Roman Underwear Revisited

Author(s): Kelly Olson

Source: The Classical World, Vol. 96, No. 2 (Winter, 2003), pp. 201-210
Published by: Classical Association of the Atlantic States
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4352739
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SCHOLIA
ROMAN UNDERWEAR REVISITED'
In light of recent notes which directly and indirectly concern Roman
underwear and bedclothes,2 this article attempts both to provide a glossary of Roman terms for such items and to act as a corrective to the
present-day assumptions concerning what Romans wore under their tunics.
Scholarship and reference works have often misidentified the purpose of
undergarments or even supposed their existence without warrant; as has
been observed, it is not easy to discern what the Romans wore as underwear.3 A. T. Croom has recently provided valuable information on the
subject, but the present article seeks to provide a comprehensive account
of descriptive details and sources.4 Literary evidence on the subject is
often misleading, since undergarments were most often the concern of
later antiquarians and lexicographers, some of whom contradict the classical authors as well as each other. Little can be gleaned from artistic
sources.5 Because literary references on the subject are scarce, the sources
utilized here range from Plautus and Varro to St. Jerome and Isidore of
Seville. Change over time is difficult to detect, and authorial inconsistency in description and terminology could be due less to ignorance than
to changes in custom, definition, or semantics. Although the reasons for
inconsistencies may now be irrecoverable, it is important to keep this in
mind in any discussion of Roman garments. We will define "underwear"
for the present purpose as garments worn by the Romans under their tunics; the term is not (anachronistically) restricted to briefs or shorts worn
as underclothes.
1. Female Underwear
Underdresses or undertunics were normal underclothes for women. Martial
mentions a woman wearing tunicae, very likely inner and outer:
Whenever you get up from your chair (I have noticed it
again and again), your unfortunate tunics sodomize you,
Lesbia. You try and try to pluck them out with your left
hand and your right, till you extract them with tears and
groans, so firmly are they constrained by the twin
' Thanks are due to K. R. Bradley, D. Lamari, and CW's anonymous reader for
guidance and comments. This piece is part of a larger study on the appearance of
women in Roman antiquity.
2 See A. C. Dionisotti, "From Ausonius' Schooldays? A School-Book and Its
Relatives," in JRS 72 (1982) 83-125; see sect. 5 (97) for dormitoria. See also N. Adkin,
"Did the Romans Keep Their Underwear on in Bed?" CW 93 (2000) 619-20. On Roman underwear, see A. T. Croom, Roman Clothing and Fashion (Charleston 2000)
39, 56-58, 85-86, 93-96; N. Goldman, "Reconstructing Roman Clothing," in J. Sebesta
and L. Bonfante, eds., The World of Roman Costume (Madison 1995) 233, 235; and
L. Wilson, The Roman Toga (Baltimore 1924) 26-27, and The Clothing of the Ancient Romans (Baltimore 1938) 71-75, 164-66.
3 Adkin (above, n.2) 619 n. 7.
4 Croom (above, n.2). I was not aware of her study until the
final stages of this
article.
I There are however many artistic depictions of the strophium (below, n.27).
And Croom (above, n.2) does incorporate much archaeological and artistic evidence
into her discussion of the subject. And see Goldman (above, n.2) 233.

201

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CLASSICAL WORLD
Symplegades of your ass as they enter your oversized,
Cyanean buttocks. Do you want to know how to correct
this ugly fault? I'll tell you how. Lesbia, I advise you
neither to get up nor sit down.'

The indusium or intusium may have been the name for the undertunic
worn by matrons.7 The TLL defines it as tunica superior mulierum, from
Varro in Nonius: "afterwards they began to wear two tunics, and started to
call them the subucula and the indusium."#Since a subucula is an undertunic,
logically the indusium must be the outer tunic. But Wilson understands
subucula and indusium as specific types of undertunics, not tunics in general, a supposition which is in fact borne out in other ancient sources.'
Nonius states that the indusium is "a garment which clings to the body
inside most clothes";" Varro elsewhere states that it is a garment worn
under [the tunic?]." This is the definition accepted by scholars on clothing.
Plautus mentions the indusium in his list of women's clothing in the Epidicuus
(although he says indusiata [tunica], literally "the tunic that has on an
undergarment")."' But in Apuleius the word indusiatus occurs several times
in reference to male clothes and appears to indicate beautiful boys and
catamites wearing a luxurious (outer) tunic: slave boys (Met. 2.19), cinaedoi
(Met. 8.27), and an actor (Met. 10.30). So the accepted definition is by no
means certain.
The supparus or supparum was another undertunic, mentioned in connection with the costume of the young girl and the bride. The Oxford
Latin Dictionary defines this article of clothing incorrectly, stating that
perhaps it was a scarf or shawl (from Lucan's description [2.364]). Although Varro defines it as a garment worn "above" (the tunic? supra,
hence the name),'3 an undergarment is clearly meant in the few passages
6 Mart. 11.99:

De cathedra quotiens surges-iam saepe notavipedicant miserae, Lesbia, te tunicae.

quas cum conata es dextra, conata sinistra
vellere, cum lacrimis eximis et gemitu:
sic constringuntur gemina Symplegade culi,
et nimias intrant Cyaneasque natis.
emendare cupis vitium deforme'? docebo:
Lesbia, nec surgas censeo nec sedeas.
Translation after D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Martial, Epigrams, vol. 3, Loeb Classical
Library (Cambridge, Mass., 1993). He translates tunicae in the singular.
7 See Wilson, Clothing (above, n.2) 166. Varro (L. 5.131) associates the palla
or mantle with the intusium; hence the assumption by scholars that the latter was the
undertunicof the matron. Croom (above, n.2) 87 doubts in which circumstances undertunics
were worn by women in the Roman period. She notes Christian examples here.
I Non. 870L (542M): Varro de Vita Populi Romani lib. I: 'posteaquam binas
tunicas habere coeperunt. instituerunt vocare subuculam et indusium.'
9 Wilson, Clothing (above, n.2) 165-66.
'0 Non. 866L (539M): indusium est vestimentum quod corp)ori intra pluriinas
vestes adhaeret, quasi intusium. He quotes PI. Epid. 231.
" Var. L. 5.131.
12 PI. Epid.

23 1: indusiatam

patagiatam

caltulam

ac crocotulam.

But, as Wilson,

Clothing (above, n.2) 154 notes, this passage ought to be used with caution, as "Plautus
was much more interested in making Epidicus throw sand in his master's eyes
than he was in giving us accurate information in detail regarding women's dress."
13 Var. L. 5.13 1. But "there is no assurance that, etymologically, it has any connection with ... suprra" (Wilson, Clothing [above, n.2] 165).

SCHOLIA

203

in which the term is used."4 Nonius says the supparum is a linen covering
for the thighs (linteum, i.e., any piece of linen cloth, or it could refer to a
specific garment made of linen), which is worn underneath clothing (subtus)
and which hangs to the feet.'5 He also quotes Novius: "'a pure linen supparum,
from Velia'- 'Absolute bait!' "1' Paul. ex. Fest. states that the supparus is
a piece of linen clothing for girls (he asserts that it is equivalent to the
subucula or camisia; see below, p. 210), and quotes a line from Afranius:
"I'm not a girl even if I am clothed in a supparus."'7 Lucan, the only
author to describe the garment in detail, mentions it as part of the clothing
of the bride and seems to depict it as "narrow" with short sleeves: "no
narrow suppara hanging from the tips of the shoulders enclosed the bare
upper arm."'"
Caltula may have been a short undergarment worn by women. Plautus
merely mentions it in his list of female fashions,'9 but Nonius quotes Varro
in stating that a caltula is a little mantle (palliolum) which women wear
under their tunics, girded up below their breasts, when they no longer wear
the subucula.20 This implies (with Festus) that the subucula is a young
girl's garment, a statement which other classical evidence contradicts.
The strophium or breastband (alternatively called the fascia/ola, taenia,
or mamillare) was a band of linen or cotton wrapped around a woman's
chest, meant to hold the breasts and give them firmness.2' Breastbands
Wilson, Clothing (above, n.2) 165. See also Paul. ex Fest. 407L (31 IM).
Non. 866-867L (540M): supparum est linteum femorale usque ad talos pendens, dictum quod subtus appareat . . . VarroEumenidibus (121). "hic indutus supparum
coronam ex auro et gemmis fulgentem gerit."
16 Non. 866L (540M): Novius Paedio (70): 'supparum purum, Veliense interim''<em> escam meram!' Thanks here to C. G. Brown and C. L. Murison. One editor
has emended interim to linteum (E. Munk, De Jabulis atellanis scripsit fragmentaque
atellanarum poetarum [Lipsiae 1840]). See also 0. Ribbeck, Scaenicae Romanorum
Poesis Fragmenta, vol. 2 (Hildesheim 1962; first pub. 1871) 265. For fowling, hunting, and fishing as metaphorical allusions in Republican Latin imagery, see E. Fantham,
Comparative Studies in Republican Latin Imagery (Toronto 1972) 39-41. P1. As. 221
describes a meretrix as esca. Does this fragment of Novius indicate that the supparum
is intended to act as a lure for a young girl? A prostitute's prospective client?
' Paul. ex Fest. 407L (31 IM): vestimentum puellare lineum, quod et subucula,
id est camisia, dicitur. Afranius (123): 'puella non sum, supparo si induta sum.' See
also Non. 866L (540M).
IX Luc. 2.364: . . . umerisque haerentia primis / suppara nudatos cingunt angusta
lacertos. I cannot explain why the garment is referred to in the plural in this instance.
19 P1. Epid. 231. Caltula is taken by some scholars to refer to a color, not a
garment: see Wilson, Clothing (above, n.2) 154; and caltula is often translated simply as "a short undergarment" without reference to its distinctive color (see the OLD,
on the basis of Varro in Non. 88OL; and Isid. Orig. 19.33.4), but Nonius names the
caltula as a yellow garment, from calta (marigold), in conjunction with crocotula (from
croceus; compare crocota). On the derivation of caltulus, see also Glos.s. Plac. 5.16.2
(52.5); Var. L. 5.131; Ps. FuIg. Rusp. Serm. 69, 942A; J. Andre, Etude sur les termes
de couleur dans la langue latine (Paris 1949) 296; and T. G. Tucker, A Concise Etymological Dictionary of Latin (Halle 1931) 42.
20 Non. 880L (548M): sed caltulam Varro de Vita Populi Romani lib. I palliolum
breve voluit haberi: 'caltula est palliolum praecinctui, quo nudae infra papillas
praecinguntur; quo mulieres nunc et eo magis utuntur, postquam subuculis desierunt.'
21 On the brassiere, see RE, s.v., fiasciae; T. J. Leary, Martial Book XIV: The
Apophoreta (London 1996) 124-25, 198-99, and 211-12; and especially Goldman
(above, n.2) 235, who in experiments with a linen band seventy inches by eight, concludes
that "the band would be most efficiently used as a brassiere bringing the ends around
4

15

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CLASSICAL WORLD

were intended to give support but could also make a flat-chested woman
appear busty (presumably by simply increasing the amount of material
used to wrap).22 The strophium could also flatten breasts that were too
large: Martial begs a breastband to "compress the swelling breasts of my
mistress, so that there may be something for my hand to seize and cover."23
The strophium could also be used for restraining growing breasts: in Terence's
Eunuch, Chaerea confides in his friend Parmeno that his love is "a girl
not like the virgins

in our society

whose

mothers

. . . bind their breasts

to make them slim . . . thus, they are loved" (i.e., the girls attract suitors).24 Nonius says that the breastband is that which restricts or checks
the growth of young women's breasts.25 On an examination of the evidence it is clear that the ideal shape of a woman was different in antiquity: the modern erotic ideal of full breasts, small waist, and rounded
hips has not in fact been a cultural constant. An alluring Roman woman
possessed small breasts and wide hips, an ideal that is borne out by artistic as well as literary evidence.26
The strophium was also a garment that could denote moral stance: the
respectable married woman kept her breastband on even during lovemaking.27
the body from the back so that each long end crossed in front, supporting the breasts."
Strophium: P1. Aul. fr.I; Non. 863L (538M); Cic. Har. 44; and Cat. 64.65. Taenia:
Apul. Met. 10.21. Mamillare: Mart. 14.66; CGL 2.373.16. Fascia: Non. 863L (538M);
Isid. 19.33.6; Prop. 4.9.49; Ov. Ars 3.274, 622; Plin. HN 28.76; Mart. 11.104.7, 14.134;
Tac. Ann. 15.57; and Hier Ep. 22.6.4. Fasciola: Apul. Met. 2.7; and Hier. Ep. 117.73.
22 Ov. Ars 3.274: angustum circa fascia pectus eat. See also Isid. 19.33.6:
1lascia est qua tegitur pectus et papillae conprimuntur, atque crispanti cingulo angustius
pectus artatur. Croom (above, n.2) 95 is of the opinion that the breastband was wrapped
under the breasts when uplift was wanted.
23 Mart. 14.134: Fascia, crescentes dominae compesce papillas, / ut sit quod
capiat nostra tegatque manus. Goldman (above, n.2) 235 states that a linen band shorter
than seventy inches by eight or wrapping the woman's breasts beginning at one end
of the linen band did indeed flatten the breasts. See also Croom (above, n.2) 94-95.
The ideal breast was one that a cupped hand could hold (Ov. Rem 337-338; Maxim.
5.27: urebant oculos durae stantesque papillae / et quas adstringens clauderet una
manus); see Leary (above, n.21) 198-99. Martial's amictorium (a little mantle?) is
made to say, "I fear busty women" (Mart. 14.149; see Leary [above, n.21] 211-12).
Elsewhere, a gift of a mamillare will not be large enough for the large-breasted recipient (Mart. 14.66); the woman had better use a bull's hide: taurino poteras pectus
constringere tergo: / nam pellis mammas non capit ista tuas. (On the large breasts of
nursing mothers, see Leary [above, n. 21] 125, with references. Propertius acknowledged that childbearing made breasts sag [2.15.21-22]).
24 Ter. Eun. 313-317: haud similis virgost virginum nostrarum, quas matres student / demissis umeris esse, vincto pectore, ut gracilae sient. / si qua est habitior
paulo, pugilem esse aiunt, deducunt cibum: / tam etsi bonast natura, reddunt curatura
iunceam: / itaque ergo amantur.
25 Non. 863L (538M): strophium est fascea brevis quae virginalem horrorem cohibet
papillarum. See also Leary (above, n.21) 198-99.
26 Soranus directed nurses to swaddle a female infant tightly at the breasts and
more loosely at the hips, "to take on the shape that in women is more becoming"
(Sor. Gyn. 2.15 [84]). Pliny tells us that epimedion leaves beaten up in wine "check
the growth of maidens' breasts" (HN 27.76: virginum mammas cohibent). For visual
sources, see conveniently J. Clarke, Looking at Lovemaking: Constructions of Sexuality in Roman Art 100 B.C.-A.D. 250 (Berkeley 1998) 150 fig. 49 (scene of lovemaking,
Pompeii, House of the Beautiful Impluvium [1, 9, 1, A.D. 40-45]); and 167 fig. 59
(scene of lovemaking, Pompeii, unknown location [A.D. 62-79]).
27 There are paintings extant from Pompeii which show women making love with
the breastband on as well as off. With strophium: see Clarke (above, n.26) color pls.

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205

Apuleius' Lucius singles out for mention the fact that when one woman
undresses, she takes off all her clothes, "including the band with which
she had bound her lovely breasts."28Martial complains that his wife makes
love with her breastband on (as well as her tunic and mantle).29 It is
interesting to note that slavewomen wore strophia, but whores may not
have: one of Catullus' prostitutes suddenly bares her naked breasts to a
passerby, surely indicating she was not wearing a breastband.30
It does not appear that women in Roman antiquity wore any other kind
of underwear. Female underpants were in fact an invention of the midnineteenth century:
.

. the separation

of women's

even

legs,

by a single

layer of fabric, was thought for many centuries to be

obscene

and unholy.

. .

. [W]omen

wore underskirts,

and

stockings gartered around the knee, but no close coverings over the thighs,

belly,

or behind.

. Female

acro-

bats and dancers wore underpants while performing, of

course, throughout the history of the theatre. They were
a feature of theatrical life that doubtless only strengthened the association between the stage and sexual depravity

in the public

imagination.

. [I]n the early

nineteenth century prepubescent girls wore pantalets, but

respectable

women

did not.

. [U]nderdrawers

became

a respectable accessory, finally a conventional necessity,

only after 1850."3'
There is no literary evidence stating or even implying that a Roman
woman wore underdrawers. The Martial epigram mentioned above ridicules the fact that Lesbia's tunics "sodomize" her when she gets up or
sits down, likely indicating that the woman wore nothing in the way of
underpants.32

II. Male Underwear

Romans in the regal period allegedly wore the toga with no outer
tunic: Aulus Gellius mentions this practice (and early tunics, he states,
left the shoulders bare in contrast to classical ones which covered the
7-8 (male-female couple on bed, Pompeii, House of the Centenary [IX, 8, 6, A.D.
62-79]; male-female couple on bed, from Pompeii, unknown location [A.D. 62-79]).
Without strophium: see again Clarke (above, n.26) 173 fig. 64 (male-female couple
on bed, Pompeii, House of the Vettii [VI, 15, 1, A.D. 62-79]); 185 fig. 72 (malefemale couple, Pompeii, House at IX, 5, 16 [A.D. 62-79]).
28 Apul. Met. 10.21: taenia quoque qua decoras devinxerat papillas. See also
Prop. 2.15.5.
29 Mart. 11.104.7. It should be noted that these are clothes mentioned in the
context of what is appropriate for sex, not for sleeping (contra Croom [above, n.2]
112). This is noted by Adkin (above, n.2) (contra Dionisotti [above, n.2]).
30 Slavewomen: Tac. Ann. 15.57; and Ov. Ars 3.622. Apuleius' Photis wears a
breastband (Met. 2.7), but outside her tunic. Prostitute: Cat. 55.11-12: quaedam inquit,
nudum reduc<ta pectus>, / 'en, hic in roseis latet papillis.'
"' A. Hollander, Seeing through Clothes (Berkeley 1978) 133.
32 Mart. 11.99. This is recognized by Croom (above, n.2) 93. Croom cites artistic evidence here as well, noting that depictions of Venus and nymphs usually wear
breastbands but not underpants, "suggesting that the combination of bra and briefs
was not the usual 'set' of underwear as it is nowadays."

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CLASSICAL WORLD

shoulder).33 Statues of Romulus and Tatius without the tunic were erected
in the time of Tarquinius Priscus.34 Cato the Younger consciously asserted
his old Roman virtue by wearing his toga without a tunic (see below).35
But the outer tunic is not strictly underwear.
There are references to specifically male "underclothes" in the form of
briefs or loincloth (the subligaculum, the campestre, the licium). Cicero
refers to the subligaculum ("that which is girded up from below"; probably put on diaper-like)36 as a loincloth worn by actors:
as for stage-people, their custom, because of its traditional discipline, carries modesty to such a point that no
actor would ever step out upon the stage without a
subligaculum on, for fear he might make an improper
exhibition, if by some accident certain parts of his person should happen to become exposed.37
Surely this implies that most Romans either did not wear the subligaculum
at all or wore it rarely.38 Nonius simply says it is the garment by which
the genitalia (pudendae partes) are covered and gives as an example the
Cicero quotation above.39
Horace mentions a loincloth/briefs, the campestre, which was of a skimpy
nature, as he states that it would not be comfortable to wear when a
snowy wind is blowing.40 Because of its etymology, it is assumed the
campestre was worn by athletes or soldiers, explicitly stated by St. Augustine.4' Isidore of Seville calls it the perizomatum/subcinctorium/campestre
and says that it is the human garment of greatest antiquity. After relating
that Adam and Eve wore campestria of leaves (and that barbarian races
wear them as well), he states that these garments are worn by young men
33 Gell. 6.12.3: viri autem Romani primo quidem sine tunicis toga sola amicti
fuerunt; postea substrictas et breves tunicas citra umerum desinentis habebant.
34 Plin. HN 34.23. On these statues, see R. E. A. Palmer, "Bullae insignia ingenuitatis," in AJAH 14 (1998) 60. S. Stone ("The Toga: From National to Ceremonial
Costume," in Sebesta and Bonfante [above, n.2] 38-39, n.5) notes that on the southwest panel of the Ara Pacis Augustae, Aeneas is portrayed togate but without a tunic.
35 Plut. Cat. Min. 6.3. Croom (above, n.2) 39 notes (on the strength of artistic
evidence) that the fashion of wearing two tunics under the toga began in the late
third or early fourth century: the inner one reaching to mid-calf or ankle, with wristlength sleeves, and the outer slightly shorter with baggy, elbow-length sleeves.
36 Wilson, Clothing (above, n.2) 72 states: "the translation of the words subligaculum
and subligaria as 'apron,' which is sometimes given, is meaningless, and certainly
not warranted by the sense in which they are used. In the case of actors, an apron,
or piece of cloth tied around the waist and hanging down in front of the body, would
have afforded no more protection than the tunic alone."
37 Cic. Off. 1.129: Scaenicorum quidem mos tantam habet vetere disciplina
verecundiam, ut in scaenam sine subligaculo prodeat nemo; verentur enim, ne, si quo
casu evenerit, ut corporis partes quaedam aperiantur, aspiciantur non decore.
38 Contra, for example, Stone (above, n.34) 13.
34 Non. 42L (29M): subligaculum est quo pudendae partes corporis teguntur:
dictum quod subtus ligetur.
40 Hor. Ep. 1.11.18: campestre nivalibus auris.
41 August. C. D. 14.17: campestria, id est succinctoria genitalium. . . . Porro autem
campestria'Latinumquidem verbumest, sed ex eo dictum quod iuvenes qui nudi exercebantur
in campo pudenda operiebant. Unde qui ita succincti sunt, campestratos vulgus appellat.
This refers, of course, to Adam and Eve. See also Isid. Orig. 19.33.1.

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exercising.42 Cato the Younger reportedly went out in public in warm weather
with a campestre under his toga instead of an outer- (or under-) tunic,
citing the habits of regal Romans as an illustrious precedent.43 Plutarch
repeats the story of this eccentricity (without any mention of the campestre)
and adds that Cato would also sometimes leave off his shoes as well, in
order to accustom himself only to feel shame for what was really shamefu1.44 Was the point of this that if the outer tunic was omitted, a campestre
or similar was required under the toga?
Loincloths were worn on their own as well.45 The Twelve Tables describe an ancient ritual which, "if exercised with success, branded one a
jur manifestus.

. If one searched

premises

for stolen

goods,

wearing

only a loincloth (licium), and carrying a salver (lanx), and found the
goods, the occupier of the premises was a fur manifestus."46 Gaius inquired, "What, it has been asked, is the licium? Probably it is some sort
of cloth for covering the private parts."47 The mill slaves in Apuleius'
Metamorphoses are also wearing loincloths, a symbol of their degraded
condition: "some had thrown on a tiny cloth that just covered their loins."4x
Participants in the Lupercalia also appeared in public clad simply in
briefs or loincloths.49
The subligaculum (and the like) is mentioned only in relation to actors,
workers (see below), slaves, and athletes. It seems unlikely that Roman

42 Isid. Orig. 19.22.5: vestis antiquissima hominum fuit perizomatum, id est

subcinctorium, quo tantum genitalia conteguntur. Hoc primum primi mortales e foliis
arhorum sibi fecerunt, quoniam post praevaricationem erubescentes pudenda velarunt.
Cuius usum quaedam barbarae gentes, dum sint nudae, usque hodie tenent. Haec et
campestria nuncupantur, pro eo quod eisdem iuvenes, qui nudi exercentur in campo,
pudenda operiunt. See also August. C. D. 14.17. Although genitalia is occasionally
used of female pudenda (e.g., Cels. 4.1.11), it usually refers to male: see J. Adams,
The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (Baltimore 1982) 57-58.
43 Asc. ad Cic. In Scaurianam 25: Cato praetor iudicium, quia aestate agebatur,
sine tunica exercuit campestri sub toga cinctus. In forum quoque sic descendebat iusque
dicebat, idque repetierat ex vetere consuetudine secundum quam Romuli et Tati statuae
in Capitolio et in rostris Camilli fuerunt togatae sine tunicis (Orationum Ciceronis
quinque enarratio, ed. A. Clark [Oxford 1956; first pub. 1907]). See Wilson, Roman
Toga (above, n.2) 26; and Plut. Coriol. 14.1.
44 Plut. Cat. Min. 6.
45 See Croom (above, n.2) 57-59.
See Gaius Inst. 111 192-194; this was therefore a search lance et licio. See
4
J. A. C. Thomas (Textbook of Roman Law [Amsterdam 1976] 358), who notes that
"the procedure is of obscure origin, and appears to have been obsolete already in the
second century B.C'."
4 Gaius Inst. III 193: quid sit autem licium? quaesitum est. Sed verius est consuti
genus esse, quo necessariae partes tegerentur. An alternate reading of licium is present
in another manuscript: linteum. The TLL defines licium as "filum sim" (but filum can
also be a ricinium worn in a religious rite: Livy 1.32.6 [capite velato filo]).
4
Apul. Met. 9.12: nonnulli exiguo tegili tantum modo pubem iniecti. In the
visual sources gladiators are also shown wearing a loincloth: the subligaculum?
4
Plut. Rom. 21.5; Cic. Phil. 3.12. See H. H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies
of the Roman Republic (Ithaca 1981) 246 n. 82. The loincloths of the participants were
known as amicula Junonis. Interestingly, men wearing briefs or a loincloth are described
as "naked" (nudi), which means not entirely naked but having a bare chest and/or bare
legs (see also Isid. Orig. 19.22.5). See J. Heskel, "Cicero as Evidence for Attitudes to
Dress in the Late Republic," in Sebesta and Bonfante (above, n.2) 137.

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men wore briefs as everyday wear under their tunic:50 they are not mentioned by any author, except in the case of Cato, and here it seems that
the omission of the tunic and the donning of the campestre in its place
was deliberate eccentricity and excited criticism. There is some indirect
evidence which may also indicate the subligaculum was not regular underwear for Roman men. Valerius Maximus reports that as the assassinated
Caesar fell, his modesty was such that "with both hands he let his gown
fall so that the lower part of his body was covered as he collapsed."5
This implies that Caesar did not want himself indecently exposed as he
fell, even in death. And one method of public waste disposal took the
form of large jars called doliae, placed at street corners and the entrances
to shops or sunk into the ground to collect urine. Macrobius wrote of
certain rich young advocates that "because they have a bladder full of
wine, there is no amphora in the narrow street they do not fill up."52
Clearly the doliae presuppose that Roman men could quickly and easily
urinate in public; it seems unlikely that men regularly wore a diaper-like
subligaculum under their tunics, which might have hindered this practice.
III. Male/Female Underwear
Some underwear is spoken of in relation to men and women. The subligar
may have been equivalent to the subligaculum (and in fact the similarity
of their etymology may indicate the interrelationship). Pliny states that it
was worn by workers gathering and refining incense; Juvenal names it as
an actor's garment. It is also mentioned in relation to a woman: Martial
counsels the female fellatrix Chione to wear a/her subligar over her face
when she bathes, i.e., to veil the part which is the more shameful. Chione's
profession is unclear (prostitute? actress?), as well as whether all women
wore this garment in the public baths.53 The subligar may in fact be the
garment the women are wearing in the mosaic of the "Bikini Girls" at
Piazza Armerina in Sicily;s4 Philaenis, the masculine female athlete in
Martial 7.67, is described as subligata. Unfortunately, due to the paucity
s Croom (above, n.2) 57 notes that the practice of wearing a subligaculum under the tunic was not universal and links it to the length of the tunic worn. In the
Middle Ages men did in fact wear briefs under their tunics, which, when the tunics
gradually shortened during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, "emerged and were
refined into elegant, visible leg coverings" (Hollander [above, n.31] 132-33).
51 Val. Max. 4.5.6: si quidem utraque togam manu demisit, ut inferior pars corporis tecta collaberetur. This story is also found in Suetonius, who states that the dying
Caesar drew his toga over his head as he fell and at the same time "drew down its
sinus to his feet with his left hand, in order to fall more decently, with the lower part
of his body also covered" (simul sinistra manu sinum ad ima crura deduxit, quo honestius
caderet etiam inferiore corporis parte velata, Suet. lul. 82.2; and App. BC 2.117).
52 Macr. 3.16.15-16
(see also Mart. 6.93; 12.48). The urine was rounded up by
the Roman fullers, for use in dyeing and tanning. See A. Scobie, "Slums, Sanitation,
and Mortality in the Roman World," Klio 68 (1986) 414; and W. Moeller, The Wool
Trade of Ancient Pompeii (Leiden 1976) 20. One of the tavernae on the ground floor
of an Ostian tenement has a large dolia sunk into the floor. This could have been
filled with wine to keep it cool; or again, it could have been used as a urinal (Cassegiato
del Thermopolium [I, ii, 5]; room 18. See R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia, 2nd ed. [Oxford
19731 143 and 428-29).
5 Plin. HN 12.59; Juv. 6.70; Mart. 3.87.3-4
(tecta tamen non hac, qua debes,
parte lavaris: / si pudor est, transfer subligar in faciem).
S4 On which see Goldman (above, n.2) 233-35; and recently C. J. Simpson, "The
'Bikini Girls' of the Piazza Armerina and Prudentius' Psychomachia: Narrative and

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209

of evidence, there is no way to tell if there were any differences between

the subligar, subligaculum, campestre, and licium.
The subucula was an undertunic worn by both sexes. Varro states that
some say men take pleasure in dissimilitudino and in not having their
wives' undertunics all identical.55 Horace is indignant that a tattered subucula
beneath his silky tunic is a subject for ridicule (besides indicating that it
was worn by men, this passage also suggests that it may have been visible).56 Augustus wore a subucula as protection against the cold.57
Feminalia or fascia/fasciola refer to bands worn about the thighs due
to cold or ill health or as military wear,58 assumed by men and possibly
women. But fascia/fasciola is simply the generic Latin term for bandage
or wrapping, and thus can refer to such a wrap used as a brassiere, as a
head ribbon, leg wrappings, or even swaddling bandages (thus SHA Clodii
Albini 5.9.3);59 fascia in the plural, however, seems usually to mean leg
coverings. In his description of the women's clothing worn by Clodius
when he infiltrated the Bona Dea celebration, Cicero mentions purple fasceolae,
which may indicate that for women the wrappings had a decorative as
well as a functional purpose.60 Tibiale were similar in form, but protected
the lower part of the leg.6' Men or women could wear chest protectors in
cold weather under their tunics: the thorax62 or capitium.63
And what, if anything, did the Romans wear in bed? Propertius complained that Cynthia sleeps "wrapped up" (amicta) on the edge of the bed.64
Isidore of Seville mentions a garment called a camisia, stating, "camisiae
Allegory," Latomus (forthcoming). I am grateful to Prof. Simpson for letting me see
the proofs of this article. For archaeological and artistic evidence of the subligar, see
Croom (above, n.2) 95.
"5 Var. L. 9.46: itaque in vestitu in supellectile delectari varietate, non paribus
subuculis uxoris. It is unclear why men delighted in this. Were many different undertunics
a sign of wealth or social status? Did it carry erotic implications? See also Non.
870L (542M) (above, n.8).
56 Hor. Ep. 1.1.95-96: si forte subucula pexae / trita subest tunicae. Croom (above,
n.2) 39 notes that the undertunic is not visible in Roman art until the third or fourth
century A.D.
17 Along with four outertunics: see Suet. Aug. 82.
18 See Wilson, Clothing (above n.2) 73; Croom (above, n.2) 56-57. Leggings
assumed from ill health or due to cold: Suet. Aug. 82; Quint. Inst. 11.3.144; Hor. S.
2.3.255. As military wear: Cic. Att. 2.3.1; Val. Max. 6.2.7 (an instance in which the
word appears in the singular and thus it may mean a small bandage used to dress a
wound); Petron. 40 (of a hunter); Pliny HN 8.221. On military leggings, see Wilson,
Clothing (above, n.2) 73-75. Mentioned: Isid. Orig. 19.22.29-30.
59 Noted by Croom (above, n.2) 93-95.
60 Cic. Har. 44: P Clodius a crocota, a mitra, a muliebribus soleis purpureisque
fasceolis, a strophio, a psalterio, a flagitio. But the fasceolae in question could easily be hair ribbons. The only other mention of a woman in leg wrappings occurs at
Juv. 6.262-263, in reference to an athletic (and therefore unfeminine) woman (quanta
/ poplitibus sedeat quam denso fascia libro). In Cic. Att. 2.3.1 Pompey's leg wrappings are described as cretatae, artificially whitened.
61
Wilson, Clothing (above, n.2) 73; Suet. Aug. 82; in Dig. 49.16.14.1 the tibiale
is spoken of as part of the soldier's armour.
62 Suet. Aug. 82 (of the emperor); Lucil. Sat. 2.26 (in a list of what appears to
be feminine garments: chirodyti aurati, ricae, thoracia, mitrae). See also Juv. 5.143,
in which the thoracia seem to be children's wear.
63 See Dig. 34.2.23.2 (women); Var. L. 5.131 and Gell. 16.7.9 (indeterminate).
64 Prop. 3.21.8: extremo dormit amicta toro. Elsewhere (2.29.15) the sleeping
girl is depicted in a Sidonia nocturna mitra (a purple nightcap?).

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are called so because we wear them in camis, that is, in our beds."65
Although the scholiast on Horace (Ep. I. I1. 18) states that campestre, id
est camisia subtilis, Isidore asserts (Orig. 19.21 . 1, although the garment
here appears to be sacerdotal clothing) that a camisia was similar in form
to an undertunic: poderis est sacerdotalis linea, corpori adstricta et usque
ad pedes descendens, uinde et nuncupata; quam vulgo camisiam vocant.""
Festus equates the camisia with the subucula and the supparus (see above);
so perhaps the camisia was in fact similar in form to the undertunic and
could be worn by both men and women.67 N. Adkin notes a passage from
St. Jerome's Contra Vigilantium (I I), in which it is strongly implied that
some form of nightwear was worn in fourth-century Gaul, but it is problematic to assume the garment in question was the subligaculum.6" In fact,
St. Jerome reproaches Vigilantius (routed out of bed by a nocturnal earthquake and somewhat drunk) that tu et tunica et fide nudus, indicating the
nightwear the terrified priest failed to assume was probably a camisia,
nightwear similar in form to the undertunic.
To conclude, it seems there were a number of different vestments the
Romans could wear under their tunics. Some were worn mainly by actors,
slaves, workers, eccentrics, or athletes (the subligar or subligaculum); others
by girls or brides (the supparus), some by those sensitive to cold weather
or prone to ill health (feminalia/fasceola; tibiale; thorax, capitium). Nightwear
(likely similar in form to an undertunic) is mentioned; most women wore
a strophium or breastband. But there is no evidence that Romans who
were not athletes, actors, or workers wore any kind of briefs or shorts as
underclothes, and the normal underwear for men and women seems to
have been some form of undertunic (the indusium, or subucula)."9
Universityof WesternOntario
Classical World96.2 (2003)

KELLYOLSON
kolson2@uwo.ca

65 Isid. Orig. 19.22.29: camisias vocari quod in his dormimus in camis, id est
in stratis nostris.
66 See also Hier. Ep. 64.11.
67 For dormitoria ("nightclothes"), see Dionisotti (above, n.2), sect. 5
(97); but
this word does not occur outside the glossaries (see TLL 5. 1, col. 2036.42-44 and
47-51 [s.v. dormitorius]).
68 Adkin (above, n.2) 620. Croom (above, n.2) 59 relates the fifth-century writer
Sulpicius Severus' story of the Christian man warming himself by the fire with his
legs apart and so exposing his groin (Dial. 3.14: et admota sibi sellula divaricatis
pedibus super ignem illum nudato inguine resideret).
69 Noted by Croom (above, n.2) 112.