THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN.

FTER the subjugation of the Britons by the Romans, their rule extended over a period of more than 300 years during which the Britons became Romanized in their dress, adopting that and the manners in general of their conquerors: the bracca were discarded, and the short Roman tunic, reaching only to the knee, and capacious mantle, varying but little from their own sagum, were their ordinary covering. Tacitus tells us, that as early as the time of the command of Agricola in England, the British chieftains began to affect the Roman dress.

A few remarks on the costume of the Romans, condensed from Hope's "Ancient Costume," and other more voluminous works devoted to that subject, will sufficiently point out the peculiarities of Roman dress. He tells us, that "the pre-eminent dress of the Romans, and which distinguished them in the most marked way, as well from the Greeks as from the barbarians, was the toga. This they seem to have derived from their neighbours the Etrurians; and it may be called their true national garb. In the earliest ages of Rome, it appears to have been worn by the women as well as by the men, by the lowest orders as well as by the highest, at home as well as abroad, in the country as well as in town: love of novelty probably caused it first to be relinquished by the women; next, motives of convenience, by the men in lower stations; and afterwards, fondness of ease and unconstraint, even by the men of higher rank when enjoying the obscurity of private life, or the retirement of the country. From the unsuccessful attempts, however, first of Augustus, and afterwards of Domitian, entirely to abolish a dress which still continued to remind the people more forcibly than was wished of their ancient liberty, it appears that the toga remained the

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costume of state on all occasions with the patricians until the last days of Rome's undivided splendour; and we may,

Fig. 13.

I think, assert, that not until the empire was transferred to Constantinople did the toga become entirely superseded by that more decidedly Grecian dress the pallium." 1

Mr. Hope is inclined to the opinion that the true form of the toga was semicircular, and that although no tacks or fastenings of any kind are visible, their existence may be inferred from the great formality and little variation dis"In general," he says, formed, as it were, a was left unconfined,

played in its divisions and folds. "the toga seems not only to have short sleeve to the right arm, which but to have covered the left arm down to the wrist. A sort of loop or bag of folds was made to hang over the sloped drapery in front, and the folds were ample enough in the back to admit of the garment being occasionally drawn over the head, as it was customary to do during religious ceremonies, and also probably in rainy weather." The figure of the Roman in his toga, Fig. 13, is copied from one in Hope's book: it very clearly shows its form, with the knobs to keep it down. The toga was formed of wool; the colour in early ages its own natural

A mantle which generally reached to the thigh, and was fastened by a fibula to the right shoulder, allowing free motion to that arm, and covering the left: its corners were loaded by weights to make it sit more straight and elegantly on the body. The Saxon cloak or mantle was precisely similar.

yellowish hue. In later periods this seems, however, only to have been retained in the togas of the higher orders, inferior persons wearing their's dyed, and candidates for public offices having them bleached by an artificial process. In times of mourning the toga was worn black, or left off altogether.

The tunic was a later introduction among the Romans than the toga, and, being regarded as a species of luxury, was discarded by those who displayed and affected humility, such as candidates and others. The tunic of the men

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only reached halfway down the thigh; longer tunics being regarded by them all as a mark of effeminacy, and left to women and to Eastern nations. The inferior functionaries at sacrifices wore the tunic without the toga; so did the soldiers when in the camp. The tunic of senators was edged with a purple border, called latus clavus, and that of the knights with a narrow border, called angustus clavus.

Fig. 14.

"The pallium, or mantle, of the Greeks, from its being less cumbersome and trailing than the toga of the Romans, by degrees superseded the latter in the country and the camp. When worn over armour, and fastened on the right shoulder with a clasp or button, this cloak assumed the name of paludamentum." The figure here engraved is copied from a bas-relief, representing a Roman emperor assisting at a sacrifice, and clothed in this garment, which on these occasions was always drawn over the head, in token of religious re

verence.

"The common people used to wear a sort of cloak made of very coarse brown wool, and provided with a hood, which was called cucullus. This hooded cloak, always given to Telesphorus, the youthful companion of Esculapius, remains to this day the usual protection against cold and wet with all the seafaring inhabitants both of the islands of the Archipelago and the shores of the Mediterranean."

The small cut here given is copied from a figure of Telesphorus, engraved by Hope; and it will at once be

seen how admirably this garb would adapt itself to our more northern climate. The costume of Rome would in many instances be the most comfortable and commodious of dresses; and as it found many analogies in the British garb, the native chiefs had but to discard the bracce to speedily become Romanized. To this they soon accommodated themselves, and it became considered as a barbarism to retain the more uncivilized native dress.

This hooded garment, called bardocucullus Fig. 15. by Martial, who speaks of it as a Gaulish habit, resembled the penula, which is well exhibited on the monument of Blussus at Mayence, here engraved. It was worn over the tunic on journeys and

Fig. 16.

in cold weather,

and also had a hood. In addition to this there was also a cape with a hood (birrus), which was a common vestment, and seems to have been made in Gaul. Blussus is recorded on the monument as a sailor, aged seventy-five years at the time of his death. Beside him is seated his wife, "probably

many years his junior. She seems to have tempered her grief with judgment, and to have taken advantage of the mournful event to set herself forth to the world in her gayest costume. She had evidently dressed carefully for

the portrait. She wears a vest fitting closely to the arms and bust, and at the neck gathered to a frill, which is enclosed by a torque. The cuffs turn back like the modern gauntlet cuffs. Over this hangs a garment, which falls gracefully down in front, and is crossed at the breast over the left arm. The jewellery of the widow is of no common description, nor niggardly bestowed. Upon the breast, below the torque, is a rose-shaped ornament, or brooch, and beneath that a couple of fibula; two more of a similar pattern fasten the upper garment near the right shoulder, and upon the left arm just above the left elbow; an armlet encircles the right arm, and bracelets the wrist. The personal decorations completed, the sculptor has typified some of the lady's domestic virtues by the implements of weaving held in the hand, and the pet dog in her lap." The similarity of these ornaments to many exhumed in Britain and Germany, prove that intermixture of races and their customs noted by Classic writers: thus monuments and relics corroborate history.

The difference of costume between the Roman and British ladies appears to have been not very great. The dress of the Celtic females was generally uniform; a long gown reaching to the feet, and a shorter tunic to the knee. The figure of a Roman matron (p. 18), from a statue in the Capitol, engraved by Hope, has been selected to show how well such a dress would suit the Romanized British females. In his description of the more classic originals, Mr. Hope remarks: "The Roman ladies wore, by way of under garment, a long tunic descending to the feet, and more peculiarly denominated stola. This vestment assumed all the variety of modification displayed in the corresponding attire of the Grecian females. Over the stola they also adopted the Grecian peplum,2 under the name of palla,

I borrow the description and copy the engraving from the second volume of Roach Smith's "Collectanea Antiqua," in which work an abundance of relics of the Roman and Saxon periods are published, greatly illustrative of the costume of both epochs.

2 This article of dress, in the opinion of Mr. Hope, answered to our shawl, as well in texture as in shape. In rainy or cold weather it was worn over the bead; at other times such a mode expressed humility or grief, and was usual in the performance of sacred rites. The intricacy of its own involu