{"id":780,"date":"2020-02-08T21:49:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T02:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=780"},"modified":"2023-02-24T07:33:26","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T12:33:26","slug":"critics-of-the-toga","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/chapter\/critics-of-the-toga\/","title":{"raw":"Criticizing the Toga and Roman Masculinity","rendered":"Criticizing the Toga and Roman Masculinity"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\nThis chapter asks you to think about:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>How important it was to conform to certain standards of dress as a Roman male<\/li>\r\n \t<li>What criticism of dress and the prejudices about appearance reveals about Roman elite society<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>ROMAN MEN WEARING MAKEUP<\/strong><\/h5>\r\nRoman men were not supposed to wear makeup or dye their hair, but many did. The Romans valued youth and vigour and expected their politicians, who were often also their generals, to reflect that. The following excerpt from [pb_glossary id=\"594\"]Plutarch[\/pb_glossary]\u00a0records how the rumour that the consul Marius had not received his scars in battle was used as propaganda against him:\r\n<blockquote>[pb_glossary id=\"1015\"]Marius[\/pb_glossary] was elected triumphantly, and at once proceeded to gather soldiers contrary to law and custom, enlisting slaves and poor people. Former commanders never accepted such people, but bestowed arms, like other favours, as a matter of distinction on persons who had the proper qualification: a man's property being thus a sort of security for his good behaviour. These were not the only occasions of ill-will against Marius; some haughty speeches, spoken with great arrogance and contempt, gave great offence to the nobles[footnote]Ie people whose families had already held the consulship and were old Roman families, compared to Marius who was none of these things.[\/footnote]; as, for example, his saying that he had carried off the consulship as a spoil from the effeminacy of the wealthy and high-born citizens, and telling the people that he gloried in wounds he had himself received for them, as much as others did in the monuments of dead men, and the <em>[pb_glossary id=\"1012\"]imagines[\/pb_glossary] <\/em>of their ancestors.\r\n\r\nPlutarch,\u00a0 <em>Life of Marius<\/em><\/blockquote>\r\nWhile the toga was a powerful social symbol in ancient Rome, how one wore (or refused to wear) the toga left men vulnerable to criticism. If how a person wore the toga was intrinsically linked to Roman conceptions of masculinity, then to attack what someone was wearing was to attack their <em>[pb_glossary id=\"453\"]virtus[\/pb_glossary] \u2014<\/em>\u00a0'manliness'. [pb_glossary id=\"76\"]Cicero[\/pb_glossary] emasculated those who supported his political competitor Catiline by portraying them as people who had transgressed all sorts of Roman norms. Notice how Cicero escalates from using clothing and self-grooming as a basis of attack to stating that they are degrading the Roman Republic itself:\r\n<blockquote>21 There is a last class, last not only in number but in the sort of men and in their way of life: Catiline\u2019s private bodyguard, personally selected; the friends of his embraces and of his heart, whom you see with carefully combed hair, glossy, beardless, or with well-trimmed beards, with tunics with sleeves or reaching to the ankles, and draped in veils, not with togas. All the effort of their lives, all the work of their sleepless nights is spent in suppers that last until dawn. 22 In these bands are all the gamblers, all the adulterers, all the unclean and shameless citizens. These boys, so witty and delicate, have learned not only to love and be loved, not only to sing and to dance, but also to brandish daggers and to administer poisons. Unless they are driven out, unless they die, even should Catiline die, I warn you that the school of Catiline would exist in the republic. But what do those wretches want? Are they going to take their wives with them to the camp? How can they do without them, especially in these nights? And how will they endure the Apennines, and these frosts, and this snow? Maybe they think that they will endure winter more easily because they have been in the habit of dancing naked at their feasts. Yes \u2013 we should really dread a war when Catiline is going to have a bodyguard of whores!\r\n\r\nCicero, <em>Second Speech Against Catiline <\/em>21-22<\/blockquote>\r\nIn the following, the poet [pb_glossary id=\"189\"]Juvenal [\/pb_glossary]attacks men who wear makeup and take care of their appearance in what he sees as feminine ways:\r\n<blockquote>One draws out his eyebrows with some damp soot on the edge of a needle and lifts up his blinking eyes to be painted, another drinks out of an obscenely-shaped glass, and ties up his long locks in a gilded net; he is clothed in blue checks, or smooth-faced green; the attendant swears by Juno like his master. Another holds in his hand a mirror like that carried by the effeminate [pb_glossary id=\"151\"]Otho[\/pb_glossary]\u2026\r\n\r\n\u2026It was an even greater monstrous event when Gracchus,[footnote]Although the Gracchi were a very ancient Roman family, the name is used here to note any elite Roman claiming illustrious ancestry, rather than any specific person.[\/footnote] dressed in a tunic, fought as a gladiator, and fled, trident in hand,[footnote]He fought as a retiarius, a type of gladiator who wore very little clothing and fought with a net and trident. [\/footnote] across the arena \u2014 Gracchus, a man of nobler birth than the Capitolini, or the Marcelli, or the descendants of Catulus or Paulus, or the Fabii: nobler than all the spectators in the podium; not excluding him who gave the show[footnote]The emperor.[\/footnote] at which that net was flung.\r\n\r\nJuvenal, <em>Satire 2<\/em><\/blockquote>\r\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>ATTACKING ROME BY ATTACKING ROMAN FASHION<\/strong><\/h5>\r\nThough the toga was a signifier of Roman class and masculinity, Christian moralists undermined this by approaching the topic of dress and self-grooming to attack Roman [pb_glossary id=\"1079\"]pagans[\/pb_glossary] as corrupt and unmanly. For example, the Christian bishop, and later saint, [pb_glossary id=\"603\"]Tertullian[\/pb_glossary], attacked Roman men for spending too much time on their appearance:\r\n<blockquote>I, a man and envious of women, am banishing them from their own domains. Are there, in our case too, some things which we should not do because of the sobriety we are to maintain on account of the fear we owe God? If it is true, (as it is) that a defect of nature has implanted the will to please in men for the sake of women, just as in women for the sake of men, and if our gender acknowledges that it uses deceptive trickeries of form peculiarly its own, such as cutting the beard too sharply or plucking it out here and there; shaving round about the mouth; arranging hair and disguising its greyness by dyes; removing all the hair on the body as it appears; fixing each hair in its place with some womanly pigment; smoothing all the rest of the body by the aid of some rough powder or other: then, also, taking every opportunity for consulting the mirror and gazing anxiously into it. While, when once the knowledge of God has put an end to all wish to please by means of sexual attraction, all these things are rejected as frivolous and hostile to modesty. For where God is, there modesty is, and there is sobriety as her assistant and ally.\u00a0 How, then, shall we practise modesty without her instrumental mean, that is, without sobriety? How, moreover, shall we bring sobriety to bear on the discharge of the functions of modesty, unless seriousness in appearance and in countenance, and in the general aspect of the entire man, mark our carriage?\r\n\r\nTertullian, <em>On the Dress of Women<\/em> 2.8.2<\/blockquote>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>REFLECT<\/h3>\r\nDo you find it significant that this passage on the dress of men is from Tertullian's <em>On the Dress of Women<\/em>?\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\"><em>CONTENT WARNING<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n\r\nThe following passage is quite vitriolic. It concern's Tertullian speaking about men dressing as women and the Greek Hero Achilles. Areas of Transphobia are very palpable here.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nAs wearing the toga was a way for men to show their Romanness, it proved appealing wear for anyone who wanted to perform Romanness. Tertullian, true to his hateful self, also wrote an entire speech praising Greek pallium, a cloak-like garment, that attacked the wearing of the toga by the men of [pb_glossary id=\"782\"]Carthage[\/pb_glossary]. In the process he also has a lot to say about how men and women should dress:\r\n<blockquote>4.2 A change of clothing only starts to be a fault if it is not custom that is changed, but nature. There is an important difference between the honour we owe to the past and to religion. Let custom faithfully follow the age, and nature God. 3 So Achilles[footnote]Achilles, one of the greatest Greek heroes, was predicted to have a short life if he took up a life of warfare. So his mother hid him away and had him reared by the centaur Chiron, who is the monstrous teacher referred to above; later she dressed him in a dress and hid him with a princess and her court. He could only lured out when Odysseus turned up with weapons which he enthusiastically grabbed at.[\/footnote] caused a breach of nature by changing into a girl, he, the man who had been reared on the marrow of wild beasts (this, then, is how he got his name, since his lips had not tasted breast milk), a hero who was taught by a coarse, wood-dwelling, monstrous teacher in a stony school! One may willingly tolerate in the case of a little boy a mother's concern. But no doubt he was already covered with hair, no doubt he had already secretly proved himself a man to somebody when he still put up with a woman's flowing robe, doing his hair, applying make-up, consulting the mirror, caressing his neck, his ears made effeminate by piercing, as may still be seen in his bust at Sigeum.[footnote]A location in Ancient Greece[\/footnote]\u00a04\u00a0Certainly, later he is a warrior, for necessity restored his gender! There had been sounds from the battlefield, and weapons were close by. 'Iron itself,' so it is said, 'attracts a man.' Anyway, if he had persisted in being a girl even after this incentive, he might as well have got married \u2013 how about that for a change?! 5 A monstrosity, then, he is, a double one: from a man he became a woman, and then from a woman a man, although neither the truth should have been denied, nor the lie confessed. Either form of change was bad: the former ran counter to nature, the latter was against his safety.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;<\/blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Reflection<\/h3>\r\nReflect on how Tertullian links a person's gender with the clothing that they are wearing. What do his ideas on the connection between clothing and gender say about how vital clothing was to social assimilation in ancient Rome? How have things changed or stayed the same in the last 2000 years?\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nTertullian continues...\r\n<blockquote>3 More degrading still were complete changes in a man's dress because of lust rather than some maternal fear. Nonetheless you adore that man who ought to make you feel ashamed, this 'club-arrow-hide-bearer',[footnote]The hero Hercules who wore as his distinctive dress a lion skin, and carried a club. He spent a year serving the Eastern queen Omphale, who liked to make him wear her clothes while she dressed up in his. According to most versions of the story, Hercules does not seem to have minded this arrangement.[\/footnote] who exchanged the outfit mentioned in his name for a woman's attire. So much then was granted to the Lydian secret mistress, that Hercules prostituted himself in Omphale, and Omphale in Hercules... 4 But there is something too about the man who earlier had come close to Hercules, Cleomachus the boxer.[footnote]Cleomachus was infamous in antiquity. According to Strabo (14.1.41), he fell in love with a [pb_glossary id=\"630\"]cinaedus[\/pb_glossary] and then with a girl that had been raised for the sex trade; as a result, again according to [pb_glossary id=\"476\"]Strabo[\/pb_glossary], he started copying the mannerisms and clothing of a cinaedus. To fully realize the impact of this you have to understand that ancient boxing was brutal: there were no rounds and no weight classes and people basically just pounded each other anywhere (often with lead in wraps around their hands) until one keeled over. (Deaths occurred.) These were the manliest of manly men.[\/footnote] At Olympia he underwent an unbelievable change from his male condition by being cut inside and outside his skin. Well, he earns a crown amidst the <em>Fullers<\/em> of Novius (Roman dramatist) and he has rightly been mentioned by the [pb_glossary id=\"1087\"]mime[\/pb_glossary]-writer Lentulus in his <em>Catinenses<\/em>![footnote]Both of these were Roman playwrights who had written comedies featuring him as a character (the comedies do not survive).[\/footnote] Surely, just as he covered the traces of boxing-gloves with bracelets, so he replaced the coarse sportsman's wrap with some thin, loose-fitting garment. 5 About Physco or Sardanapallus we must keep silent: if they were not remarkable for their lusts, no-one would know them as kings.<strong>\u2026<\/strong>[footnote]In the short missing section Tertullian rants on about philosophers wearing expensive, purple garments.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n8 Such clothing, therefore, that is not in agreement with nature and modesty deserves sharply fixed stares, pointing fingers, and critical nods. Really, if with Menandrean luxury a man can be trailing a refined dress behind him may he hear close by the words the comic author heard: 'What is this madman spoiling a splendid cloak?' But now that the eyebrow of censorial watchfulness has disappeared, how much ground for criticism does the lack of distinction provide? 4 [You can see] freedmen dressed liked equestrians, slaves scarred with floggings in the dress of the nobility, captives dressed as freeborn, and country folk as city dwellers, idiots as men of the forum, citizens as soldiers. The corpse-bearer, the pimp, and the trainer of gladiators: they dress like you. 9 Look at women too. There you may see what Severus Caecina[footnote]Aulus Caecina Severus, a Roman consul in 57 BC. [\/footnote]\u00a0stressed before the Senate: matrons appearing in public without stolas. 2 Under the decrees of the augur Lentulus, those who had disgraced themselves this way were punished as if for sexual misbehaviour, since the garment that was the witness and guard of dignity had been felt to be an impediment to practice fornication and so had sedulously been dropped by some women. 3 But now, committing lechery against themselves and making themselves more easily accessible, they have renounced the stola, the linen attire, the rustling bonnet, the hairy head-dress, yes, even the litters and portable chairs, in which they had been kept private and apart even in public. 4 But some put out their own lights, while others kindle lights that are not theirs\u20264.10 And when the manager of the public toilets fans her silken gown, and comforts with necklaces a neck that is less pure than the toilets, and uses bracelets \u2014 which, as parts of what was given to brave men, even matrons would indiscreetly have owned - to insert her hands that are guilty of every shameful deed, and fits on her maculate leg a white or reddish shoe, then why do you not look at these garments?\r\n\r\n\u2026 5.2 Now I will interrogate your conscience: how do you feel in a toga: dressed or oppressed? Is it like wearing clothes or enduring them? 2 If you deny this, I will follow you home, and I will see what you rush to do right after you get in the door. No other garment is taken off with such relief as the toga! 3 We say nothing about the shoes, that special torture of the toga, that most impure covering of the feet, and a false one too. For who would not be better off stiffening barefoot in heat or cold, than fettered in shoes? 4 Sure, a great support for walking has been taken care of by Venetian shoemaker-workshops in the form of effeminate boots! (5.3) 1 But there is nothing so convenient as the <em>pallium<\/em>, even if it is double, as that of Crates. On no occasion there is a waste of time in dressing, for all the effort it takes consists in loosely covering oneself.\r\n\r\nTertullian, <em>On the Pallium<\/em>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;<\/blockquote>\r\nFashion could also be used to attack Rome from within the nation itself. The poet [pb_glossary id=\"455\"]Martial[\/pb_glossary], in the late first century CE, attacked current standards of male beauty none of which he agreed with and none of which were \"traditional\". Martial appeared to be quite critical of the measures Romen men were taking to be good looking, and ends up being quite mean about it in the following poem:\r\n<blockquote>Cotilius, you\u2019re a good looking guy; Cotilius, many people say this.\r\n\r\nI hear it: but tell me \u2014 what is a good looking guy?\r\n\r\nA good looking guy is: one who arranges his curls in order\r\n\r\nWho always smells of balsam and cinnamon\r\n\r\nWho sings Egyptian songs, who hums Spanish ones\r\n\r\nWho moves his hairless arms to different beats\r\n\r\nWho wastes his entire day alongside women\u2019s chairs\r\n\r\nAnd who always is whispering something in someone\u2019s ear\r\n\r\nWho reads and writes notes here there and everywhere\r\n\r\nWho shields his\u00a0<em>pallium\u00a0<\/em>from neighbouring arms\r\n\r\nWho knows who loves whom, who is going to parties,\r\n\r\nWho knows in and out the ancient heritage of Hirpinus.\r\n\r\nWhat are you saying! Is this this,\u00a0<em>this,\u00a0<\/em>really a guy?\r\n\r\nThen, Cotilius, your guy is something deeply troubling.\r\n\r\nMartial Epigrams 3.63\r\n\r\n&nbsp;<\/blockquote>\r\n<div><\/div>\r\n<div>\r\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>ROMAN MEN DRESSING LIKE ROMAN WOMEN<\/strong><\/h5>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">CONTENT WARNING<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n\r\nThis following section includes a harsh condemnation of what could be precieved now as people having a gender expression that differs from \"the norm\". In this section, the author Juvenal lashes out at men who did not conform to the idealized Roman man and Seneca The Younger tries to enforce a regidity between who gets to be masculine and who gets to be feminine.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div>\r\n\r\nThe satire author [pb_glossary id=\"189\"]Juvenal[\/pb_glossary], though being a great source for the ancient Roman world, does not make for an easy read. Here in <em>Satire 2, <\/em>he is writing on the topic of hypocrites: people who are moralists in public, but privately engage in immoral behaviour. In this rather nasty poem, however, we can see how tightly connected criticism of dress was connected with attacks on behaviour.\u00a0<em>\r\n<\/em>\r\n<blockquote>What will not other men do when you, Creticus,[footnote]Most likely an invented name, meant to evoke a highy aristocratic family[\/footnote] dress yourself in garments of gauze, and while the people are marvelling at your outfit, attack the Proculae and the Pollittae?[footnote]Seemingly these were names that once cited brought female adultery to the Roman mind; they may also be the names of some actual women, who had presumably been involved in some infamous adultery cases.[\/footnote] Fabulla is an adulteress; condemn Carfinia of the same crime if you please; but even if found guilty, they would never wear such a toga as yours.[footnote]Women convicted of adultery were not allowed to wear the stola, the garment of respectable women, but had to wear the toga, like prostitutes.[\/footnote] \"O but,\" you say, \"these July days are so hot and humid!\" Then why not speak [in court] without clothes? Such madness would be less disgraceful. Yours is a nice outfit in which to propose or expound laws to our countrymen flushed with victory and with their wounds yet unhealed, and to those mountain peasant who had laid down their ploughs to listen to you![footnote]Juvenal is going back to some old standards here: hard peasant soldiers and farmers coming to the city after a long day at the farm had not been a thing in Rome for a long, long time before this was written \u2013 if they ever had been in the way that later Romans imagined.[\/footnote] What would you not say if you saw a judge dressed like that![footnote]Juvenal is going back to some old standards here: hard peasant soldiers and farmers coming to the city after a long day at the farm had not been a thing in Rome for a long, long time before this was written \u2013 if they ever had been in the way that later Romans imagined.[\/footnote]Would a toga of gauze be appropriate to a witness? That you, Creticus, you, the keen, unbending champion of human liberty, are clothed in a see-through outfit! This plague has come upon us by infection and it will spread further, just as in the fields the scab of one sheep, or the mange of one pig, destroys an entire herd, and just as one bunch of grapes takes on a sickly colour from the appearance of its neighbour.<\/blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Question Box:<\/h3>\r\nFemale prostitutes and adulterers were forced to wear the toga, a male garment, in public. If the toga represented morality and the elite among Roman men, why did it represent social shame when worn by women? May this have something to do with the maintenance of gender roles in ancient Roman society?\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nJuvenal continues...\r\n<blockquote>Someday you will try something more shameful than this dress; no one reaches the depths of turpitude all at once. In due time you will be welcomed by those who in their homes put headbands on,[footnote]Headbands were apparently one mark of a respectable matron, though we can\u2019t be sure of how often they were worn in reality.[\/footnote] drape themselves with necklaces, and propitiate the Bona Dea with the stomach of a pig and a huge bowl of wine, though by an evil usage the goddess warns off all women from the door; none but males may approach her altar.[footnote][6] Bona Dea was a goddess worshipped by women in all female gatherings and she was considered an important goddess for the well being of Rome[\/footnote] \"Away with you! profane women\" is the cry; \"no booming horn, no she-minstrels here!\"... One draws out his eyebrows with some damp soot on the edge of a needle and lifts up his blinking eyes to be painted, another drinks out of an obscenely-shaped glass, and ties up his long locks in a gilded net; he is clothed in blue checks, or smooth-faced green; the attendant swears by Juno like his master. Another holds in his hand a mirror like that carried by the effeminate [pb_glossary id=\"151\"]Otho[\/pb_glossary], a trophy of the Auruncan Actor, in which he gazed at his own image in full armour when he was just ready to give the order to advance \u2014 a thing notable and novel in the annals of our time, a mirror among the weapons of Civil War! It needed, in truth, a mighty general to kill Galba, and keep his own skin shaved; it needed a citizen of highest courage to copy the splendours of the royal palace on the field of Bebriacum, and plaster his face with dough! Never did the quiver-carrying Semiramis have something like this in her Assyrian realm nor the despairing Cleopatra on board her ship at Actium. There is no decency of language here, no regard for table manners. You will hear all the foul talk and squeaking tones of Cybele; a grey-haired frenzied old man presides over the rites; he is a rare and notable master of the art of gluttony and should be hired to teach it. But why wait any longer when it is now time to lop off the extra flesh in Phrygian fashion?[footnote]Here he refers to the custom of the Galli, the priests of Cybele, of self-castration.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nGracchus [footnote]Like Creticus, this is likely an invented name[\/footnote] has presented to a cornet player \u2014 or perhaps it was a player on the straight horn \u2014 a dowry of four hundred thousand sesterces. The contract has been signed; the prayers have been pronounced; the banqueters are seated, the new made bride is reclining on the bosom of her husband. You elites of Rome! Is it a soothsayer that we need, or a censor? Would you be more aghast, would you deem it a greater omen, if a woman gave birth to a calf, or an ox to a lamb?[footnote]The Romans had great faith in omens sent by the gods, and Juvenal lists some 'historical' examples of omens the Romans had seen over the years.[\/footnote] The man who is now arraying himself in the flounces and train and veil of a bride once carried the quivering shields of Mars by the sacred thongs and sweated under the sacred burden![footnote] This is a reference to the dancing priests of Mars, the Salian Priesthood. It was a highly aristocratic and exclusive priesthood and its priests did the dance of Mars for the good of Rome in full armour through the streets the Rome.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nFather of our city, where did such wickedness among your Latin shepherds come from? How did such a lust possess your grandchildren, Gradivus?[footnote]Another name for the god Mars[\/footnote] Behold! Here you have a man of high birth and wealth being handed over in marriage to a man, and yet neither shakes your helmet, nor strike the earth with your spear, nor yet protests to your Father? Away with you then; begone from that broad [pb_glossary id=\"1186\"]Campus Martius[\/pb_glossary] which you have forgotten! One says, \"I have a ceremony to attend at dawn to-morrow, in the Quirinal valley.\" \"What is the occasion?\" \"No need to ask: a friend is taking a husband; quite a small affair.\" Yes, and if we only live long enough, we shall see these things done openly: people will wish to see them reported among the news of the day.[footnote]This refers to daily report of significant public business and news in the city of Rome, posted publicly for all to read.[\/footnote] Meanwhile these want-to-be brides have one great trouble: they can bear no children with which to keep the affection of their husbands; has nature done well in granting to their desires no power over their bodies. They die infertile; the medicine-chest of the bloated Lyde is no help, neither is holding ut their hands to the blows of the swift-footed Luperci![footnote]This was another aristocratic priesthood. These ran nearly naked through the streets of Rome once a year whipping women as they ran past with leather whips. This was believed to bring fertility. [\/footnote]\r\n\r\nIt was an even greater monstrous event when Gracchus, dressed in a tunic, fought as a gladiator, and fled, trident in hand, across the arena \u2014 Gracchus, a man of nobler birth than the Capitolini, or the Marcelli, or the descendants of Catulus or Paulus, or the Fabii: nobler than all the spectators in the podium; not excepting him who gave the show at which that net was flung. That there are such things as Manes, and the realms below the earth, and punt-poles, and Stygian pools black with frogs, and all those thousands crossing over in a single boat-these things not even boys believe, except such as have not yet had their penny bath. But just imagine them to be true-what would Curius[footnote]Although the name of Gracchus above is made up, these are the names of historical great Roman heroes.[\/footnote] and the two Scipios think? Or Fabricius and the spirit of Camillus? What would the legion that fought at the Cremera think, or the young manhood that fell at Cannae; what would all those gallant hearts feel when a shade of this sort came down to them from here? They would wish to be purified; if only sulphur and torches and damp laurel-branches were to be had. Such is the degradation to which we have come! Our arms indeed we have pushed beyond Juverna's shores, to the new-conquered Orcades and the short-nighted Britons; but the things which we do in our victorious city will never be done by the men whom we have conquered. And yet they say that one Zalaces, an Armenian more effeminate than any of our youth, has yielded to the ardour of a Tribune! Just see what evil communications do! He came as a hostage: but here boys are turned into men. Give them a long stay in our city, and lovers will never fail them. They will throw away their trousers and their knives, their bridles and their whips, and carry back to Artaxata the manners of our Roman youth.\r\n\r\nJuvenal, <em>Satire<\/em> 2<\/blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Exercise<\/h3>\r\nTake a few moments to consider Juvenal's quote that \"someday\u00a0[Creticus] will try something more shameful than this dress; no one reaches the depths of turpitude all at once.\"\u00a0How does Juvenal's escalation from dressing in gauze into complete moral upheaval reflect possible fears about the stability (or lack thereof) of Roman societal standards?\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nMany of the details of this story were invented and exaggerated for various reasons; still, some men in reality clearly resisted clothing norms. For example, in a discussion of inheritance law, the <em>[pb_glossary id=\"105\"]Digest[\/pb_glossary]<\/em>\u00a0mentions in passing a senator who clearly liked to dress in women\u2019s evening wear:\r\n<blockquote>There is no difference between the expressions \u2018garments for men\u2019, and \u2018clothing for men\u2019, but the intention of the testator sometimes creates difficulty, if he himself was accustomed to make use of some garment which was also suitable for women. Therefore it should, by all means, be ascertained whether the garment bequeathed was the one which the testator had in his mind, and not that which was actually destined for the use of women or for men.\r\n\r\nFor Quintus Mucius says that he knew a certain Senator who was in the habit of wearing women's clothing at the table and who, if he should bequeath a garment used by women, would not be considered to have had in his mind one which he himself was accustomed to make use of, as if it was one suitable for his sex.<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div>\r\n<blockquote><em>Pomponius, On Quintus Mucius, Book IV. <\/em><em>Digest <\/em>34.2.33<\/blockquote>\r\nRomans moralists (of which there were quite a number) were particularly horrified at deviations from what they felt was the proper manly attire of a Roman male. [pb_glossary id=\"713\"]Seneca the Younger[\/pb_glossary] attacked those who wore women\u2019s dress, as well as tried to look younger than their ages, either to preserve their sexual appeal for others or so they could take up sexual roles that the Romans only thought suitable for younger men and teenagers.\u00a0It is relevant to note that Seneca the Younger's opinions are rightfully antiquated.\r\n<blockquote>7\u00a0Surely you believe that men who put on women\u2019s clothing live contrary to nature? Do not men live contrary to nature who try to look fresh and boyish at an age unsuitable for such an attempt? What could be more cruel or more wretched? Cannot time and manhood ever carry such a person beyond an artificial boyhood?\r\n\r\nSeneca the Younger, <em>Letters <\/em>122.7<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nLooking like a Roman man \u2014 performing like one \u2014 in antiquity no doubt too time and energy, particularly for the upper class. However, even among the deepest critics of unmanly Romans, such as Cicero, it was dificult to maintain this strict form of masculinity.\r\n<div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nBibliography and Further Reading:\r\n\r\nOLSON, KELLY. \"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/24616489?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Masculinity, Appearance, and Sexuality: Dandies in Roman Antiquity<\/a>.\" <i>Journal of the History of Sexuality<\/i> 23, no. 2 (2014): 182-205.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n<p>This chapter asks you to think about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How important it was to conform to certain standards of dress as a Roman male<\/li>\n<li>What criticism of dress and the prejudices about appearance reveals about Roman elite society<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>ROMAN MEN WEARING MAKEUP<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Roman men were not supposed to wear makeup or dye their hair, but many did. The Romans valued youth and vigour and expected their politicians, who were often also their generals, to reflect that. The following excerpt from <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_594\">Plutarch<\/a>\u00a0records how the rumour that the consul Marius had not received his scars in battle was used as propaganda against him:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_1015\">Marius<\/a> was elected triumphantly, and at once proceeded to gather soldiers contrary to law and custom, enlisting slaves and poor people. Former commanders never accepted such people, but bestowed arms, like other favours, as a matter of distinction on persons who had the proper qualification: a man&#8217;s property being thus a sort of security for his good behaviour. These were not the only occasions of ill-will against Marius; some haughty speeches, spoken with great arrogance and contempt, gave great offence to the nobles<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Ie people whose families had already held the consulship and were old Roman families, compared to Marius who was none of these things.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-1\" href=\"#footnote-780-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a>; as, for example, his saying that he had carried off the consulship as a spoil from the effeminacy of the wealthy and high-born citizens, and telling the people that he gloried in wounds he had himself received for them, as much as others did in the monuments of dead men, and the <em><a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_1012\">imagines<\/a> <\/em>of their ancestors.<\/p>\n<p>Plutarch,\u00a0 <em>Life of Marius<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While the toga was a powerful social symbol in ancient Rome, how one wore (or refused to wear) the toga left men vulnerable to criticism. If how a person wore the toga was intrinsically linked to Roman conceptions of masculinity, then to attack what someone was wearing was to attack their <em><a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_453\">virtus<\/a> \u2014<\/em>\u00a0&#8216;manliness&#8217;. <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_76\">Cicero<\/a> emasculated those who supported his political competitor Catiline by portraying them as people who had transgressed all sorts of Roman norms. Notice how Cicero escalates from using clothing and self-grooming as a basis of attack to stating that they are degrading the Roman Republic itself:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>21 There is a last class, last not only in number but in the sort of men and in their way of life: Catiline\u2019s private bodyguard, personally selected; the friends of his embraces and of his heart, whom you see with carefully combed hair, glossy, beardless, or with well-trimmed beards, with tunics with sleeves or reaching to the ankles, and draped in veils, not with togas. All the effort of their lives, all the work of their sleepless nights is spent in suppers that last until dawn. 22 In these bands are all the gamblers, all the adulterers, all the unclean and shameless citizens. These boys, so witty and delicate, have learned not only to love and be loved, not only to sing and to dance, but also to brandish daggers and to administer poisons. Unless they are driven out, unless they die, even should Catiline die, I warn you that the school of Catiline would exist in the republic. But what do those wretches want? Are they going to take their wives with them to the camp? How can they do without them, especially in these nights? And how will they endure the Apennines, and these frosts, and this snow? Maybe they think that they will endure winter more easily because they have been in the habit of dancing naked at their feasts. Yes \u2013 we should really dread a war when Catiline is going to have a bodyguard of whores!<\/p>\n<p>Cicero, <em>Second Speech Against Catiline <\/em>21-22<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the following, the poet <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_189\">Juvenal <\/a>attacks men who wear makeup and take care of their appearance in what he sees as feminine ways:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>One draws out his eyebrows with some damp soot on the edge of a needle and lifts up his blinking eyes to be painted, another drinks out of an obscenely-shaped glass, and ties up his long locks in a gilded net; he is clothed in blue checks, or smooth-faced green; the attendant swears by Juno like his master. Another holds in his hand a mirror like that carried by the effeminate <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_151\">Otho<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2026It was an even greater monstrous event when Gracchus,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Although the Gracchi were a very ancient Roman family, the name is used here to note any elite Roman claiming illustrious ancestry, rather than any specific person.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-2\" href=\"#footnote-780-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a> dressed in a tunic, fought as a gladiator, and fled, trident in hand,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"He fought as a retiarius, a type of gladiator who wore very little clothing and fought with a net and trident.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-3\" href=\"#footnote-780-3\" aria-label=\"Footnote 3\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[3]<\/sup><\/a> across the arena \u2014 Gracchus, a man of nobler birth than the Capitolini, or the Marcelli, or the descendants of Catulus or Paulus, or the Fabii: nobler than all the spectators in the podium; not excluding him who gave the show<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"The emperor.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-4\" href=\"#footnote-780-4\" aria-label=\"Footnote 4\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[4]<\/sup><\/a> at which that net was flung.<\/p>\n<p>Juvenal, <em>Satire 2<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>ATTACKING ROME BY ATTACKING ROMAN FASHION<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Though the toga was a signifier of Roman class and masculinity, Christian moralists undermined this by approaching the topic of dress and self-grooming to attack Roman <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_1079\">pagans<\/a> as corrupt and unmanly. For example, the Christian bishop, and later saint, <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_603\">Tertullian<\/a>, attacked Roman men for spending too much time on their appearance:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I, a man and envious of women, am banishing them from their own domains. Are there, in our case too, some things which we should not do because of the sobriety we are to maintain on account of the fear we owe God? If it is true, (as it is) that a defect of nature has implanted the will to please in men for the sake of women, just as in women for the sake of men, and if our gender acknowledges that it uses deceptive trickeries of form peculiarly its own, such as cutting the beard too sharply or plucking it out here and there; shaving round about the mouth; arranging hair and disguising its greyness by dyes; removing all the hair on the body as it appears; fixing each hair in its place with some womanly pigment; smoothing all the rest of the body by the aid of some rough powder or other: then, also, taking every opportunity for consulting the mirror and gazing anxiously into it. While, when once the knowledge of God has put an end to all wish to please by means of sexual attraction, all these things are rejected as frivolous and hostile to modesty. For where God is, there modesty is, and there is sobriety as her assistant and ally.\u00a0 How, then, shall we practise modesty without her instrumental mean, that is, without sobriety? How, moreover, shall we bring sobriety to bear on the discharge of the functions of modesty, unless seriousness in appearance and in countenance, and in the general aspect of the entire man, mark our carriage?<\/p>\n<p>Tertullian, <em>On the Dress of Women<\/em> 2.8.2<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>REFLECT<\/h3>\n<p>Do you find it significant that this passage on the dress of men is from Tertullian&#8217;s <em>On the Dress of Women<\/em>?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\"><em>CONTENT WARNING<\/em><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p>The following passage is quite vitriolic. It concern&#8217;s Tertullian speaking about men dressing as women and the Greek Hero Achilles. Areas of Transphobia are very palpable here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As wearing the toga was a way for men to show their Romanness, it proved appealing wear for anyone who wanted to perform Romanness. Tertullian, true to his hateful self, also wrote an entire speech praising Greek pallium, a cloak-like garment, that attacked the wearing of the toga by the men of <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_782\">Carthage<\/a>. In the process he also has a lot to say about how men and women should dress:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>4.2 A change of clothing only starts to be a fault if it is not custom that is changed, but nature. There is an important difference between the honour we owe to the past and to religion. Let custom faithfully follow the age, and nature God. 3 So Achilles<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Achilles, one of the greatest Greek heroes, was predicted to have a short life if he took up a life of warfare. So his mother hid him away and had him reared by the centaur Chiron, who is the monstrous teacher referred to above; later she dressed him in a dress and hid him with a princess and her court. He could only lured out when Odysseus turned up with weapons which he enthusiastically grabbed at.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-5\" href=\"#footnote-780-5\" aria-label=\"Footnote 5\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[5]<\/sup><\/a> caused a breach of nature by changing into a girl, he, the man who had been reared on the marrow of wild beasts (this, then, is how he got his name, since his lips had not tasted breast milk), a hero who was taught by a coarse, wood-dwelling, monstrous teacher in a stony school! One may willingly tolerate in the case of a little boy a mother&#8217;s concern. But no doubt he was already covered with hair, no doubt he had already secretly proved himself a man to somebody when he still put up with a woman&#8217;s flowing robe, doing his hair, applying make-up, consulting the mirror, caressing his neck, his ears made effeminate by piercing, as may still be seen in his bust at Sigeum.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"A location in Ancient Greece\" id=\"return-footnote-780-6\" href=\"#footnote-780-6\" aria-label=\"Footnote 6\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[6]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a04\u00a0Certainly, later he is a warrior, for necessity restored his gender! There had been sounds from the battlefield, and weapons were close by. &#8216;Iron itself,&#8217; so it is said, &#8216;attracts a man.&#8217; Anyway, if he had persisted in being a girl even after this incentive, he might as well have got married \u2013 how about that for a change?! 5 A monstrosity, then, he is, a double one: from a man he became a woman, and then from a woman a man, although neither the truth should have been denied, nor the lie confessed. Either form of change was bad: the former ran counter to nature, the latter was against his safety.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Reflection<\/h3>\n<p>Reflect on how Tertullian links a person&#8217;s gender with the clothing that they are wearing. What do his ideas on the connection between clothing and gender say about how vital clothing was to social assimilation in ancient Rome? How have things changed or stayed the same in the last 2000 years?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tertullian continues&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>3 More degrading still were complete changes in a man&#8217;s dress because of lust rather than some maternal fear. Nonetheless you adore that man who ought to make you feel ashamed, this &#8216;club-arrow-hide-bearer&#8217;,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"The hero Hercules who wore as his distinctive dress a lion skin, and carried a club. He spent a year serving the Eastern queen Omphale, who liked to make him wear her clothes while she dressed up in his. According to most versions of the story, Hercules does not seem to have minded this arrangement.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-7\" href=\"#footnote-780-7\" aria-label=\"Footnote 7\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[7]<\/sup><\/a> who exchanged the outfit mentioned in his name for a woman&#8217;s attire. So much then was granted to the Lydian secret mistress, that Hercules prostituted himself in Omphale, and Omphale in Hercules&#8230; 4 But there is something too about the man who earlier had come close to Hercules, Cleomachus the boxer.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Cleomachus was infamous in antiquity. According to Strabo (14.1.41), he fell in love with a [pb_glossary id=&quot;630&quot;]cinaedus[\/pb_glossary] and then with a girl that had been raised for the sex trade; as a result, again according to [pb_glossary id=&quot;476&quot;]Strabo[\/pb_glossary], he started copying the mannerisms and clothing of a cinaedus. To fully realize the impact of this you have to understand that ancient boxing was brutal: there were no rounds and no weight classes and people basically just pounded each other anywhere (often with lead in wraps around their hands) until one keeled over. (Deaths occurred.) These were the manliest of manly men.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-8\" href=\"#footnote-780-8\" aria-label=\"Footnote 8\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[8]<\/sup><\/a> At Olympia he underwent an unbelievable change from his male condition by being cut inside and outside his skin. Well, he earns a crown amidst the <em>Fullers<\/em> of Novius (Roman dramatist) and he has rightly been mentioned by the <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_1087\">mime<\/a>-writer Lentulus in his <em>Catinenses<\/em>!<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Both of these were Roman playwrights who had written comedies featuring him as a character (the comedies do not survive).\" id=\"return-footnote-780-9\" href=\"#footnote-780-9\" aria-label=\"Footnote 9\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[9]<\/sup><\/a> Surely, just as he covered the traces of boxing-gloves with bracelets, so he replaced the coarse sportsman&#8217;s wrap with some thin, loose-fitting garment. 5 About Physco or Sardanapallus we must keep silent: if they were not remarkable for their lusts, no-one would know them as kings.<strong>\u2026<\/strong><a class=\"footnote\" title=\"In the short missing section Tertullian rants on about philosophers wearing expensive, purple garments.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-10\" href=\"#footnote-780-10\" aria-label=\"Footnote 10\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[10]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>8 Such clothing, therefore, that is not in agreement with nature and modesty deserves sharply fixed stares, pointing fingers, and critical nods. Really, if with Menandrean luxury a man can be trailing a refined dress behind him may he hear close by the words the comic author heard: &#8216;What is this madman spoiling a splendid cloak?&#8217; But now that the eyebrow of censorial watchfulness has disappeared, how much ground for criticism does the lack of distinction provide? 4 [You can see] freedmen dressed liked equestrians, slaves scarred with floggings in the dress of the nobility, captives dressed as freeborn, and country folk as city dwellers, idiots as men of the forum, citizens as soldiers. The corpse-bearer, the pimp, and the trainer of gladiators: they dress like you. 9 Look at women too. There you may see what Severus Caecina<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Aulus Caecina Severus, a Roman consul in 57 BC.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-11\" href=\"#footnote-780-11\" aria-label=\"Footnote 11\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[11]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0stressed before the Senate: matrons appearing in public without stolas. 2 Under the decrees of the augur Lentulus, those who had disgraced themselves this way were punished as if for sexual misbehaviour, since the garment that was the witness and guard of dignity had been felt to be an impediment to practice fornication and so had sedulously been dropped by some women. 3 But now, committing lechery against themselves and making themselves more easily accessible, they have renounced the stola, the linen attire, the rustling bonnet, the hairy head-dress, yes, even the litters and portable chairs, in which they had been kept private and apart even in public. 4 But some put out their own lights, while others kindle lights that are not theirs\u20264.10 And when the manager of the public toilets fans her silken gown, and comforts with necklaces a neck that is less pure than the toilets, and uses bracelets \u2014 which, as parts of what was given to brave men, even matrons would indiscreetly have owned &#8211; to insert her hands that are guilty of every shameful deed, and fits on her maculate leg a white or reddish shoe, then why do you not look at these garments?<\/p>\n<p>\u2026 5.2 Now I will interrogate your conscience: how do you feel in a toga: dressed or oppressed? Is it like wearing clothes or enduring them? 2 If you deny this, I will follow you home, and I will see what you rush to do right after you get in the door. No other garment is taken off with such relief as the toga! 3 We say nothing about the shoes, that special torture of the toga, that most impure covering of the feet, and a false one too. For who would not be better off stiffening barefoot in heat or cold, than fettered in shoes? 4 Sure, a great support for walking has been taken care of by Venetian shoemaker-workshops in the form of effeminate boots! (5.3) 1 But there is nothing so convenient as the <em>pallium<\/em>, even if it is double, as that of Crates. On no occasion there is a waste of time in dressing, for all the effort it takes consists in loosely covering oneself.<\/p>\n<p>Tertullian, <em>On the Pallium<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fashion could also be used to attack Rome from within the nation itself. The poet <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_455\">Martial<\/a>, in the late first century CE, attacked current standards of male beauty none of which he agreed with and none of which were &#8220;traditional&#8221;. Martial appeared to be quite critical of the measures Romen men were taking to be good looking, and ends up being quite mean about it in the following poem:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Cotilius, you\u2019re a good looking guy; Cotilius, many people say this.<\/p>\n<p>I hear it: but tell me \u2014 what is a good looking guy?<\/p>\n<p>A good looking guy is: one who arranges his curls in order<\/p>\n<p>Who always smells of balsam and cinnamon<\/p>\n<p>Who sings Egyptian songs, who hums Spanish ones<\/p>\n<p>Who moves his hairless arms to different beats<\/p>\n<p>Who wastes his entire day alongside women\u2019s chairs<\/p>\n<p>And who always is whispering something in someone\u2019s ear<\/p>\n<p>Who reads and writes notes here there and everywhere<\/p>\n<p>Who shields his\u00a0<em>pallium\u00a0<\/em>from neighbouring arms<\/p>\n<p>Who knows who loves whom, who is going to parties,<\/p>\n<p>Who knows in and out the ancient heritage of Hirpinus.<\/p>\n<p>What are you saying! Is this this,\u00a0<em>this,\u00a0<\/em>really a guy?<\/p>\n<p>Then, Cotilius, your guy is something deeply troubling.<\/p>\n<p>Martial Epigrams 3.63<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>ROMAN MEN DRESSING LIKE ROMAN WOMEN<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">CONTENT WARNING<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p>This following section includes a harsh condemnation of what could be precieved now as people having a gender expression that differs from &#8220;the norm&#8221;. In this section, the author Juvenal lashes out at men who did not conform to the idealized Roman man and Seneca The Younger tries to enforce a regidity between who gets to be masculine and who gets to be feminine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The satire author <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_189\">Juvenal<\/a>, though being a great source for the ancient Roman world, does not make for an easy read. Here in <em>Satire 2, <\/em>he is writing on the topic of hypocrites: people who are moralists in public, but privately engage in immoral behaviour. In this rather nasty poem, however, we can see how tightly connected criticism of dress was connected with attacks on behaviour.\u00a0<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>What will not other men do when you, Creticus,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Most likely an invented name, meant to evoke a highy aristocratic family\" id=\"return-footnote-780-12\" href=\"#footnote-780-12\" aria-label=\"Footnote 12\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[12]<\/sup><\/a> dress yourself in garments of gauze, and while the people are marvelling at your outfit, attack the Proculae and the Pollittae?<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Seemingly these were names that once cited brought female adultery to the Roman mind; they may also be the names of some actual women, who had presumably been involved in some infamous adultery cases.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-13\" href=\"#footnote-780-13\" aria-label=\"Footnote 13\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[13]<\/sup><\/a> Fabulla is an adulteress; condemn Carfinia of the same crime if you please; but even if found guilty, they would never wear such a toga as yours.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Women convicted of adultery were not allowed to wear the stola, the garment of respectable women, but had to wear the toga, like prostitutes.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-14\" href=\"#footnote-780-14\" aria-label=\"Footnote 14\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[14]<\/sup><\/a> &#8220;O but,&#8221; you say, &#8220;these July days are so hot and humid!&#8221; Then why not speak [in court] without clothes? Such madness would be less disgraceful. Yours is a nice outfit in which to propose or expound laws to our countrymen flushed with victory and with their wounds yet unhealed, and to those mountain peasant who had laid down their ploughs to listen to you!<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Juvenal is going back to some old standards here: hard peasant soldiers and farmers coming to the city after a long day at the farm had not been a thing in Rome for a long, long time before this was written \u2013 if they ever had been in the way that later Romans imagined.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-15\" href=\"#footnote-780-15\" aria-label=\"Footnote 15\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[15]<\/sup><\/a> What would you not say if you saw a judge dressed like that!<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Juvenal is going back to some old standards here: hard peasant soldiers and farmers coming to the city after a long day at the farm had not been a thing in Rome for a long, long time before this was written \u2013 if they ever had been in the way that later Romans imagined.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-16\" href=\"#footnote-780-16\" aria-label=\"Footnote 16\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[16]<\/sup><\/a>Would a toga of gauze be appropriate to a witness? That you, Creticus, you, the keen, unbending champion of human liberty, are clothed in a see-through outfit! This plague has come upon us by infection and it will spread further, just as in the fields the scab of one sheep, or the mange of one pig, destroys an entire herd, and just as one bunch of grapes takes on a sickly colour from the appearance of its neighbour.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Question Box:<\/h3>\n<p>Female prostitutes and adulterers were forced to wear the toga, a male garment, in public. If the toga represented morality and the elite among Roman men, why did it represent social shame when worn by women? May this have something to do with the maintenance of gender roles in ancient Roman society?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Juvenal continues&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Someday you will try something more shameful than this dress; no one reaches the depths of turpitude all at once. In due time you will be welcomed by those who in their homes put headbands on,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Headbands were apparently one mark of a respectable matron, though we can\u2019t be sure of how often they were worn in reality.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-17\" href=\"#footnote-780-17\" aria-label=\"Footnote 17\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[17]<\/sup><\/a> drape themselves with necklaces, and propitiate the Bona Dea with the stomach of a pig and a huge bowl of wine, though by an evil usage the goddess warns off all women from the door; none but males may approach her altar.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"[6] Bona Dea was a goddess worshipped by women in all female gatherings and she was considered an important goddess for the well being of Rome\" id=\"return-footnote-780-18\" href=\"#footnote-780-18\" aria-label=\"Footnote 18\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[18]<\/sup><\/a> &#8220;Away with you! profane women&#8221; is the cry; &#8220;no booming horn, no she-minstrels here!&#8221;&#8230; One draws out his eyebrows with some damp soot on the edge of a needle and lifts up his blinking eyes to be painted, another drinks out of an obscenely-shaped glass, and ties up his long locks in a gilded net; he is clothed in blue checks, or smooth-faced green; the attendant swears by Juno like his master. Another holds in his hand a mirror like that carried by the effeminate <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_151\">Otho<\/a>, a trophy of the Auruncan Actor, in which he gazed at his own image in full armour when he was just ready to give the order to advance \u2014 a thing notable and novel in the annals of our time, a mirror among the weapons of Civil War! It needed, in truth, a mighty general to kill Galba, and keep his own skin shaved; it needed a citizen of highest courage to copy the splendours of the royal palace on the field of Bebriacum, and plaster his face with dough! Never did the quiver-carrying Semiramis have something like this in her Assyrian realm nor the despairing Cleopatra on board her ship at Actium. There is no decency of language here, no regard for table manners. You will hear all the foul talk and squeaking tones of Cybele; a grey-haired frenzied old man presides over the rites; he is a rare and notable master of the art of gluttony and should be hired to teach it. But why wait any longer when it is now time to lop off the extra flesh in Phrygian fashion?<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Here he refers to the custom of the Galli, the priests of Cybele, of self-castration.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-19\" href=\"#footnote-780-19\" aria-label=\"Footnote 19\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[19]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gracchus <a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Like Creticus, this is likely an invented name\" id=\"return-footnote-780-20\" href=\"#footnote-780-20\" aria-label=\"Footnote 20\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[20]<\/sup><\/a> has presented to a cornet player \u2014 or perhaps it was a player on the straight horn \u2014 a dowry of four hundred thousand sesterces. The contract has been signed; the prayers have been pronounced; the banqueters are seated, the new made bride is reclining on the bosom of her husband. You elites of Rome! Is it a soothsayer that we need, or a censor? Would you be more aghast, would you deem it a greater omen, if a woman gave birth to a calf, or an ox to a lamb?<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"The Romans had great faith in omens sent by the gods, and Juvenal lists some 'historical' examples of omens the Romans had seen over the years.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-21\" href=\"#footnote-780-21\" aria-label=\"Footnote 21\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[21]<\/sup><\/a> The man who is now arraying himself in the flounces and train and veil of a bride once carried the quivering shields of Mars by the sacred thongs and sweated under the sacred burden!<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"This is a reference to the dancing priests of Mars, the Salian Priesthood. It was a highly aristocratic and exclusive priesthood and its priests did the dance of Mars for the good of Rome in full armour through the streets the Rome.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-22\" href=\"#footnote-780-22\" aria-label=\"Footnote 22\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[22]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Father of our city, where did such wickedness among your Latin shepherds come from? How did such a lust possess your grandchildren, Gradivus?<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Another name for the god Mars\" id=\"return-footnote-780-23\" href=\"#footnote-780-23\" aria-label=\"Footnote 23\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[23]<\/sup><\/a> Behold! Here you have a man of high birth and wealth being handed over in marriage to a man, and yet neither shakes your helmet, nor strike the earth with your spear, nor yet protests to your Father? Away with you then; begone from that broad <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_1186\">Campus Martius<\/a> which you have forgotten! One says, &#8220;I have a ceremony to attend at dawn to-morrow, in the Quirinal valley.&#8221; &#8220;What is the occasion?&#8221; &#8220;No need to ask: a friend is taking a husband; quite a small affair.&#8221; Yes, and if we only live long enough, we shall see these things done openly: people will wish to see them reported among the news of the day.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"This refers to daily report of significant public business and news in the city of Rome, posted publicly for all to read.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-24\" href=\"#footnote-780-24\" aria-label=\"Footnote 24\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[24]<\/sup><\/a> Meanwhile these want-to-be brides have one great trouble: they can bear no children with which to keep the affection of their husbands; has nature done well in granting to their desires no power over their bodies. They die infertile; the medicine-chest of the bloated Lyde is no help, neither is holding ut their hands to the blows of the swift-footed Luperci!<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"This was another aristocratic priesthood. These ran nearly naked through the streets of Rome once a year whipping women as they ran past with leather whips. This was believed to bring fertility.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-25\" href=\"#footnote-780-25\" aria-label=\"Footnote 25\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[25]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It was an even greater monstrous event when Gracchus, dressed in a tunic, fought as a gladiator, and fled, trident in hand, across the arena \u2014 Gracchus, a man of nobler birth than the Capitolini, or the Marcelli, or the descendants of Catulus or Paulus, or the Fabii: nobler than all the spectators in the podium; not excepting him who gave the show at which that net was flung. That there are such things as Manes, and the realms below the earth, and punt-poles, and Stygian pools black with frogs, and all those thousands crossing over in a single boat-these things not even boys believe, except such as have not yet had their penny bath. But just imagine them to be true-what would Curius<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Although the name of Gracchus above is made up, these are the names of historical great Roman heroes.\" id=\"return-footnote-780-26\" href=\"#footnote-780-26\" aria-label=\"Footnote 26\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[26]<\/sup><\/a> and the two Scipios think? Or Fabricius and the spirit of Camillus? What would the legion that fought at the Cremera think, or the young manhood that fell at Cannae; what would all those gallant hearts feel when a shade of this sort came down to them from here? They would wish to be purified; if only sulphur and torches and damp laurel-branches were to be had. Such is the degradation to which we have come! Our arms indeed we have pushed beyond Juverna&#8217;s shores, to the new-conquered Orcades and the short-nighted Britons; but the things which we do in our victorious city will never be done by the men whom we have conquered. And yet they say that one Zalaces, an Armenian more effeminate than any of our youth, has yielded to the ardour of a Tribune! Just see what evil communications do! He came as a hostage: but here boys are turned into men. Give them a long stay in our city, and lovers will never fail them. They will throw away their trousers and their knives, their bridles and their whips, and carry back to Artaxata the manners of our Roman youth.<\/p>\n<p>Juvenal, <em>Satire<\/em> 2<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Exercise<\/h3>\n<p>Take a few moments to consider Juvenal&#8217;s quote that &#8220;someday\u00a0[Creticus] will try something more shameful than this dress; no one reaches the depths of turpitude all at once.&#8221;\u00a0How does Juvenal&#8217;s escalation from dressing in gauze into complete moral upheaval reflect possible fears about the stability (or lack thereof) of Roman societal standards?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Many of the details of this story were invented and exaggerated for various reasons; still, some men in reality clearly resisted clothing norms. For example, in a discussion of inheritance law, the <em><a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_105\">Digest<\/a><\/em>\u00a0mentions in passing a senator who clearly liked to dress in women\u2019s evening wear:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There is no difference between the expressions \u2018garments for men\u2019, and \u2018clothing for men\u2019, but the intention of the testator sometimes creates difficulty, if he himself was accustomed to make use of some garment which was also suitable for women. Therefore it should, by all means, be ascertained whether the garment bequeathed was the one which the testator had in his mind, and not that which was actually destined for the use of women or for men.<\/p>\n<p>For Quintus Mucius says that he knew a certain Senator who was in the habit of wearing women&#8217;s clothing at the table and who, if he should bequeath a garment used by women, would not be considered to have had in his mind one which he himself was accustomed to make use of, as if it was one suitable for his sex.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<blockquote><p><em>Pomponius, On Quintus Mucius, Book IV. <\/em><em>Digest <\/em>34.2.33<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Romans moralists (of which there were quite a number) were particularly horrified at deviations from what they felt was the proper manly attire of a Roman male. <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_780_713\">Seneca the Younger<\/a> attacked those who wore women\u2019s dress, as well as tried to look younger than their ages, either to preserve their sexual appeal for others or so they could take up sexual roles that the Romans only thought suitable for younger men and teenagers.\u00a0It is relevant to note that Seneca the Younger&#8217;s opinions are rightfully antiquated.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>7\u00a0Surely you believe that men who put on women\u2019s clothing live contrary to nature? Do not men live contrary to nature who try to look fresh and boyish at an age unsuitable for such an attempt? What could be more cruel or more wretched? Cannot time and manhood ever carry such a person beyond an artificial boyhood?<\/p>\n<p>Seneca the Younger, <em>Letters <\/em>122.7<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Looking like a Roman man \u2014 performing like one \u2014 in antiquity no doubt too time and energy, particularly for the upper class. However, even among the deepest critics of unmanly Romans, such as Cicero, it was dificult to maintain this strict form of masculinity.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Bibliography and Further Reading:<\/p>\n<p>OLSON, KELLY. &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/24616489?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Masculinity, Appearance, and Sexuality: Dandies in Roman Antiquity<\/a>.&#8221; <i>Journal of the History of Sexuality<\/i> 23, no. 2 (2014): 182-205.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-780-1\">Ie people whose families had already held the consulship and were old Roman families, compared to Marius who was none of these things. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-2\">Although the Gracchi were a very ancient Roman family, the name is used here to note any elite Roman claiming illustrious ancestry, rather than any specific person. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-3\">He fought as a retiarius, a type of gladiator who wore very little clothing and fought with a net and trident.  <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-3\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 3\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-4\">The emperor. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-4\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 4\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-5\">Achilles, one of the greatest Greek heroes, was predicted to have a short life if he took up a life of warfare. So his mother hid him away and had him reared by the centaur Chiron, who is the monstrous teacher referred to above; later she dressed him in a dress and hid him with a princess and her court. He could only lured out when Odysseus turned up with weapons which he enthusiastically grabbed at. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-5\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 5\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-6\">A location in Ancient Greece <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-6\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 6\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-7\">The hero Hercules who wore as his distinctive dress a lion skin, and carried a club. He spent a year serving the Eastern queen Omphale, who liked to make him wear her clothes while she dressed up in his. According to most versions of the story, Hercules does not seem to have minded this arrangement. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-7\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 7\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-8\">Cleomachus was infamous in antiquity. According to Strabo (14.1.41), he fell in love with a [pb_glossary id=\"630\"]cinaedus[\/pb_glossary] and then with a girl that had been raised for the sex trade; as a result, again according to [pb_glossary id=\"476\"]Strabo[\/pb_glossary], he started copying the mannerisms and clothing of a cinaedus. To fully realize the impact of this you have to understand that ancient boxing was brutal: there were no rounds and no weight classes and people basically just pounded each other anywhere (often with lead in wraps around their hands) until one keeled over. (Deaths occurred.) These were the manliest of manly men. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-8\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 8\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-9\">Both of these were Roman playwrights who had written comedies featuring him as a character (the comedies do not survive). <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-9\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 9\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-10\">In the short missing section Tertullian rants on about philosophers wearing expensive, purple garments. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-10\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 10\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-11\">Aulus Caecina Severus, a Roman consul in 57 BC.  <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-11\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 11\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-12\">Most likely an invented name, meant to evoke a highy aristocratic family <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-12\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 12\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-13\">Seemingly these were names that once cited brought female adultery to the Roman mind; they may also be the names of some actual women, who had presumably been involved in some infamous adultery cases. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-13\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 13\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-14\">Women convicted of adultery were not allowed to wear the stola, the garment of respectable women, but had to wear the toga, like prostitutes. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-14\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 14\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-15\">Juvenal is going back to some old standards here: hard peasant soldiers and farmers coming to the city after a long day at the farm had not been a thing in Rome for a long, long time before this was written \u2013 if they ever had been in the way that later Romans imagined. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-15\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 15\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-16\">Juvenal is going back to some old standards here: hard peasant soldiers and farmers coming to the city after a long day at the farm had not been a thing in Rome for a long, long time before this was written \u2013 if they ever had been in the way that later Romans imagined. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-16\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 16\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-17\">Headbands were apparently one mark of a respectable matron, though we can\u2019t be sure of how often they were worn in reality. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-17\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 17\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-18\">[6] Bona Dea was a goddess worshipped by women in all female gatherings and she was considered an important goddess for the well being of Rome <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-18\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 18\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-19\">Here he refers to the custom of the Galli, the priests of Cybele, of self-castration. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-19\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 19\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-20\">Like Creticus, this is likely an invented name <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-20\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 20\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-21\">The Romans had great faith in omens sent by the gods, and Juvenal lists some 'historical' examples of omens the Romans had seen over the years. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-21\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 21\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-22\"> This is a reference to the dancing priests of Mars, the Salian Priesthood. It was a highly aristocratic and exclusive priesthood and its priests did the dance of Mars for the good of Rome in full armour through the streets the Rome. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-22\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 22\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-23\">Another name for the god Mars <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-23\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 23\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-24\">This refers to daily report of significant public business and news in the city of Rome, posted publicly for all to read. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-24\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 24\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-25\">This was another aristocratic priesthood. These ran nearly naked through the streets of Rome once a year whipping women as they ran past with leather whips. This was believed to bring fertility.  <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-25\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 25\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-780-26\">Although the name of Gracchus above is made up, these are the names of historical great Roman heroes. <a href=\"#return-footnote-780-26\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 26\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div><div class=\"glossary\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\" id=\"definition\">definition<\/span><template id=\"term_780_594\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_594\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Plutarch was a Greek biographer and historian who was also a philosopher and a priest (at Delphi). He wrote largely non-extant biographies of some emperors, and his concern was not so much with history as with character and men\u2019s destinies.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_1015\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_1015\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Gaius Marius, a Roman citizen from Arpinum, was a 'New Man' and an outsider. He became a general and consul (seven times) and took part in a civil war with Sulla. He is sometimes mentioned as an example of\u00a0 what was considered old Roman manliness, and sometimes as an example of bloodthirstiness in his old age.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_1012\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_1012\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Imagines were death masks of famous ancestors that noble Romans displayed in their houses. These were worn by mourners in processions when important members of the family died.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_453\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_453\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p><em>Vir<\/em> is a Latin noun which cannot be translated literally, although it often is as \u2018man\u2019. It meant several things: a strong, masculine man, an honourable husband, a proper male citizen, and a just man. The only people who could be considered <em>viri <\/em>(the plural form of <em>vir<\/em>) were Roman citizens (who, in the Late Republic were mainly restricted to people on the Italian peninsula, although it was possible for foreigners to earn citizenship). No matter what any non-citizen ever achieved, they could not be considered a <em>Vir<\/em>. Connected to <em>vir<\/em> is <em>virtus, <\/em>which is often translated as \u2018virtue.\u2019 This is an oversimplification. <em>Virtus<\/em> is a concept which embodied many different traits that were connected to the Roman ideal of manliness. To have <em>virtus<\/em> was to have martial valour, prudence, stern adherence to justice, courage and self-control. <em>Virtus <\/em>could mean many different things because it pertained to a singular ethical ideal: the exemplary way a male Roman should act. Furthermore, <em>virtus<\/em> could only be exercised and achieved in the public sphere; i.e.: there was <em>virtus<\/em> to be found in the pursuit of glory for the Republic\u2014military achievements etc), but not in attaining personal wealth.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_76\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_76\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Marcus Tullius Cicero was a a leading politician and orator of the Late Republic who was also Rome\u2019s greatest lawyer and public speaker. He was born in the town of Arpinum (modern Arpino), about 100km from Rome. Although his family held Roman citizenship and were provincial nobility, people sometimes called him a foreigner and an upstart because he was not from the traditional elite of Rome. He wrote a number of philosophical works, and a great many letters to family and friends, many of which we still have, and which provide a unique picture of social, political, and family life in the Late Republic. After the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 he wrote a series of speeches attacking Mark Antony called the Philippics. He was murdered at the orders of Antony and his head and hands were displayed in the Forum.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_189\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_189\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis was a Roman poet who wrote a number of vicious and judgmental satires against various types of hypocrites as well as outsider groups in Rome. We know little about him for certain, and he may have been exiled for a period for offending an emperor. His <em>Satires<\/em> have been very influential in a range of European literary traditions.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_151\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_151\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Otho was a briefly lived Roman emperor who lasted three months in 69 CE, after he murdered the previous emperor, Galba. He was the second of the emperors in what is known as the year of the four emperors. He was known for his extravagance and love of luxury. He committed suicide after being defeated by the next emperor, Vitellius.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_1079\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_1079\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Pagan people in the context of this reader are considered to be simply those who were not Christian.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_603\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_603\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus was a Christian who came from New Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He wrote both in Latin and Greek (though mainly in Latin) on various religious and doctrinal matters and was a rabid opponent of paganism.\u00a0 He was of Berber (Amazigh) origin.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_782\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_782\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Carthage is a city in North Africa in modern Tunisia, where it was the head of the Carthaginian Empire. It was destroyed by Rome in 146 BCE when they finally defeated the Carthaginians, but refounded in the 40s BCE as a Roman colony by Julius Caesar. It became an important urban and cultural center with a population eventually of about 500,000.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_1087\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_1087\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>A Mime was a type Ancient Roman entertainer.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_455\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_455\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Marcus Valerius Martialis was a Latin poet whose poetic language was influenced by Catullus, Horace, and Ovid. He was born in Augusta Bilbilis, in Hispania (present day Spain). He wrote many vicious epigrams attacking various members and groups of Roman society as well as a number of poems about spectacle. His earliest work the <em>Liber spectaculorum, <\/em>the <em>Book of Spectacles, <\/em>was published for the opening of the Colosseum by Titus, but the version we have now is one published under Domitian, Titus\u2019 successor.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_1186\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_1186\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>The\u00a0<em>Campus Martius<\/em> was a publicly owned area (park) in ancient Rome.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_105\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_105\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>the\u00a0<em>Digest <\/em>is a Compendium of Roman law from the 6th century<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_780_713\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_780_713\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a mid-first century CE Roman Stoic philosopher,\u00a0 and was the son of Seneca the Elder. He was exiled under the Emperor Caligula for adultery, but recalled under Claudius to tutor Nero. He wrote a number of philosophical works and philosophical letters to a young philosopher, Lucilius. He was also extremely wealthy - at one point the wealthiest private citizen in Rome. He committed suicide at the order of Nero.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><\/div>","protected":false},"author":683,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-780","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":131,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/683"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2889,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/780\/revisions\/2889"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/131"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/780\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=780"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=780"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}