LAENA
LAENA The same word as the Greek. χλαῖνα, and perhaps radically connected with λάχνη (lana), though Curtius is doubtful on that point (Etym. 336). It was manufactured, according to Strabo, in later times in Gaul: ἡ δὲ ἐρέα (of the Belgians) τραχεῖα μὲν ἀκρόμαλλος δὲ ἀφ᾽ ἧς τοὺς δασεῖς σάγους ἐξυφαίνουσιν οὓς λαίνας καλοῦαι: but, as Marquardt points out, it was an old Roman dress, being worn by the Flamines, fastened with a bronze fibula (Cic. Brut. 14, 56, of the Flamen Carmentalis): cf. Serv. ad Aen. 4.262, “est autem proprie toga duplex, Graece χλαῖνα, amictus auguralis.” (See Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, 3.336.) Festus derives its origin from the. Etruscans: Cicero (l.c.) connects the surname Laenas of the Popilii with this dress, because Popilius was wearing it, being Flamen Carmentalis as well as Consul, when he quelled a tumult. 1. It signifies then properly a woollen cloak, the cloth of which was twice the ordinary thickness ( “duarum togarum instar,” Varro, L. L. 5.133), and therefore termed duplex (Festus, s.v. Serv. l.c.), shaggy upon both sides, worn over everything else for the sake of warmth (Mart. 14.136). Hence persons carried a laena with them when they went out to supper (Mart. 8.59); and the rich man in Juvenal, who walks home at night escorted by a train of slaves and lighted by flambeaux, is [p. 2.4]wrapped in a scarlet laena (Juv. 3.283, where see Mayor's note). The courtly bard in Persius (1.32) is introduced reciting his fashionable lays with a violet-coloured laena over his shoulders; but that it was also worn by the poor appears from Juv. 5.131. (See also Becker-Göll, Gallus, 3.221.) 2. The dress of the Flamines, as mentioned above. The correspondence of the laena with the Greek χλαῖνα is seen (i.) by the description (Homer, Hom. Il. 10.133): “ ἀμφὶ δ᾽ἅρα χλαῖναν περόνησαν φοινικὁεσσανδιπλῆν, ἑπταδίην, οὔλη δ᾽ἐπενήνοθε λάχνη:
” (ii.) its use for warmth (ἀνεμοσκεπήα, Il. 16.224); (iii.) from the fact that the χλαῖνα is the Homeric dress of heroes, while the Latin poets clothe them in the laena. (Aeneas in Verg. A. 4.262; Hasdrubal in Sil. Ital. 15.424: cf. Plut. Num. 7, ἃς ἐφόρουν οἱ ἱερε̂ς λαίνας ὁ Ἱόβας χλαίνας φησὶν εἶναι. See Marquardt, Privatleben, 569.) [W.R] [G.E.M]