Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture

438 Pages·2008·1.9 MB·English

by  Jonathan Edmondson

ROMAN DRESS AND THE FABRICS OF ROMAN CULTURE
PHOENIX
Journal of the Classical Association of Canada
Revue de la Société canadienne des études classiques
Supplementary Volume xlvi
Tome supplémentaire xlvi
Studies in Greek and Roman Social History i
EDITED BY JONATHAN EDMONDSON AND
ALISON KEITH
Roman Dress and the Fabrics of
Roman Culture
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2008
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-0-8020-9319-6
Printed on acid-free paper
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Roman dress and the fabrics of Roman culture / edited by Jonathan
Edmondson and Alison Keith.
(Phoenix. Supplementary volume = Tome supplémentaire ; XLVI)
(Studies in Greek and Roman social history ; I)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-0-8020-9319-6
1. Clothing and dress – Social aspects – Rome. 2. Clothing and dress – Rome.
I. Edmondson, J.C. II. Keith, Alison Mary III. Series: Phoenix.
Supplementary volume (Toronto, Ont.) ; XLVI IV. Series: Phoenix.
Supplementary volume (Toronto, Ont.). Studies in Greek and
Roman social history ; I
GT555.R65 2008 391′.00937 C2007-906269-5
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing
program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing
activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry
Development Program (BPIDP).
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Contributors ix
List of Figures xi
Abbreviations xvii
Introduction: From Costume History to Dress Studies 1
jonathan edmondson and alison keith
PART I INVESTMENTS IN MASCULINITY
1 Public Dress and Social Control in Late Republican and Early Imperial
Rome 21
jonathan edmondson
2 Togam virilem sumere: Coming of Age in the Roman World 47
fanny dolansky
3 The Double Identity of Roman Portrait Statues: Costumes and Their
Symbolism at Rome 71
michael koortbojian
4 The ‘Dark Side’ of the Toga 94
michele george
5 (Un)Dressed to Kill: Viewing the Retiarius 113
michael carter
vi Contents
PART II FASHIONING THE FEMALE
6 The Appearance of the Young Roman Girl 139
kelly olson
7 Covering the Head at Rome: Ritual and Gender 158
elaine fantham
8 Designing Women: The Representation of Women’s Toiletries on
Funerary Monuments in Roman Italy 172
leslie shumka
9 Sartorial Elegance and Poetic Finesse in the Sulpician Corpus 192
alison keith
PART III THE CULTURAL POETICS OF DRESS
10 The Woven Garment as Literary Metaphor: The Peplos in Ciris 9–41 205
riemer faber
11 Spinning the Trabea: Consular Robes and Propaganda in the Panegyrics
of Claudian 217
michael dewar
12 Appearing for the Defence: Apuleius on Display 238
keith bradley
13 Tertullian’s De Pallio and Roman Dress in North Africa 257
t. corey brennan
14 Prudery and Chic in Late Antique Clothing 271
guy p.r. métraux
References 295
Index Locorum 331
General Index 353
PREFACE
Since the publication of the path-breaking collection of papers on Roman
dress by Sebesta and Bonfante in 1994, there has been a dramatic increase in
social historical and in cultural studies of dress and adornment in the ancient
Mediterranean world. This interest has manifested itself in a number of
volumes on clothing in classical Greece (Llewelyn-Jones 2002 and 2003) or
more wide-ranging work covering a wide chronological range (Cleland,
Harlow, and Llewellyn-Jones 2005). The time is therefore ripe for a more
focused and coherent treatment of ancient Roman dress. This is timely
because recent scholarship in classical studies has shown the benefits of an
approach based in sociocultural history and gender studies. We undertook a
review of the general literature on dress studies in crosscultural perspective
in order to identify major themes that would benefit from more detailed
treatment in the Roman context. To this end, we gathered a group of emi-
nent scholars to explore the theme and exchange ideas at a seminar in Tor-
onto. The editors circulated to the contributors a draft introduction to the
volume and asked them to revise their papers on the basis of that document
and discussions at the seminar.
We consider that our volume will be of interest primarily to Roman cul-
tural historians but also to students of Roman literature and art history. We
believe that the volume will also prove valuable and attractive to social, cul-
tural, and gender historians of other periods. Accordingly, we have asked the
contributors to provide translations of all quotations from Greek and Latin
authors and to contextualize their evidence as clearly as possible.
We would like to express our gratitude to all our contributors, who
responded to our invitation with enthusiasm, participated in the discussions
with gusto and collegiality, and both composed their original papers and
revised their chapters for the volume with alacrity and acumen. We are par-
viii Preface
ticularly grateful to our institutions, the University of Toronto and York
University, for their generosity and commitment to the project. At York
University, we are most grateful to the Office of the Vice-President (Aca-
demic), the Faculty of Arts, the Department of History, the Division of
Humanities, and the Programme in Classical Studies. At the University of
Toronto, we are indebted to the Department of Classics, Victoria College, the
Institute of Women’s Studies and Gender Studies, and New College. Phoe-
nix, Journal of the Classical Association of Canada, also provided support for
the original seminar and has since shown interest in including the resulting
volume in its two recently launched subseries in Gender Studies and Greek
and Roman Social History. We would like to thank Phoenix’s Mary White
Fund, Victoria College at the University of Toronto, the Dean of the Faculty
of Arts, the Faculty of Arts, and the small SSHRC/CRSH grant fund at York
University for their generous financial assistance towards the costs of the
illustrations. We are also grateful to the University of Toronto Press and
to the senior humanities editor, Suzanne Rancourt, for their enthusiastic
support of this volume, and to Beth McAuley and Richard Ratzlaff for their
skill and efficiency in seeing it through to publication.
Jonathan Edmondson
Alison Keith
Toronto, February 2007
CONTRIBUTORS
keith bradley (frsc) is Eli J. Shaheen Professor of Classics and Concurrent
Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame.
t. corey brennan is Associate Professor and Chair of Classics at Rutgers
University.
michael carter is Associate Professor and Chair of Classical Studies at
Brock University.
michael dewar is Professor of Classics at the University of Toronto.
fanny dolansky is Assistant Professor of Classics at Brock University.
jonathan edmondson is Professor of Roman History and Classical Studies
at York University, Toronto.
riemer faber is Associate Professor and Chair of Classical Studies at the
University of Waterloo.
elaine fantham is Professor Emerita of Classics at Princeton University and
Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto.
michele george is Associate Professor and Chair of Classics at McMaster
University.
alison keith is Professor and Chair of Classics at the University of Toronto.
x Contributors
michael koortbojian is Nancy H. and Robert E. Hall Professor in the
Humanities at Johns Hopkins University.
guy p.r. métraux is Professor of Greek and Roman Art at York University,
Toronto.
kelly olson is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of
Western Ontario.
leslie shumka is Assistant Professor of Classical Studies at Mt Allison Uni-
versity.