2. Everyday Life - Clothing
• Very little clothing survives from Pompeii and Herculaneum, although frescoes and
statuary provide some idea of what people wore
• Most males wore a tunic , a simple knee-length garment, belted at the waist, usually
made from woollen fabric
• Only citizens were entitled to wear the toga which was only usually worn on formal
occasions
3. Everyday Life - Clothing
• The poorer freeborn working man, freedman
and slave all wore similar tunics loosely tied
at the waist
• Adult male citizens of high status wore a
personalised signet ring that was used to
make an impression in sealing wax in order
to authorise documents
4. Everyday Life - Clothing
• Freeborn women and freed women wore similar
clothing
• Their basic item of clothing was a full, long tunic
(tunica) and assembled in two styles similar to the
Greek style of tunic
• Married women were also expected to wear the
stola, a long sleeveless tunic, frequently if not
always suspended at the shoulders from short straps
• It was worn on the top of the basic tunic
5. Everyday Life - Clothing
• Respectable matrons wore a stola, a long,
sleeveless garment, on top of the tunic and a
long cloak or palla, when they went outdoors
6. Everyday Life - Clothing
• While women of all three classes wore similar styles of garments, the quality and
colour of the fabrics may have varied
• The clothing of poorer working women and slaves would have depended on the
work they did
• Not all slaves were poorly dressed
• The skeleton of a women found near Pompeii had a gold serpent bracelet with the
engraving “from the master to his slave girl”
7. Everyday Life - Clothing
• Women took pride in their
appearance
• They wore jewellery, did their
hair in various styles and
many wore makeup
• Evidence for this comes from
the objects that have been
found: ivory combs, silver or
bronze mirrors, cosmetics and
perfume containers, and
jewellery such as rings,
earrings, necklaces, bracelets,
pins and brooches
