. It spit into two states and fell finally to a series of invasions.

Culture and though influenced by the Greeks, but distinct in its strict laws and relentless conquests.
Ancient Rome was a man’s world. In politics, society and the family, men held both the power and the purse-strings – they even decided whether a baby would live or die.

Families were dominated by men. At the head of Roman family life was the oldest living male, called the "paterfamilias," or "father of the family." He looked after the family's business affairs and property and could perform religious rites on their behalf.

Absolute power

The paterfamilias had absolute rule over his household and children. If they angered him, he had the legal right to disown his children, sell them into slavery or even kill them.

Only the paterfamilias could own property: whatever their age, until their father died, his sons only received an allowance, or peliculum, to manage their own households.

Sons were important, because Romans put a lot of value on continuing the family name. If a father had no sons then he could adopt one – often a nephew – to make sure that the family line would not die out.

Materfamilias

Roman women usually married in their early teenage years, while men waited until they were in their mid-twenties. As a result, the materfamilias (mother of the family) was usually much younger than her husband.

As was common in Roman society, while men had the formal power, women exerted influence behind the scenes. It was accepted that the materfamilias was in charge of managing the household. In the upper classes, she was also expected to assist her husband’s career by behaving with modesty, grace and dignity.

Baby love?

The influence of women only went so far. The paterfamilias had the right to decide whether to keep newborn babies. After birth, the midwife placed babies on the ground: only if the paterfamilias picked it up was the baby formally accepted into the family.

If the decision went the other way, the baby was exposed – deliberately abandoned outside. This usually happened to deformed babies, or when the father did not think that the family could support another child. Babies were exposed in specific places and it was assumed that an abandoned baby would be picked up and taken a slave.

Infant mortality

Even babies accepted into the household by the paterfamilias had a rocky start in life. Around 25 percent of babies in the first century AD did not survive their first year and up to half of all children would die before the age of 10.

As a result, the Roman state gave legal rewards to women who had successfully given birth. After three live babies (or four children for former slaves), women were recognized as legally independent. For most women, only at this stage could they choose to shrug off male control and take responsibility for their own lives.

Women:

Women had no rights - arranged marriages by the age of 12 or so. Women spent their days on housekeeping and making clothes. Wealthy women had servants or slaves. The paterfamilis had absolute power over the family. Women did not leave the house unaccompanied and spent most of their time in the gynaceum.

Resources:

Wool and linen initially, then silks and cottons from India.

Footwear:

Sandals and low boots.

Jewelry:

Minimal and Greek inspired.

Grooming:

Elaborate hair dressing with curls and wigs. Cosmetics and public baths.

Workers hanging up clothing to dry, wall painting from a dye shop (fullonica)at Pompeii

Roman 735 BCE - 330 AD

Roman Costume

Until about 100 BC, Roman costume is hardly different from Greek costume of the same period except for the toga. Roman formality in the Republican periods reflected many of the Greek costume. There was the difference of the construction of the garments for the Greek chiton formed its sleeves from the top of the doubled rectangles, where the tunica and stola opened their sleeves at the sides for armholes.
Men wore the toga, which was as sign of a distinguished Roman citizen. There were many different types of togas for different occasions, from the Toga pura, the ordinary dress of citizens, to the Toga trabea, a parti-colored toga with a purple border which would be a king's toga or a augur's toga. Men wore their hair closely clipped to the head with short locks falling on the forehead and neck. The men wore their face smooth-shaven and if they had a beard it would be one that was close clipped with mustache.
Women wore their hair much like Greek styles at first but as they period matured women wore their hair in elaborate coiffures. The women would frizz, intricately braid, coil, and pile false blond or red tresses in to grotesque designs. The would wear decorations and headdresses in their hair as well. The women would wear the stola, which was once called the Greek chiton, most of the days. If a woman who had shamed her honorable estate was deprived the right to wear the stola she would wear the make toga as a sign of her degradation.
There was more cream and white in the Roman times than in the Greek scene because togas were usually white. Rich people would wear purple because it was an expensive dye. Men would have wore blue and crimson too. Important men would wear red shoes. Women would have larger range of colors like scarlet, violet, marigold yellow, crocus yellow, hyacinth-purple, sea-green and blue. The colors were almost pastel but a little stronger. If a women were to marry she would wear flame and white.

Notable Roman Costuming Elements

Toga—Outer garment, which was the badge of the Roman citizen, rich or poor. Originally the rectangular Greek pallium made into a ellipse, the draping of which developed infinite complications. Of wool, it was characteristically in bleached white.

Tunica—Wide, shirt-like, undergarment, the indoor dress of the Roman; worn outdoors without the toga only by working people. It was not, like the toga, distinctly Roman. Originally sleeveless and woolen, usually white, it acquired sleeves and was later made of linen and cotton as well. The tunic was girded with meticulous care to the exact length considered correct for the rank and the sex of the wearer.

Sinus—The fold of the toga that can be put over the head like a hood.

Umbo—Toga fold on the front of the garment that forms a pocket at the bottom of he sinus.

Paludentum—A purely military mantle, used as the official military mantle of the general in command, or the emperor while in the field. Used particularly in the earlier years, before the first century AD. In cut, it resembled the chalmys or lacerna with two corners truncated to form an elongated, primitive semicircle.

Clavi—Colored bands on the tunica, indicating the wearer's rank. With time the clavus lost distinction, and the by the first century it was worn by every one. The clavi then became more elaborately decorative in character, broke into spots of decoration, and amalgamated with borders at the hem of the garment. Augustus clavus: For equestrian knights: a narrow band running up over each shoulder and down to hem on tunic or ungirded dalmatica. Laus clavus: Single, wide clavus worn by senators.

Stola—Woman's garment. Worn over the tunica intima (which was of similar cut, might or might not have sleeves, and which served as a housedress.) The stola had sleeves like the men's tunica, or was pinned along the shoulder line and down the arms. It was girded once under the breast and often girdled again at the hips.

Lorica - This was a cuirass of brass or bronze, molded to the shape of the body with perfect fit and following the line of the abdomen. Frequently enriched with relief and ornaments in metal work.