Deceptive Appearances: Danger in Roman Dress

Melissa Rothfus (University of Nevada)

Appearances were important to the ancient Romans;  what people looked like was an indication of who they were.  Because elements of apparel, such as the stola of the matron and toga praetexta of the magistrate were assigned to particular ranks, dress in particular played an important role in establishing juridical rank and social status.  These symbols of rank helped to maintain an appearance of clarity, order and stability in the face of social mobility and the anonymity of the big city.

Yet, as central as appearances were in guiding and informing interpersonal contact, we can detect an uncomfortable awareness of the limitations of external status symbols as reliable guides to social identity and the disruptive potential of deceptive appearances.  In the course of my paper I will consider several epigrams of Martial (5.8, 5.23. 5.35) in which he mocks failed attempts at status usurpation through dress.   Dress, according to Martial, does not make the man, and the true status and character of an individual cannot be disguised.  Yet Martial's poems reveal not only an anxiety of status usurpation and an elite attitude which served to cope with that anxiety, but the more subtle fact that Romans of any rank recognized the potential to improve their social positions through manipulation of their public images, starting with dress.