Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

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Abolla

A rough, thick cloak resembling the Greek chlamys (q. v.), and called by Horace ( Ep. i. 17, 25) duplex pannus. It was of foreign origin,

Abolla. (Arch of Septimius Severus.)

and at Rome in imperial times was worn indiscriminately as an outer garment (Juv.iv. 76). With the wealthy it was often of purple (Suet. Cal. 35); but it seems to have retained its simple coarseness when adopted by philosophers. It was thus worn by the Cynics, serving alike for day and night clothes (Martial, iv. 53, 5; Ep. l. c., the same as the τρίβων διπλοῦς, Diog. Laert. vi. 22). The abolla as worn by soldiers is probably to be recognized in the bas-relief from the arch of Septimius Severus.