Page "Fayum mummy portraits" Paragraph 47

Like the hairstyles, the clothing depicted also follows the general fashions of the Roman Empire, as known from statues and busts.

Both men and women tend to wear a thin chiton as an undergarment.

Above it, both sexes tend to wear a cloak, laid across the shoulders or wound around the torso.

The males wear virtually exclusively white, while female clothing is often red or pink, but can also be yellow, white, blue or purple.

The chiton often bears a decorative line ( clavus ), occasionally light red or light green, also sometimes gold, but normally in dark colours.

Some painted mummy wrappings from Antinoopolis depict garments with long sleeves and very wide clavi.

So far, not a single portrait has been definitely shown to depict the toga, a key symbol of Roman citizenship.

It should, however, be kept in mind that Greek cloaks and togas are draped very similarly on depictions of the 1st and early 2nd centuries.

In the late 2nd and 3rd centuries, togas should be distinguishable, but fail to occur.