Keys

KEYS. - An ornament of the Roman tunic; the clavi were two parallel purple stripes which, passing over the shoulders, ran down in front and behind as far as the lower hem. Their width varied according to circumstances, because, at least in the earliest times, it was regulated by strict prescriptions.

Very narrow on the tunics of the young, the clavi worn by adults were distinguished into clavus (αἰτς ὕσλανόσηκος), the privilege of the emperor and of the senatorial order, and clavus augustus (στενόσηκος), reserved for the equestrian order. As numerous paintings show, in which the clavus adorns indiscriminately the tunic of every kind of person, this distinction of rank, from the 1st century A.D. onward, had lost much of its original strictness, unless such freedom is to be attributed to the artists, who were inclined to use it as an ornamental motif.

The double designation was also used to indicate both the tunic itself and the person wearing it.

From the 4th century onward, especially in Coptic tunics, the clavi are found ornamented and interrupted in such a way that they remain only at the top and at the bottom of the tunic.

Luciano De Bruyne