CLAVUS LATUS
CLAVUS LATUS,
CLAVUS ANGUSTUS. It was a common
usage with many nations of antiquity to adorn a garment by means of stripes
of a different colour, woven in
[p. 1.454]or sewn on the
stuff. As instances we may quote the purple stripe down the middle of the
robes worn by the priests of the Sun, instituted by Heliogabalus (Herodian,
5.5, 9); the broad white stripe down the breast of the purple garment of the
Persian leader in the Pompeian mosaic of the battle of Issus; the
regulations of the mysteries at Andania, which prescribe that the
σημεῖα on the women's garments are to be not
more than half a finger's breadth (Sauppe,
Abhandl. der kgl.
Gesellsch., Göttingen, 1860); and among the Romans the
female ornament of the
patagium. But the Romans
made a more characteristic use of these adornments by employing them as
badges of office or rank (
ornamenta), as in the
case of the
trabea, the
toga
praetexta, and the
clavi.
It will be convenient to determine the use of both the
latus clavus and the
angustus
clavus before discussing their form.
Usage.--The
latus clavus was,
according to tradition, introduced by Tullus Hostilius from the Etruscans
(
Plin. Nat. 9.136). It was the
distinctive badge of the senatorian order (Hor.
Sat. 1.6, 28;
Ov. Tr. 4.10,
35), and hence it is used to signify the
senatorial dignity (
Suet. Tib. 35;
Vesp. 2, 4). In distinction to the
angustus clavus it is called
purpura
maior (Juv.
Sat. 1.106), and the
garment it decorated
tunica potens (
Stat. Silv. 5.2,
29). Pliny speaks of this distinctive use as late (
H.
N. 33.29); yet its assumption by a
praeco, the father of L. Aelius Stilo Praeconinus (whose official
dress may have included the
angustus clavus),
was, as lie admits, remarkable, as also was its use by Horace's praetor of
Fundi (
Sat. 1.5, 36). But there were
relaxations of the restriction: thus Augustus wore the
tunica lati clavi before he assumed the
toga virilis, and it was afterwards his custom to permit the
sons of senators to wear it and attend the discussions of the senate, in
order to train them in public affairs. If they were entering on a military
career, he also made them military tribunes and prefects. These youths were
called
laticlavii (
Suet. Aug. 38,
94,
Dom. 10; Hor.
Sat. 1.6, 25;
D. C. 59.9,
5 :
on the contrary,
tribunus angusticlavius,
Suet. Otho 10). Statius speaks of a youth
assuming the
latus clavus together with the
toga praetexta (
Silv. 5.2,
29; cf. 4.8, 59-62). The right of wearing the
latus
clavus was also granted by the emperor as a favour to the sons
of knights, as a preliminary step to their entering the senate; if they
relinquished or were disappointed in their hopes, they assumed the
angustus clavus ( “clavi mensura coacta est,”
Ov. Trist. v. 10, 29-36; Suet.
Vesp. 2), but might again assume the
latus clavus, like Priscus in Horace (
Sat. 2.7, 10), who “vixit inaequalis, clavum ut mutaret in
horas.” In the later empire the
equites appear to have encroached on the rights of the senate in
this respect, and Alexander Severus was only able to insist that knights
should be distinguished from senators by the quality of the purple employed
(Lamprid.
Alex. Sev. 27). The senate laid aside the
latus clavus at times of mourning (
Liv. 9.7) and assumed the
angustus clavus (
D. C. 38.14;
40.46).
The
angustus clavus was a badge of the
equestrian order (Vell. Paterc. 2.88, 2), but less distinctively so than the
golden ring (e. g.
Liv. 9.7: “lati clavi,
anuli aurei positi.” Cf.
Plin. Nat.
33.29); for, as we shall see from the extant works of art, it was
also worn by
camilli, lanistae, and others not
of equestrian rank, as a part of their ceremonial dress.
Form.--It is agreed by antiquarians that the
clavi were purple stripes woven in the fabric
(Quint. 8.5, 28;
Plin. Nat. 8.193; Fest.
p. 56, 9) or sewn on it (
Dig. 34,
2,
23.1; 19.5); that they were
employed to ornament the tunic, and no other garment; that the
angustus clavus consisted of two narrow vertical
stripes falling from each shoulder, down the front, and, as appears from
frescoes, also down the back. But there has been great discussion concerning
the form of the
latus clavus, some contending
that it was a single stripe running down the centre of the bosom of the
tunica, some that there were two stripes, only differing from the
angustus clavus in breadth, and, like it, running
down the back (as Marquardt maintains). The latter view is now generally
held, although it is impossible to conclude the discussion by appealing to
any representation of a senator displaying this
ornamentum, as it was not the custom of ancient sculptors to
indicate a distinction of colour by a conventional system of lines.
It must be observed that
latus clavus, angustus
clavus are often abbreviated expressions for
tunica lati or
angusti clavi.
Thus Julius Caesar is said to have worn “lato clavo ad manus
fimbriato” (
Suet. Jul. 45). That the
angustus clavus consisted of two stripes is
proved by Quintilian, 11.3, 138: “Cui lati clavi ius non erit, ita
cingatur, ut tunicae prioribus oris infra genua paulum, posterioribus ad
medios poplites usque perveniant. . . ut
purpurae recte descendant, levis cura est.” Though we
cannot point to a representation of an
eques
wearing this garb, we find it frequently shown in Pompeian paintings of
persons of inferior rank who are in ceremonial dress, especially
camilli and other attendants on religious rites, and
of
lanistae. In a wall-painting at Pompeii
belonging to the worship of the goddess Epona, the two
camilli and a man leading mules wear the
angustus clavus. The latter may be a muleteer especially
adorned for a festival of the goddess, or a person
of higher rank performing some rite of her worship. (
Annali
dell' Inst. Arch. 1872, pl. D.)
[p. 1.455]
The illustration given above is from a painting on the wall of the
amphitheatre at Pompeii, representing the commencement of a combat between
two gladiators, and shows all the attendants wearing this ceremonial dress.
It is particularly interesting, because the
clavi are seen on the back of the tunic of one of the attendants
on the left. (Cf. Nissen,
Pompeianische Studien, p. 352, for
other instances.) The
angustus clavus is also
commonly represented on the figures of the paintings in the Catacombs. The
female figure on the left hand, from Buonarotti (
Osservazioni sopra
alcuni Frammenti di Vasi antichi di Vetro, tav. xxix. fig. 1),
represents the goddess Moneta. The one on the right hand, from a cemetery on
the Via Salara Nova, represents Priscilla, an early martyr. The next figure
is selected from three of a similar kind, representing Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, from the tomb of Pope Callistus on the Via Appia.
 |
|
Angustus Clavus. (From figures in the Catacombs.)
|
The
angustus clavus probably survives in the
clavi on the dalmatic, which was recognised
as an ecclesiastical garb in the earlier part of the fourth century
(
Vita Sylvestri I., p. 266,
Combéfis), though down to A.D. 640 the
clavi are always represented as black, according to Marriott
(
Vestiarium Christianum, p. lv.). (See
Dict. of Christian Ant. s. vv. Clavus, Dalmatic.)
Some writers maintain that the drawing on the following page, representing
Rome personified, clothed in a robe called cyclas [
CYCLAS], shows the
latus
clavus falling in a broad purple stripe down the breast. It is
taken from a picture of the 2nd or 3rd century, belonging to the Barberini
family. On the contrary, M. Heuzey finds in the paintings of the Catacombs
and in the miniatures of the Vatican Virgil attempts
 |
|
Clavus on the Dalmatic. (Mosaic in the church of St. Vitalis in
Ravenna.)
|
to indicate the rank of the wearer by the breadth or narrowness of
the
clavi, which in all cases are similarly
arranged, and hence argues that the
latus
clavus differed from the
angustus
only in breadth. But in the wall-paintings of the Catacombs the attempt to
draw this distinction appears in some cases to lead to contradictory results
in the same picture, and it seems preferable to base this view on the strong
support afforded by ancient texts.
 |
|
Supposed latus clavus. (From a
painting of Rome personified.)
|
It is true that the singular (
latus clavus) is
generally used, but this is also true of the
angustus
clavus, which confessedly consisted of two stripes; while the
employment of the plural,
latis clavis, is
striking in a passage of Varro, which also insists on the resemblance of the
two garments, by using as an illustration of an analogy a tunic, in which of
the two pieces (front and back) one has the
lati, the other the
angusti, clavi.
( “Non, si quis tunicam in usu ita [E. Schulze,
inusitate] consuit, ut altera plagula
[p. 1.456]sit angustis clavis, altera latis, utraque pars in suo
genere caret analogia,”
L. L. 9.79. Cf. for the use of the plural, Festus, p. 209 a,
23: “tunica autem palmata a latitudine clavorum dicebatur, quae nunc a
genere picturae appellatur.” ) Again, Augustus, among other
affectations of simplicity, “usus est . . . clavo nec lato nec
angusto” (
Suet. Aug. 73), which is
quite intelligible if the two ornaments differed only in breadth, but
inexplicable on the other hypothesis: while Herodian (5.5, 9) speaks of the
stripe down the centre of the tunic worn by the priests of the Sun,
instituted by Heliogabalus, as a Phoenician custom (
ἀνεζωσμένοι οἱ μὲν χιτῶνας ποδήρεις καὶ χειριδωτοὺς νόμῳ
Φοινίκων, ἐν μέσῳ φέροντες μίαν πορφύραν).
1
As the tunic was composed of a front piece and a back piece sewn together,
the passage quoted above from Varro goes to show that the
lati clavi were worn down the back, as well as down the
front. In support of this may be cited Varro,
Sat. Menipp.
313, Bücheler: “quorum vitreae togae ostentant tunicae
clavos,” which refers to togas made of such diaphanous material
that the
clavi could be seen through them at
the back. With the same intent of displaying this mark of distinction, the
wearer of the
tunica laticlavia is to gird
himself so that it may fall low ( “paulum cinctis summissior,”
Quint. 11.3, 139). Pliny observes that in his time it was becoming a fashion
to weave the
tunica lati clavi of a stuff
resembling
gausapa (
H. N.
8.193). The false derivation quoted from Festus above for
palmata as applied to
tunica may
possibly indicate that the breadth of the
latus
clavus was about a palm.
The equivalents used in the Greek writers are:--
clavus,
σημεῖον:
tunica
laticlavia,
ἡ πλατύσημος:
tunica
angusticlavia,
ἡ στενόσημος:
tunica
asema (Lampr.
Alex. Sev. 33, 4),
ἡ ἄσημος:
tunica clavata,
ἡ σημειωτός.
The chief authorities for the subject are Ferrarius,
de Re
Vestiaria (Patavii, 1654); Rubenius,
de Re
Vestiaria Veterum, Praecipue de Lato Clavo Libri Duo (Antwerp,
1665); Ferrarius,
Analecta de Re Vestiaria
(Patavii, 1690); Marquardt,
Röm. Privatleben (1886),
pp. 544 ff.;
Historia Equitum Rom. pp. 77, 80;
E. Schulze in
Rhein. Mus., 1875, pp. 120 ff.
[
A.R] [
J.H.F]
