Imagine, you are an ancient Roman. It's early morning and you're getting ready for the day. If you're a man you need to get dressed in your toga because you have an important official event to attend today. If you are a woman, you're arranging your palla over your stola. Whether you are a man or a woman though, your clothing is not sewn into a pre-made shape, it needs to be specially draped and held in place. If it isn't securely fastened, you might be embarrassed because it could slip, but luckily you have an ancient safety pin to stop your clothing falling off - a fibula!
When I showed this very basic Roman fibula to the children and explained what it was used for, I was intrigued by their immediate response. The children very quickly made the connection between the Roman fibula and the modern safety pin and were fascinated to think that the safety pin might have had ancient cousins. Although some of the children had seen ancient brooches and fibulae before, it was this use and connection which really seemed to capture their imagination. They were really interested to think about how ancient people, like the Romans dressed and how it was that they stopped their clothing from falling off before zippers, press studs and velcro were invented.
The first question which the children asked about Roman clothing was why they wouldn't simply sew easy to wear clothes with 'proper fastenings'. In the ancient world, because needles weren't as sharp or easy to use as they are today, and they certainly didn't have sewing machines, people tried to keep sewing to the bare minimum. So the ancient people became very good at creating other ways to keep their clothing on. Instead of making clothes which needed lots of sewing they used ties, knots and various types of brooches to keep their clothing done up. Even underwear was usually held on simply with knots! This was where the fibula came in. It was a type of brooch worn by both women and men as a fastening for their clothing. Sometimes fibulae are very elaborate and beautiful and they can be made of precious metals like gold or silver or decorated with gemstones but others were plainer and more functional, like the one I showed the children which was probably bronze. For Romans the fibula was placed at the shoulder to fasten the clothing.
The most famous of the Roman clothing is probably the toga, but it was certainly not the only type of clothing which the Romans wore. In fact, the toga was only worn by men, and only citizens of Rome were allowed to wear it. On top of this, the toga was a 'public garment' and because it was uncomfortable and often very hot, it was not worn at home. Men could not even move their left arm when they were wearing the toga! Most Romans wore a type of tunic called the tunica and this was what Roman men probably wore at home. It was also what they wore under their togas. The tunica was a short tunic, with short sleeves and although Roman people often wore it as 'underwear' slaves, poor people and freed slaves often simply wore it as their clothing. Women also probably wore a tunica underneath their public clothing, though their tunica seems to have been quite long. Over the top of this they could wear another type of tunic called the stola and often this was a little bit shorter than the under tunic and in a contrasting colour. Over the top of all of this women could wear a palla. This was similar to the men's toga, but was smaller and less uncomfortable. If you would like to learn more about Roman clothing, or see pictures, click here, here or here.
When I told Roy about the children's fascination with Roman clothing he immediately became fascinated too, so I can see Roy creating a toga some time soon!