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Garments and
hairstyles in the Roman and Early Chinese Empires
Fashions
changed over the centuries, but rather slowly.
Most Romans wore tunics, the Chinese wore robes of various length. The
peculiar formal Roman dress for men was the toga, a roughly semicircular
woolen cloth that could be as long as 5.5 meters (18 feet). Draped around the body in a
complicated way, leaving the right arm bare and limiting the movements of the
left, it was not the dress for physical activity or laborious work. Cato’s
statue below shows him wearing the toga over a tunic. The image alleged to be
Confucius, drawn twelve hundred years after his time, need not depict
anything authentic. However, many warring-states and Han Dynasty texts refer
to Confucians wearing long and cumbersome garments, which distinguished the
literati from the “little men” who labored for a living. They incited
resentment from people like Liu Bang, the commoner who became the founding
emperor of the Han Dynasty. Woman being the submissive gender in both
societies, upper-class garments seemed designed to restrain activity.
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Statue of Cato the Censor, the Republican senator who advocated
“Carthage must be destroyed”. (Lateran Museum, Rome).
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Marble statuette of a late-fourth century empress. (Bibliothèque Nationale,
Paris).
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Alleged image of Confucius (551-479 BCE), rubbing from an engraving
that copied a painting by Wu Daozi, active
720-60.
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Painted wood statuette of a woman
excavated from a tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha,
interred soon after 168 BCE.
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Chinese silk reached the Mediterranean around the time of Julius Caesar.
It enabled women “to flaunt transparent raiment in public,” as the elder Pliny complained.
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A second-century BCE semi-transparent silk robe only 49 grams in
weight. The background is the detail of an embroidered silk fabric. Both
from Mawangdui in south China.
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Boots also went well with toga.
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Legionary sandals with hobnails
studded soles.
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The reinforced sole of a soldier’s shoe.
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A Latter Han Dynasty brocade shoe.
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Roman
men cut their hair short and were traditionally clean shaven. Hadrian was the
first emperor to spot a beard. The Chinese let their hair grow; filial piety
demanded no damage to this gift from parents. Men tied their hair up in top
knots of all manners. Upper class men wore caps that also demonstrated their
status.
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Claudius, who would become emperor, his brother Germanicus,
and their wives. Sardonyx cameo. (Kunsthistorriches Museim, Vienna.)
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Bust of Hadrian, who reigned from 118-138. (National Museum of
Archeology, Naples.)
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A general wearing a cap.
Terracotta figures excavated near the mausoleum of the First
Emperor.
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A soldier of the terracotta army. (Museum of Qin Shihuang
Terracotta Army, Shaanxi.)
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Women
of the leisure class spent much time in toiletry and changed their hairstyles
dramatically.
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1. Roman fashions.
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2. Chinese fashions.
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Portrait of Livia, Augustus’s empress. (Louve,
Paris).
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A lady of the Domitian period. (Musei Capitolini, Rome.)
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Terracotta figure, probably a maid associated with the First
Emperor’s tomb.
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A southern lady of the fourth century. Tomb relief, Dengxian, Henan.
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A woman having her hair dressed, with a
slave holding a mirror. Relief from Trier in Gaul, fourth century. (Araldo de
Luca, Corbis).
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Section of a scroll by Gu Kaizhi (c. 344-406). The woman on the right holds a
mirror while applying cosmetic. The one on the left has her hair dressed in
front of a mirror stand. (British Museum, London).
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Mirrors
became valued accessory, often with highly decorated backs.
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Silver mirror found in Pompeii.
(National Archeological Museum, Naples.)
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Bronze mirror inlaid with gold and
silver, diameter 19.3 cm, warring-states period. Excavated in Jin Cun,
Henan. (M. Hosokawa collection, Tokyo.)
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