Did women in Roman times really wear very revealing attire? (ancient, Romans)
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Not sure if it's simply Hollywood fiction but in so many movies/tv shows set during Roman times it's not uncustomary to see women wearing clothes that are either very revealing, little clothes at all, or even just walking around topless. I always found the movie Caligula quite interesting and it certainly has some...topless/nude women lol.
Basically if one were to go back to Rome back during the Republic/Empire would one be likely to see such?
Not sure if it's simply Hollywood fiction but in so many movies/tv shows set during Roman times it's not uncustomary to see women wearing clothes that are either very revealing, little clothes at all, or even just walking around topless. I always found the movie Caligula quite interesting and it certainly has some...topless/nude women lol.
Basically if one were to go back to Rome back during the Republic/Empire would one be likely to see such?
If you like Caligula for the sex and nudity you should check out the Spartacus series (uncut cable version). Highly recommended. But, alas, that is just Hollywood.
I'm not an expert but I believe in actuality women were traditionally well covered by togas and tunics and public nudity was not acceptable unless they were prostitutes or slaves. The breasts were seen as more symbols of maternity then erotic. Men on the other hand were allowed to freely go naked in public without scorn.
So, scratch Ancient Rome off my travel destinations when time travel gets invented.
If you like Caligula for the sex and nudity you should check out the Spartacus series (uncut cable version). Highly recommended. But, alas, that is just Hollywood.
I'm not an expert but I believe in actuality women were traditionally well covered by togas and tunics and public nudity was not acceptable unless they were prostitutes or slaves. The breasts were seen as more symbols of maternity then erotic. Men on the other hand were allowed to freely go naked in public without scorn.
So, scratch Ancient Rome off my travel destinations when time travel gets invented.
Makes one wonder what really went on in those public baths.
Depends on your standing Roman Society. Patricians were expected to display probity. Prostitutes in a bordello-no.
I hope cachi comes in to post but the famous Histories we have were composed by anti-Caesarians so the Imperial orgies involving the upper class and what not could be seen as salacious gossip written as history.
And much of the view we have of the "decadent" Romans was formed by Victorian fantasies of the "classical", long before Hollywood got its mitts on the topic.
It can be argued that it was the orientalizing influences of the Empire that brought morality low - the Republic was actually pretty straight-laced.
And much of the view we have of the "decadent" Romans was formed by Victorian fantasies of the "classical", long before Hollywood got its mitts on the topic.
It can be argued that it was the orientalizing influences of the Empire that brought morality low - the Republic was actually pretty straight-laced.
And emperors actually WERE servants to the people and feared them like nothing else. Another thing twisted by historians and movies.
I just read SPQR by Mary Beard, a new 700+page history of the Roman empire, wherein she described togas as floor length for women, and many times the upper arm area was draped with fabric. Modesty was the keyword.
And emperors actually WERE servants to the people and feared them like nothing else. Another thing twisted by historians and movies.
Actually, it was the Tribunes of the Plebs who were the servants of the people. While Augustus and a few other of the emperors believed they had some responsibility to the people, most did not. The Republic was based on independent citizen farmers, while the Empire was supported by mass slave plantations, which turned the Roman citizenry into a displaced urban rabble, which had to be bought off with "bread and circuses".
The movies get their ideas about style from the extant art from the period: friezes, murals from Pompei, etc.
But it's like Mitt Romney joking at that formal dinner a few yrs ago about everyone wearing a tux, It' nice to wear my causal, around the house clothes here." -- The art work is probably depicting the more formal attire, not the everyday tunic they would commonly wear. Cf- the episode of the Senators going to recruit Cincinnatus at his farm. He was plowing fields and they told him he ought to go in and put on his toga, for they were there to discuss formal business.
Times have changed. Things considered acceptable in terms of modesty back then may not be so modest by our current standards. Even 40 yrs ago in Italy, it was commonplace to see a man stop and merely turn his back to traffic and urinate on the sidewalk. The word "fornication" comes from the Latin "fornix" = "arch." It was the common practice of prostitutes to ply their trade under the arches of public place such as the Coliseum...And, just like today, the lower and upper classes tend to live by a looser moral code than the more stuffy middle class.
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