Tunic

TUNIC. — A word from the Indo-European root tun, "to cover, draw tight, bind"; diminutives: tunicula, tunicella; Italian: tonaca. Corresponding to the χιτῶν of the Greeks, it was an undergarment worn among the Romans both by men and by women as a house dress and, in public, beneath the toga and the palla. In statues wearing the toga, the t. can be seen beneath the toga, covering the chest up to the neck. It was the only one among the garments that was put on over the head.

For the most part tunics were made from linen cloth (vestis linea or lintea), but for the sick and for winter wool was also used (t. lanea). Augustus, on account of his frail health, used to wear it in wool and, according to Suetonius, when the cold was intense he would put on as many as four. Commonly two were worn; the t. clinging to the skin was called t. interior, interula or subucula; over this the second was worn, called sudusium or supparus. Senators and members of the ordo senatorius had as part of their official dress, besides the toga praetexta, the t. distinguished by a broad purple stripe, which ran from the neck down to the lower hem (laticlavius); members of the ordo equestris instead had one or two narrower stripes (angusticlavius). The t. could be girded at the flanks (t. praecincta) or worn loose (t. discincta or soluta). Wearing it well girded was a mark of distinction; Maecenas was criticized because he went about at night with his t. ungirt (Seneca, Ep., 114). Going dressed in the t. alone was characteristic of the common people (the tunicatus popellus of Horace); outside the city, in the countryside, it was permissible, even for persons of high rank, to go about, for greater freedom, having laid aside the toga, in the t. alone (the tunica quies of Martial). Laborers, shepherds and slaves wore a work t. without sleeves (t. exomis), held by a cingulum, which left the shoulders and chest bare; it made movements quicker and, according to Seneca (De brevit. vitae, XIII), also made slaves more deferential toward their masters. The t. of soldiers was shorter than usual and was worn beneath the sagum. In the 3rd century of the Empire, with the growth of luxury, it became highly fashionable to wear tunics woven with purple and gold, although they were uncomfortable because of their stiffness and because they were rough as haircloth.

The t. was the garment most in use among Christians, who for the most part belonged to the humble classes. Of a single piece, not sewn (inconsutilis), was the one that the Savior wore on the ascent to Calvary. Clothed in only a girded t. is the Good Shepherd (v. PASTORE, BUON). In the catacomb paintings tunics are depicted also with sleeves not beyond the elbows, reaching down to the knee for men, somewhat longer for women (v. ORANTE), plain or adorned with purple stripes from the neck to the loins (t. clavata). Another type of t., very short and without sleeves, was the colobium (v. λοκόβιον, cf. χολοβός = mutilated, shortened); with this garment the earliest images of Christ crucified are represented. A t. reaching down to the feet (t. poderis: στιχάριον) in the Eastern fashion, of white linen (alba), was an ecclesiastical garment, and from it derives the liturgical surplice; its modifications are the rochet and the cotta.

Gioacchino Mancini