Ancient Rome: Girls' Clothing

Roman girl
Figure 1.--This fresco was found in the ruins of Pompeii. Wealthy Romans decorated their homes with wall paintings ike this. This one dates to the 1st century BC. It was found in the villa Publius Fannius Synistor and depicts a domesticscene. The woman is playing a cithera. We believe that is her daughter standing behind her. Note that the daughter is wearing a dress-like garment, but not as fancy as the one her mother is wearing. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Both boys and girls wore simple white tunics. The only major difference in those tunics was that the boys' tunics had a crimsom border and the girls wore plain white tunics. Girls belted their tunics at the waist. The belts were commonlwoven outof wool. Girls when they appeared in public away from home might wear an outer, longer tunic which might reach down to the ground. Women in the Republican era might wear togas, but this went out of style. The only women wearing togas in the Imperial era were prositiutes. Women seem to be wearing colorful dress-like grments. While available sources tend to describe girls wearing belted tunics, we note some period imagery showing girls wearing dresses like their mothers rather than simple tunics.







HBC






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Created: 11:33 PM 10/15/2008
Last updated: 11:33 PM 10/15/2008