Figure 1.--This is an example of early Christian art, perhaops dating to the 4th century AD. The scene depics Christ's arrest thevnight before the crusifiction. While it depicts a religious scene in Palestone, Christ and the other characters are shown in contemporary Roman garb. Thus it provides an insight into Roman clothing styles. The one boy in the scene is depicted as wearing clothes similar to that of the younger men.

We have no yet found detailed chronological information on Roman children's clothing. We do not in fact know if there were any major changes over the nearly one melinium over which the Roman Republic and Empire persisted. As far as we can tell, there was little change in the basic clothes worn by Roman boys over time. This initial observation, however, needs to be confirmed. The Roman Republic and Empire endured for about an millenium. Surely there were some shifts, but in ancient times fashion trends changed much slower than is the case today. It was common, in fact, for styles to persist over centuries. We have found changes in women's styles, but men and boys' styles seem to have persisted over very long periods. we do not know enough about the topic to be able to deliniate any changes in the basic tunic and toga garments.