Trabea

Trabea (plural trabeae) is the name of various pieces of Roman clothing. A distinct feature of all trabeae was their color - usually in red or purple. They were formed like a toga and possibly in some cases like a mantle piece and worn by more distinguished members of Roman society.

Such clothing, known as the trabea triumphalis was worn commonly by consuls in Late Antiquity. When Emperor Justinian II formally abolished the title of consul as a separate entity from the Emperor himself, the trabea triumphalis was developed into the loros, which was the worn by the imperial family and senior administrative officials only. When emperor Leo VI formally abolished the ancient title of consul altogether, the loros persisted until the end of the empire as formal, ceremonial dress of the emperors

References

• Philip Smith: Toga. In: William Smith (Hrsg.): A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. John Murray, London, 1875 (online copy at LacusCurtius)
• Liza Cleland, Glenys Davies, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones: Greek and Roman dress from A to Z. Routledge 2007, ISBN 978-0-415-22661-5, p. 197 (online copy at Google Books)
• J. C. Edmondson, Alison Keith: Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture. University of Toronto Press 2008, ISBN 978-0-8020-9319-6, S. 13, 27, 32, 42, 43, 217-237 (online copy at Google Books)

External links

• Picture of a man dressed with tunica and trabea at roman-empire.net