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[German version] The toga, adopted from the Etruscans, was the official garment of Roman citizens which was worn in public and which non-Romans were not allowed to wear (Suet. Claud. 15,3; gens togata: Verg. Aen. 1,282). Originally, the woolen toga was worn over the bare upper body and over the subligaculum that covered the lower body, later over the tunica . The common toga of the simple Roman citizen was white ( toga pura, toga virilis). Furthermore, there was the toga praetexta with a crimson stripe along the edges ( clavi; status symbols) which was worn by curule officials, by the Flamines …

[German version] (κηρός; kērós). According to Plin. HN 11,11, (bees)wax was one of the most widely used materials. Among the properties of cera are conservation of shape, the capacity to seal and adhere (Hom. Od. 12,47-49 and passim), inflammability ( Lighting), lustre; cera also aids the healing process (Dioscorides 2,83,3; Plin. HN 22,116). When warmed, cera is easy to work, but also becomes soft or fluid ( Icarus). Cera was used in  sculpture;  painting; in bronze casting; in magic (for amulets and articulated dolls etc.); in funerary art (  imagines maiorum );…

[German version] Board game in which a player attempted to remove his own 15 counters by reaching the end of the other side of the board. Moves were determined by throwing two or three dice; if two or three of the opponent's counters occupied a line, the first player's own counter could not be placed on that line; if only one counter was there, it could be removed. According to Isid. Orig. 18,60, duodecim scripta was played with a dice shaker or ‘tower’, dice and counters. The board consisted of 36 squares decorated with geometrical figures such as circles or squares,…

[German version] Brightly painted ceramics of the 3rd/2nd cents. BC, named after the place of their discovery in Sicily. Vessel forms ( Pottery, shapes and types of ) are pyxis, lekanis and lebes, and infrequently other types such as lekythos. The painting, in tempera colours (white, pink, black, yellow, red, gold, with isolated instances of green and blue) on a ground of orange-coloured clay (friezes of acanthus, tendrils and architectonic forms, heads, busts) is executed only on one side of the vessel. The vessels are of considera…

[German version] (σφαιρίσεις; sphairíseis, pilae lusus). Homeric society already enjoyed ball games (BG) (Hom. Od. 6,110-118; 8,372-380), which have also been practised by people of all social levels (Ath. 1,14e, 15c; 12,548b; Plut. Alexander 39,5; Cic. Tusc. 5,60) and age groups since then. The Romans took many BG over from the Greek. Some were team games, like   harpaston or ἐπίσκυρος, epískyros (Poll. 9,103f.; schol. Pl. Tht. 146 i.a.), during which the opposite party was gradually pushed off the field by long-range shots, perhaps depicted on the relie…

(τάπης, τάπις, ταπήτιον/ tápēs, tápis, tapḗtion; Lati. tapes, tapete). [German version] I. Ancient Near East and Egypt The only surviving rug (from kurgan V at Pazyrik, southern Siberia, 5th-4th cent. BC) is knotted in wool [1]. Otherwise, the existence of rugs in the ancient Near East can only be deduced from various pictorial representations. Owing to their similarity to modern rugs [2], the geometric motifs on wall paintings (7th cent.) at Çatal Hüyük (Turkey) are called 'kelim motifs'. However, definite evid…

[German version] In the first place mourning dress belonged in the personal area of family and friends, but it could also accompany public mourning. In Homer only mourning goddesses wore dark veils (Hom. Il. 24,93 f.; Hom. H. 2,42). The society described by Homer contented itself with dirtying their clothes with dust and ashes or tearing them (Hom. Il. 18,22 f.; 23,40 f.; 24,640; 28,25). Such behaviour was retained in the historical period by the Greeks and the Romans (e.g. Plut. Solon 21; Eur. El…

[German version] Pottery type found among the Italic peoples who inhabited the area of modern provinces around Bari and Foggia, with local production sites particularly in Ordona and Canosa. From their early phase (around 700 BC), the vessels display a geometric ornamentation independent of the Greek range of subjects, which is applied in red and brown to black earthen colours onto the manually formed vessels. Among these are diamond and triangular patterns as well as band ornaments, wavy lines, circle, cross, square, arc, …

[German version] [1] Thin stick Thin stick or spoon for stirring foods, medications, etc. (Greek κύκηθρον/ kýkēthron, Aristoph. Pax 654), called rudicula in its small form (Plin. HN 34,176), usually made of wood, more rarely of iron (Plin. HN 34,170). Hurschmann, Rolf (Hamburg) [German version] [2] Wooden epee Wooden stick or rapier for the fencing exercises of soldiers and gladiators. The rudis also served the lanista as a badge for separating fighting gladiators or for bestowing order on the fight. Retired gladiators received the rudis upon becoming supervisors in the fencing…

[German version] From Latin acetum (vinegar); this goblet-shaped vessel with an indented wall profile served as a container for vinegar and honey, as a table and cooking vessel as well as a wax melting utensil; also used as a beaker amongst conjurers. Usually, the acetabulum was made of clay or glass, sometimes of precious metal. Its volume was very small (0,068 l [1]); in Apicius (6,8,3) and Apici excerpta a Vindario VI, the acetabulum is also equivalent to a cooking vessel.  Catinus Hurschmann, Rolf (Hamburg) Bibliography 1 F. Hultsch, s. v. A., RE I, 155 f. G. Hilgers, Lat. Gefäßnamen, …

[German version] (ἐποστρακισμός; epostrakismós). Boys' game, in which a shard or flat stone is skimmed on the water to make it hit the surface and skip. The winner was the one whose stone or shard made the most skips and went the furthest (Poll. 9, 119; Hes. s.v. E.; Min. Fel. 3; Eust. in Hom. Il. 18,543). Hurschmann, Rolf (Hamburg)

[German version] In Greek as in Latin, there were many terms denoting purse, e.g., βαλ(λ)άντιον ( bal(l)ántion), μαρσίππιον ( marsíppion), θύλακος ( thýlakos), φασκώλιον ( phaskṓlion), crumina, marsuppium, pasceolus, saccus, sacculus, sacciperium, versica; but the exact distinctions between them cannot be established today. The words may have referred only to differences in colour, shape and size, as may be inferred from Plaut. Rud. 1313-1318 (and 548). Purses were small bags kept on a cord around the neck or on the belt or ar…

[German version] (πόλος/ pólos). Cylindrical head-dress without brim, worn by female deities, e.g. Aphrodite (Paus. 2,10,4), Tyche (Paus. 4,30,6), Athena (Paus. 7,5,9), Hera, Demeter, Persephone, Cybele, and by mortals on festive occasions. As a goddess' crown, the pólos came from the Near East (e.g. ivory statuettes from Nimrud, see Kalḫu) to Greece, and was depicted on monuments as early as the Minoan-Mycenaean Period. The height of the pólos could be just a few centimetres, or it could assume considerable proportions, as in the head-dress of Hera of Samos [1. 19 fig. 6]. Such a tall p…

[German version] Just before the end of the 5th cent. BC, production of red-figured vases began in Himera and Syracuse in Sicily. In style, ornamentation, vase shape and themes they reveal considerable influence from Attic vase painting (Meidias Painter). In the second quarter of the 4th century BC a number of Sicilian vase painters emigrated, in order to lay the foundation on the Italian mainland of Campanian and Paestan vase painting  (Campanian vases; Paestan ware). To a limited extent vase pro…

(Greek στλεγγίς/ stlengís, ξύστρα/ xýstra). [German version] [1] Implement for sports and cosmetics Ancient implement for sports and cosmetics, primarily of bronze or iron, for scraping off oil, sweat and dirt after practising sport and after visiting a steam bath ( laconica or sudatoria) in the balnea or thermae. It was part of a grooming set, which for the Greeks also included a sponge and a small bottle of oil (Alabastron, Lekythos [1]), and for the Romans an ampulla (small bottle of oil) and a patera (hand-dish for pouring water on the body or for holding oil). A strigilis consisted of …

(χειρίς; cheirís). [German version] A. Sleeve Clothing from as early as the Minoan-Mycenaean period had sleeves down to the wrist, shorter ones to the elbow or just to the upper arm. In the archaic and classical periods the chiton with sleeves was the usual dress for ‘barbarians (Persians, Scythians et al.), but it was also worn by Greeks. In Roman dress manicae were initially a sign of effeminacy ( Tunic) - Commodus could still be censured because he wore a tunic with sleeves (Cass. Dio 72,17, cf. SHA Heliogab. 26,3). From the 3rd cent. AD, the adoption …

[German version] (ἀσκωλιασμός; askōliasmós). ‘Hopping on one leg’ (Pl. Symp. 190d with Schol.; Aristoph. Plut. 1129 etc.), also ‘hopping on a wineskin’. Mentioned by Eratosthenes (fr.22) and Didymus (Schol. in Aristoph. ibid.) at Attic grape harvest festivals as dances on a wineskin made of the skin of a pig or pelt of a goat that was filled with air or wine and -- as Poll. 9,121 writes -- oil was rubbed into it to make it harder to stand. The festival Askolia mentioned from time to time was invented by the grammarians. Eubolus (fr.8) mentions the askōliasmós also as an Attic folk entertai…

[German version] (καμπύλη; kampýlē). Staff with a cambered handle, mostly used by farmers and shepherds, beggars, old men and travellers, in contrast to the straight walking stick baktēría (βακτηρία) used by full citizens. According to the Vit. Soph. 6 (according to Satyrus) Sophocles is supposed to have introduced the kampyle into the theatre. According to Poll. 4,119 the old men in comedies carry kampyles. On representations of theatre, actors are often depicted with a kampyle. Lituus; Staff Hurschmann, Rolf (Hamburg) Bibliography Bibliography: Staff.

[German version] Named after his geometric krater, formerly in the Cesnola collection (h. 114.9 cm with lid, from Kourion/Cyprus, now in New York, MMA, Inv. 74. 51. 965;  Geometric pottery). The work of the anonymous vase painter combines motifs from the Middle East with those from mainland Greece and the Greek islands. In the past, both the unusual form of the eponymous krater and the combination of decorative motifs led to discussion as to its date and origin, but these are now confirmed by ana…

[German version] (κάλαμος/ kálamos, lat. calamus). Besides the stylus , the pen was the second indispensable writing implement in antiquity. It was used to write with red or black ink on papyrus and parchment, as well as on whitened or uncoated wooden tablets. Pens made from reed stalks (κάλαμος/ kálamos, lat. calamus) were sharpened with a penknife (σμίλη, scalprum librarium) and given a slit in the middle, so that they resembled the modern steel pen in appearance and functioned correspondingly (Pers. 3,10-14). After longer use, kalamoi which had become blunt could be resharpen…