SU´PPARUS
SU´PPARUS The
supparus,
which by writers of the Silver age was also called
supparum (cf. Studniczka,
Beiträge,
p. 90, note 68), was a linen garment worn at Rome in the early days of the
Republic. It was apparently used by both sexes, though it was a woman's
rather than a man's garment (cf. Afranius,
Epist. p. 180, ed.
Ribbeck, “tace, puella non sum supparo si induta sum” ). The
passage which throws most light on its shape is that of Lucan, where
speaking of Marcia, Cato's wife, he says:
Humerisque haerentia primis
Suppara nudatos cingunt angusta
lacertos.
This seems to show that the
supparus was a form
of mantle, not a long apron, as a passage in Nonius (p. 540, 8), which is
probably corrupt, tells us. Unfortunately it has not yet been recognised on
any monument.
From a derivation from the Oscan, which Varro mentions but rejects (
L.
L. 5, 131), it has been thought that it was borrowed from the
people of that name. However this may be, there seems little doubt that it
is connected with
siparum) and
σίφαρος (a sail), and through them with
φᾶρος. This derivation is corroborated borated
by the fact that they are all of linen, and by the curious coincidence that
(
φᾶρος also was a name both for
mantles, sails, and linen cloth generally. (Studniczka, p. 90 f.; Iwan
Müller,
Handbuch, pp. 876, 927; Marquardt,
Privatleben, p. 484.)
[
W.C.F.A]
