Loose reins are given to public dissipation everywhere you may hear the sound of great preparations, as if there were some real difference between the days devoted to Saturn and those for transacting business. It is now the month of December, when the greatest part of the city is in a bustle. (Seneca, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales 18.1-2) Si te hic haberem, libenter tecum conferrem, quid existimares esse faciendum: utrum nihil ex cotidiana consuetudine movendum an, ne dissidere videremur cum publicis moribus, et hilarius cenandum et exuendam togam. Adeo nihil interest, ut non videatur 1 mihi errasse, qui dixit olim mensem Decembrem fuisse, nunc annum. Ingenti apparatu sonant omnia, tamquam quicquam inter Saturnalia intersit et dies rerum agendarum. The following was found in a letter to a friend.ĭecember est mensis cum maxime civitas sudat. However from the late Republic and onwards, their presence in socially situations became more frequent. In the Republic, a woman presence in such debauchery would be unseemly. The participation of freeborn Roman women (in comparison to slave women, who would be participating) depended on the custom of the time. Slaves were not allowed to wear this “freed” cap, but for the Saturnalia everyone wore them so that there was not class distinction. The pilleus is a cone like felt cap that usually denotes the stature of a freedman (a slave who is freed by their master, but not quite a citizen). While quotidian, Roman citizens went about bare-headed during Saturnalia they worn the pilleus. Instead, the Greek clothing known as synthesis was adopted. The toga, which the iconic dress for all respectable Roman citizen, was discarded for this day. Ancient Greek red-figure plate from Apulia, third quarter of the 4th century BC, Louvre.
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