Can it really have taken seven episodes of Instant Classics to get to everyone’s favourite Roman meme: the toga party? Mary and Charlotte grasp the thistle - or rather the sinus (fold at the front of a toga) - and ask what exactly is a toga? Who wore them and when? And how do you make one? 

In this fact-filled episode, we discover that - despite the antics of students around the world today - a toga wasn’t a bed-sheet turned into a sort of cheap tunic for getting blind drunk in, but an elaborate, woollen garment more like a cloak or robe that signified power. We find out how many kilometres of woollen thread were necessary to make a toga, where the word ‘candidate’ (as in political candidate) comes from and which Roman emperor wore platform shoes to make himself look taller. 

As they go deeper into the folds of the toga, Mary and Charlotte reveal how wearing one was about much more than looking smart but got to the very essence of what it meant to be Roman. 

And… in case you’re wondering… one of our hosts has been to a toga party. But can you guess whether it’s Mary or Charlotte? 

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Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading

Roman dress has been a bit of a boom area of study recently.

Mary Harlow explains many of the practical aspects (including a fun video showing how to actually put one on) here: https://romanleicester.com/2020/06/30/dress-to-impress/

There is good, accessible stuff on the rights and wrongs of toga-wearing here: https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/unromantest/chapter/the-roman-man-and-the-toga/

More specialised: 

Camilla Ebert, Sidsel Frisch, Mary Harlow, Eva Andersson Strand and Lena Bjerregaard (eds), Traditional Textile Craft: An Intangible Cultural Heritage? (Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen, 2016)

Judith Lynn Sebasta and Larissa Bonfante (eds), The World of Roman Costume (Wisconsin UP, pb, 1994) 

Jonathan Edmondson and Alison Keith (eds), Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture (University of Toronto Press, 2008) 

If you want to follow up some ancient writers: 

the phrase ‘the race that wears the toga’ is from Virgil, Aeneid 1, 282;  Augustus’ rules on wearing togas in the forum are mentioned at Suetonius, Augustus 40; Augustus keeping a handy toga at home at Suetonius, Augustus 73; Claudius’ rules in the court case at Suetonius, Claudius 15. There is a full translation of Tertullian’s (baffling) On the Pallium online here: https://www.tertullian.org/articles/hunink_de_pallio.htm

Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci

Producer: Jonty Claypole 

Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford

Video Editor: Jak Ford

Theme music: Casey Gibson

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