Roman Social Class and Clothing

Let's take a moment to learn a bit more about who the Romans were by exploring some information about social classes and Roman clothing. After reading the information, do you think these two topics belong together in a discussion?

Social Class in Ancient Rome

Do you think Decimus and his fellow soldiers would be able to tell what social class someone belonged to, just by looking at them?

Social class in ancient Rome was determined by a variety of factors: ancestry, citizenship, wealth and property. Use the following interactive to learn more about social classes in Rome. You can also download a text copy of the Social Class in Ancient Rome interactive.

Roman Clothing

Clothing in ancient Rome was designed to represent the social status of the person. The higher the social status, the more distinguished their clothing characteristics. Let's examine the travelers along the Via Appia.

The image shows several Romans in different styles of dress.

Moving from left to right:

The first vir (man) is a Roman citizen based on his toga pura, a plain white toga.
- The toga was a formal outfit - similar to what we would consider a business suit today.
Next, we see a woman. We can tell this woman is a domina (married woman) because she wears a stola (long dress) and a palla (long cloak). The woman is very likely married to a patrician, due to the finery of her clothing.
The three men grouped in the middle are particularly distinguished based on their clothing.
- The first male is a senator (senator) due to his toga praetexta, a toga with a thick purple border.
- The victory crown on the head of the second male denotes that he is the imperator (emperor).
- The third male is dressed in formal military garb making him a dux (general).
The last two males on the left both wear a traditional tunica (short tunic). The tunica was worn by most Romans on a daily basis. So, feminae (women), liberi (children), mercatores (merchants), fabri (artisans), liberti (freedmen) and servi (slaves) all wore the tunica. Also note, even patricians and nobles wore tunicae regularly (see note on togae above)

Roman Accessories and Jewelry

Flavia, being a fashionable upper-class woman, would have owned a collection of jewelry. The most common was the fibula (see image at the top of the lesson), a decorative brooch. She would also have gold armbands, bracelets, earrings, necklaces, cameo rings and pearls. These items would be desirable to thieves along the Appian Way.

Roman clothing image courtesy of Mainz, Landesmuseum. Credit: Barbara McManus, VRoma.