TUNICA

Form: Latin.

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A garment for men and women worn next the person. With men it was a loose shirt of woollen stuff, consisting of pieces sewn together at the sides, and having either no sleeves or only short ones reaching half way down the arm. Longer sleeves were considered effeminate, and first came into general use in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. Ordinarily the tunica was girded up over the hip, and reached to the knees only. It was considered unbecoming to allow it to appear beneath the lower part of the toga. It was worn by the Roman at home and at work, and also by slaves and strangers. Senators and patricians were distinguished by a tunica with a broad purple stripe (latus clavus, hence tunica laticlavia) extending from the neck to the under seam; the knights by a narrow one (angustus clavus, hence tunica angusticlavia). The purple tunica, adorned with golden palm-branches (tunica palmata), was, with the toga picta (see TOGA) the dress of a general on the occasion of a triumph (q.v.). It very early became the custom to wear beneath the tunic proper a tunica interior, which was of wool. Linen shirts did not come into use until the 4th century A.D. Women also wore a double tunic, an under one consisting of a garment fitting closely to the body and reaching over the knee, and over this the stola (q.v.).