Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome 9781463235420

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Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome

Gorgias Studies in Classical and Late Antiquity

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Gorgias Studies in Classical and Late Antiquity contains monographs and edited volumes on the Greco-Roman world and its transition into Late Antiquity, encompassing political and social structures, knowledge and educational ideals, art, architecture and literature.

Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome

Rachael B. Goldman

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34 2013

Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2013 by Gorgias Press LLC

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. 2013

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ISBN 978-1-61143-914-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Goldman, Rachael. Color-terms in social and cultural context in ancient Rome / by Rachael Goldman. pages cm -- (Gorgias studies in classical and late antiquity ; 3) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-61143-914-4 1. Rome--Social life and customs. 2. Colors--Social aspects--Rome. 3. Sociolinguistics--Rome. 4. Social structure--Rome. I. Title. DG78.G65 2013 306.440937--dc23 2013035963 Printed in the United States of America

TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ..................................................................................... v Acknowledgments .................................................................................. vii Note on Texts, Translations and Abbreviations ................................ ix Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 Different Hues, Different Views .................................................. 1 Modern Approaches to Roman Colors ....................................... 3 A Thematic Approach to the Subject .......................................... 7 Chapter One: Aulus Gellius’ Colorful Digression .............................. 9 The Color Debate: Latin Color Terms ...................................... 10 Greek Color-Terms ....................................................................... 18 Fronto and the Roman Artistic Background ............................ 19 Favorinus and Physiognomy ....................................................... 23 Summary ......................................................................................... 24 Chapter Two: Ancient Dyes: Color Me Beautiful ............................. 25 Purple Dyers ................................................................................... 27 Red Dyers ....................................................................................... 31 Other Dyers .................................................................................... 32 Vitruvian Colors ............................................................................ 33 Summary ......................................................................................... 37 Chapter Three: Colored Clothing: You Are What You Wear ......... 39 Purple Colored Clothing .............................................................. 40 Red Colored Clothing ................................................................... 52 Blue and Green Colored Clothing .............................................. 55 Yellow Colored Clothing.............................................................. 57 White, Gray, Black and Brown.................................................... 62 Pullus ................................................................................................ 65 Summary ......................................................................................... 68 Chapter Four: Clothes Make the Man: Class and Color-Terms ..... 71 Trimalchio the Freedman ............................................................. 71 The Freedman’s Wife.................................................................... 76 v

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The Freedman’s Feast................................................................... 79 Freedmen in Poetry ....................................................................... 80 Summary ......................................................................................... 83 Chapter Five: Color Wars: Roman Chariot Teams ........................... 85 The Setting ...................................................................................... 85 The Teams ...................................................................................... 87 The Greens ..................................................................................... 90 The Blues ........................................................................................ 94 The Reds, Whites and Others ..................................................... 95 Epilogue .......................................................................................... 96 Chapter Six: Color Physiognomy: You Are What You Look Like .................................................................................................. 99 Descriptions of Emperors .........................................................100 Descriptions of Ordinary Men ..................................................109 Descriptions of Women .............................................................118 Descriptions of Non-Romans ...................................................125 Gauls, Germans, and Britons ....................................................126 Assyrians, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Etruscans and Indians ....130 Summary .......................................................................................133 Chapter Seven: The Multicolored World of the Romans ..............135 Versicolor ........................................................................................135 Decolor and Decolorare....................................................................141 Discolor ...........................................................................................146 Bicolor..............................................................................................151 Multicolor ........................................................................................152 Omnicolor ........................................................................................154 Unicolor and Concolor .....................................................................155 Summary .......................................................................................160 Conclusions: Did Color-Terms Have an Ancient History? ...........161 Bibliography ..........................................................................................165 Index of Latin Color-Terms ...............................................................175 Index of Classical Works Cited ..........................................................179 General Index........................................................................................187

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book began life as a portion of the my Ph.D. Dissertation written at the City University of New York-Graduate Center, the American Academy in Rome, and Rutgers University. I would like to thank those institutions for access to their facilities and for their financial support. I would especially like to thank the excellent staff of each of these libraries for getting some of most obscure works I could ever dream of. Grants from the Association of Ancient Historians and the Classical Association of Atlantic States also made this work possible. Panels held at the Roman House Workshop at New York University, American Historical Association and the Renaissance Society of America helped clarify and brighten some of the unclear passages. Having supported myself during my graduate study, I would also like to thank the following institutions for allowing me to share all that I know about the ancient world in their classrooms: The College of New Jersey, Adelphi University, Montclair State University, Bronx Community College, The Pratt Institute and Union Community College. Students from my Roman Civilization course helped me form solid ideas about colors and their uses, while students in the Rome and Barbarians course helped defined shades for the non-Roman. The best of colleagues! I would like to extend my thanks to my dissertation advisor, Jennifer T. Roberts, who advised me and graciously took me as her student. Further, I must acknowledge others, whom I also regard to be mentors: Dee L. Clayman, Margaret King, Sarah Covington, Duane W. Roller, Wladislaw Roczniak, Gary Farney, T. Corey Brennan, Cindy Nimchuk, Kaius Tuori, Martin Burke, Ann Moyer, Judith Hallett, Sulochana Asirvatham, Leanne Bablitz, Lisa Mignone, Prudence Jones, Ilaria Marchesi, Sarolta Takacs, Donald Lateiner, Gil Renburg and Karen Kelsky. vii

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To my editor, Melonie Schmierer-Lee, who gently guided me throughout this entire process and gave my subject a proper place in history. Many friends and colleagues have listened to my ideas, answered my questions, and provided hospitality and camaraderie; I should like to thank above all: Robin Johnson, who took the responsibility as an editor of all. I cannot think that this book would not have found a proper format. She also kept me calm after my many tantrums. And yes, Robin, I have said it already! To Dr. Keith Jordan, on our many transcontinental phone calls, constantly reassuring me that I was doing the right thing at the right time. A number of other friends kept me sane through the whole process: Adele Pier Puccio, Natalie Bianco, Michael and Natalie Wildermuth, Francesca Vasalle, and Sara Lavallee. Finally, I would like to thank my family, Karen and Gerald Goldman, and my brother, Jonathan, for all of their love and support throughout this process. For them and all, I have certainly brought a new level of color into their life. All errors are my own. Rachael Goldman April 2013

NOTE ON TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Texts and translations are taken from the Loeb Classical Library, with some minor amendments. Exceptions are the works of Festus, Nonius, Ulpian, Julius Pollux, Pseudo-Aristotle, and Polemo of Laodicea, which are noted in the Bibliography. Abbreviations of journal titles are taken from l’Année philologique. Abbreviations for ancient authors and their works are taken from the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd edition. AJA American Journal of Archaeology AJPhil American Journal of Philology ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt CJ The Classical Journal CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum CPh Classical Philology CQ Classical Quarterly CR Classical Review CW The Classical World HSPh Harvard Studies in Classical Philology ILS Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae JDAI Jahrbuch des deutschen archäologischen Instituts TAPhA Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association TAPhS Transactions of the American Philosophical Society TLL Thesaurus Linguae Latinae ZPE Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik ix

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INTRODUCTION The study of color-terms in the works of Roman writers can illuminate our understanding of their social stratification and mores. Color is a basic cultural building block by which the historian can measure how the Romans saw the world around them. The Romans attached nuanced implications to color-terms which went beyond their literal meaning, using these terms as a form of cultural assessment, defining their social values and order. By using color, they were often making judgments about social class, gender roles, and ethnic groups, and so maintaining the status quo. By analyzing the use of color words in specific contexts, it is possible to derive a greater insight into the Roman understanding of color, and the translator and commentator faced with color categories will be better equipped to appreciate the descriptions at work in such problematic expressions as Juvenal’s viridem thoraca and Vergil’s discolor aura.

DIFFERENT HUES, DIFFERENT VIEWS Ancient color-terms can be difficult for us to understand because of the temporal distance between our world and that of antiquity. 1 The experiences and materials that dominated and shaped the ancients’ perceptions are not familiar to citizens of the twenty-first century, who live in a world of synthetic dyes, electric lights and a proliferation of high-tech visual media. On account of their abstract and subjective nature, classical color-terms are difficult to

1 For example, Fletcher (1968) 57 says ‘colour descriptions both in Greek and in Latin tend to be vague;’ Fordyce (1961) 73 says ‘Latin colour-words are difficult to define.’

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understand unless they are anchored to specific objects, such as fabrics and clothing. We recognize that the Romans seemed to be highly aware of the interaction of light and darkness with color. In the absence of modern technology, interiors of houses would have been dimmer than our own, and the light produced by candles and oil lamps was limited and flickering, making the Romans more conscious of the play of light and shade upon various colors. Dyeing fabric was an inconstant process, because the dyes employed were rather impure and the dyeing process was not controlled with modern instruments. As a result there could have been a great variation of hues from one dye lot to another. 2 These material factors may have contributed to apparent differences in the color vocabulary employed by Roman authors when compared with twenty-first century concepts of color. If the colors themselves may have been variable, the colorterms in Latin literature do not show substantial change in context or meaning over time. For example, flammeus, the term to describe the bridal veil worn by women, is used by authors such as Plautus, Vergil, Catullus, Petronius, Pliny the Elder and Aulus Gellius, representing a huge expanse of time and genre. The color-term murex also remained consistent over time, associated with the purple color retrieved from the sea snail, Murex brandaris, reserved specifically for the aristocracy. Speaking for the cultured society under the Antonines in the mid-second century CE, one of the characters in Aulus Gellius’ Attic Nights charges that there are more and better color-terms in Greek literature than there are in Latin, while another character retorts that Latin has a far greater variety.3 Their dialogue poses for the historian of color a useful linguistic debate on color-terminology, and the problems of definition, both for them and for us today.

2 3

See, for instance, Edgeworth (1985) 220; Sebesta (1994b) 73–74. Gell. NA 2.26.

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MODERN APPROACHES TO ROMAN COLORS To excavate the foundation of modern treatments of ancient Roman color, we must return to the first study conducted by Thomas Randolph Price, who was concerned with defining the chromatic range of the terms (such as all the different shades of red) and their deployment in the Vergilian corpus.4 His study represented the first attempt at listing Roman color-terms and their etymological roots. He demonstrated that Vergil used color in all types of descriptions, but he did not categorize the usages of the color-terms and did not attempt to analyze their precise meaning. As Price intended his work merely to bring the subject of color to the forefront, he did not go further than this level of research. The study of Roman color-terms was taken up again by J. André, the French linguist, in his Étude sur les Termes de Couleur dans la Langue Latine.5 André built upon Price’s limited research, but added more color-terms, resulting in a massive concordance that is divided into different color groups or families charting the usage of specific words in different texts. As a comprehensive research tool, his book remains an invaluable source; but since his field of study was so wide, he touches only briefly on social and cultural aspects of colors. Andre’s text should be consulted with caution, as his translations sometimes seem eccentric: for example, he includes puniceus and purpureus in the red family chapter, Le Rouge, though these color-terms have been universally accepted as purple and he has a separate chapter on Le Violet.6 He categorizes spadix as red, even though it is usually translated as rust or brown, and he has a chapter on Le Brun.7 The word lividus is usually translated as whitish, but he places it in the blue category.8 Even pallere, pallidus, and pallor are also normally considered white or pale hues, but here they are categorized in his Le Jaune or yellow section.9 Price (1883). André (1949). 6 Ibid. 88–104. 7 Ibid. 118. Aulus Gellius also includes poeniceus and spadix among terms for red; see Chapter One below. 8 Ibid. 171. 9 Ibid. 139–147. 4 5

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Following André’s method, Neculai V. Baran elaborated on the study of color-terminology in Les Caractéristiques essentielles du vocabulaire chromatique latin.10 He organizes the material in an outline manner, by author and genre rather than by color-term, including many lesser-known Latin works, such as Apuleius’ Florida and Celsus’ scientific writings, and includes some brief references to mosaics and minor arts. Although he discusses color-terms as applied to deities and mythological stories, he does not discuss color-terms as applied to descriptions of ordinary people. Nor does he consider color-terms with prefixes, such as versicolor and discolor. Where his survey succeeds is in his extensive bibliography and notes. From a linguistics standpoint, Berlin and Kay’s Basic Color Terms surveys the etymological development of color-terms in various languages; they devised the phrase ‘color term’ to describe words for colors. 11 More recently, Renato Oniga extends this approach to develop a basic color-terminology for Latin.12 Other scholars have focused on the use of individual colors. 13 Francis Marion Dana’s dissertation, The Ritual Significance of Yellow Among the Romans, examined the religious function of yellow in Roman rituals, especially marriage; however, she confuses various elements of the marriage ceremony and the function of the flammeum, the marriage veil.14 Her use of primary sources is limited, and she does not consider luteus a color-term for yellow; instead she considers it a red hue. Perhaps her greatest contribution to the study of color-terms is her consideration of the colors from the standpoint of gender. Eric Laughton’s two articles on flavus pudor examine the use of the term flavus in writers from Vergil through Baran (1983). Berlin and Kay (1969). 12 Oniga (2007). 13 Several recent studies discuss the development of dyes in modern times. Garfield (2001) gives a focused account of the invention of synthetic chemical dyes in the nineteenth century, and the impact this innovation had on the distribution and diversity of color in the Western world. Greenfield (2005) carefully considers the economic aspects of the production of red dye from the Florentine Renaissance to modern South America. 14 Dana (1919). 10 11

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the elgiac poets.15 The color that has received the most attention from scholars is purple, purpura; Meyer Reinhold’s The History of Purple as a Status Symbol in Antiquity has become the standard text on the purple dye and trade industry from the Assyrians through the Byzantine Empire.16 Donald Lateiner’s article ‘Blushes and Pallor in Ancient Fiction’ draws attention to the use of the color-terms rubor and pallor; he tabulates the number of times terms for blushing and turning pale appear in both Greek and Latin literature. His survey of the literature shows how non-verbal expressions can be significant in our understanding of ancient peoples.17 Other scholars have focused on the use of color-terms by particular authors. In The Colors of the Aeneid, R.J. Edgeworth charts the frequency of all Vergil’s color-terms, including verb forms as well as adjectives.18 Jacqueline Clarke’s Imagery of Color and Shining in Catullus, Propertius and Horace follows the same format as Edgeworth in her analysis, although she concentrates more on color-terms rather than on the quality of shining.19 Barolsky follows the same method in his article on Ovid’s use of colors in Arion.20 There have been some brief treatments of the social connections between colored materials (particularly purple and gold) and Roman luxuria, and attempts by the state to monitor and control them, for instance Phyllis Culham on the lex Oppia, and Christopher Jones on Graeco-Roman processed colors, 200 BCE–200 CE.21 Kelly Olson’s Dress and the Roman Woman draws attention to elements of color over the Roman woman’s whole life-cycle, particularly in clothing, make-up, hair-coloring and jewelry.22 Elizabeth C. Evans was known for her work on the physiognomic treatises of the second century CE by Polemo and the Pseudo-Aristotelian Laughton (1948) and (1950). Reinhold (1970). 17 Lateiner (1998). 18 Edgeworth (1992). 19 Clarke (2003). This monograph grew out of Clarke’s earlier work (2001), where she offered an analysis of color-usage in Catullus 63. 20 Barolsky (2003). 21 Culham (1982) and (1986); Jones (1999). 22 Olson (2008). 15 16

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school, in which the color-terms used to describe the hair, eyes and complexion are supposed to reveal the inner qualities or ailments of the person described.23 In the last decade there has been a great deal of scholarly interest in the examination of painted Greek and Roman sculpture, with many surprising results. Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway surveys the traces of color on Greek architectural sculpture in Prayers in Stone.24 She discusses the role of paint in making sculpture on buildings more clearly visible to the observer, as well as its function as part of the overall architectural design. Vinzenz Brinkmann’s important texts address the use of polychromy in Greek and Roman sculpture by studying paint samples from a variety of wellknown works, including the Augustus of Prima Porta; a major exhibition in Munich in 2007 included recreations of these works with possible original colors.25 The most recent contribution to the literature is Mark Bradley’s important study, Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome, which examines categories of color in Roman systems of expression and communication.26 Bradley discusses how the words color and colores were understood by Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, and how authors such as Lucretius and Pliny analyzed the optical effects of color; he devotes a complete chapter to the rainbow and its effect on ancient philosophy and science, and another on marble and its colorful qualities in building structures. There are many useful studies of color-terms that focus on periods and cultures other than Greece and Rome. John Gage’s Color and Culture and Color and Meaning trace the history of color from Classical Greece through the twentieth century, principally focusing on appearances in Medieval and Renaissance fine and decorative arts.27 Liza Cleland and Karen Stears organized an archaeologically-based conference, whose proceedings were pubEvans (1935), (1941), (1950) and (1969). Ridgway (1999) 103–142. 25 Brinkmann (1994), (2003) and (2007); see also Bankel and Liverani (2004), Panzanelli (2008). 26 Bradley (2009b). 27 Gage (1993) and (1999). 23 24

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lished as Colour in the Ancient Mediterranean World, which deals with all aspects of the use of color in the ancient world from Roman Britain to Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and North Africa.28 Umberto Eco’s ‘How Culture Conditions the Colours We See’ articulates many of the linguistic and conceptual issues that are present when we try to describe colors, taking into account our cultural background and preconceptions.29 Because of the relative paucity of previous scholarship on color in the Roman world and lack of focus on the precise meaning of color-terms, oversimplified or incorrect translations have been repeated uncritically in literature. Without an understanding of the context of color-terms, the significance ascribed to them by the writers is lost. By examining the color-terms at play in certain texts, we may be able to grasp more readily the interplay among roles of gender, ethnicity, religion, economic and class differences, political affairs, and passions of the day.

A THEMATIC APPROACH TO THE SUBJECT Instead of the traditional method of treating the subject by individual color, or chronologically by period, this book will examine the subject of color-terms through thematic chapters. The literary evidence for color-terms does not display a clear chronological development, nor did it seem logical to analyze or discuss color-terms by literary genre or author-based studies, as had been studied previously. It seems more useful to sort the color-terms into subject areas in which they are most frequently found in literature, such as clothing, physiognomy, and associations with particular social classes. These categories generate other fields to investigate: for example, in order to study colored clothing, one must examine the dye industry. Finally, there is a whole category of literary color-terms that deal with the concept of multicoloredness, which have not been considered as a group in previous scholarship. This approach may provide a more productive method for studying Roman attitudes towards color-terms and how they were used. As we shall 28 29

Cleland and Stears (2004). Eco (1985).

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discover, specific color-terms acquired connotations of value — both negative and positive — based on their associations with contemporary social groups. These associations and value judgments appear in Roman literature of both the Republic and the Empire and give us insight into the Roman mind on a variety of important subjects.

CHAPTER ONE: AULUS GELLIUS’ COLORFUL DIGRESSION The dialogue in Gellius’ Attic Nights 2.26, a debate between Marcus Cornelius Fronto and Favorinus of Arles concerning the relative merits of Greek and Latin color-terms, is useful for revealing the cultural climate of the Antonines and the attitudes of the educated upper class of Romans towards the use of color-terms in literature, particularly in poetry. 1 The form of this conversation, loosely based upon the Platonic dialogues, may record an actual intellectual debate or it may be fiction; but whether the conversation occurred or not, it demonstrates the importance that Roman intellectuals placed on color-terms, their derivation and meaning. A detailed analysis of this debate, in the order in which Gellius records it, allows us to examine certain difficult passages with greater understanding. The Latin grammarian Aulus Gellius (125 CE–after 180 CE) was particularly interested in capturing conversations and anecdotes reflective of the social climate in the philosophical schools of Athens. The only information about him as a rhetorician and recorder of antiquarian tales is in his Attic Nights, a compilation of stories, mathematical equations (the measurement of Hercules’ foot is the first anecdote in Book One), questions about law, and anything else that interested him during one winter which he spent in

1 The conversation is referenced in passing by commentators on Aulus Gellius: Baldwin (1975) 33; Holford-Strevens (1989) 65–66, (2004) 32, 219; Fögen (2000) 207–209. Bradley (2009) 229–233 discusses it in detail; see also Rowe (1972) 351; Dürbeck (1977) 38–42; Eco (1985) 158–160; Gage (1993) 31.

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Athens.2 Although the conversations in his book may be embellished or invented, the people that he reports on are real. 3 In 2.26 Gellius presents two famous thinkers trying to make the case for their favorite language, Latin or Greek, as being more expressive when discussing color and perception.

THE COLOR DEBATE: LATIN COLOR TERMS The pairing of Marcus Cornelius Fronto (c. 100–170 CE) and Favorinus of Arles (c. 80–160 CE) is one of contrasts and reveals much about citizens of the Roman Empire and their different cultural perspectives. Neither man was born in Rome; one was an exconsul born in Numidia, and the other a philosopher born in Gaul. Both, however, were fully conversant in Latin and in the philosophy of the day and were excellent orators. Favorinus makes frequent appearances in Attic Nights, discussing such diverse subjects as law, breastfeeding, philosophy, oration, astrology, and Greek and Roman literature. Fronto’s appearance in this dialogue, however, is his only appearance in Attic Nights. In 2.26, the two men exchange barbs over who knows more about poetry and in which language the best color-terms are found, citing Homer, Ennius, Pacuvius, Vergil and Nigidius. It is rare for us to see ancient Romans citing other writers with passages including color-terms, and quite welcome for our understanding of the ancients’ perceptions and how they grappled with these notions, too. The narrator, Gellius, is present but does not directly insert his opinions into the dialogue; he acts as a passive observer. It is interesting to note that Gellius says that there were other men in the room listening to the discussion, suggesting that it was a public debate, and might have actually taken place: …sermones de coloribus vocabulisque eorum agitarentur, quod multiplex colorum facies, appellationes autem incertae et exiguae forent; ‘plura,’ in2 Beall (1999) 55–64. According to scholars, there is no clear order in the sequence of the tales. 3 Beall (1999) 56 sees Attic Nights as primarily works of literary fiction; he asserts that Gellius worked from notes and even excerpts from other books.

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quit ‘sunt’ Favorinus, ‘in sensibus oculorum quam in verbis vocibusque colorum discrimina. Nam, ut alias eorum inconcinnitates omittamus, simplices isti rufus et viridis colores singula quidem vocabula, multas autem species differentis habent. Atque eam vocum inopiam in lingua magis Latina video quam in Graeca.’ …a discussion took place about colors and their names, to the effect that the shades of colors are manifold, but the names for them are few and indefinite; Favorinus said, ‘More distinctions of color are detected by the eye than are expressed by words and terms. For leaving out of account other incongruities, your simple colors red and green have single names, but many different shades. And that poverty in names I find more pronounced in Latin than in Greek.’4

The first part of their discussion deals with color-terms for red. Favorinus argues that it is easy for Romans to classify color-terms under an umbrella-term for red (rufus color) but it does not take into account the different shades of red: Quippe qui ‘rufus’ color a rubore quidem appellatus est, sed cum aliter rubeat ignis, aliter sanguis, aliter ostrum, aliter crocum, aliter aurum, has singulas rufi varietates Latina oratio singulis propriisque vocabulis non demonstrat omniaque ista significat una ‘ruboris’ appellatione… For the color red (rufus) does in fact get its name from redness, but although fire is one kind of red, blood is another, oyster-purple another, saffron another, and gold another, yet the Latin tongue does not indicate these special varieties of red by separate and individual words, but includes them all under the one term rubor…5

Favorinus, the defender of Greek culture, asserts that the Latin language is typically fond of borrowing color-terms from substantive nouns to create adjectives, as ‘fiery’ from ‘fire’: Gell. NA, 2.26.1–5. Gell. NA, 2.26.5. André (1949) 82–83; Holford-Strevens (1971) 301 says ‘the Romans could apply ruber, rubor, rubere to any red, orange or yellow.’ 4 5

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT … nisi cum ex ipsis rebus vocabula colorum mutuatur et ‘igneum’ aliquid dicit et ‘flammeum’ et ‘sanguineum’ et ‘croceum’ et ‘ostrinum’ et ‘aureum.’ … except when it borrows names from the things themselves, and calls anything ‘fiery,’ ‘flame-colored,’ ‘blood-red,’ ‘saffronlike,’ ‘oyster-purple,’ and ‘golden.’6

He looks down upon Latin culture for not being able to create color-terms that stand on their own. In a heated rebuttal, Fronto, approaching the question from the standpoint of a sophisticated Roman, defends the Latin language: ‘Non infitias,’ inquit, ‘imus quin lingua Graeca, quam tu videre elegisse, prolixior fusiorque sit quam nostra; sed in his tamen coloribus quibus modo dixisti denominandis, non proinde inopes sumus ut tibi videmur.’ He said, ‘I do not deny that the Greek language, which you seem to have chosen, is richer and more copious than ours; but nevertheless in naming those colors of which you have just spoken, we are not quite so badly off as you think.’7

He contradicts Favorinus’ statement, saying that Latin color-terms for red include more words than russus and ruber.8 He provides a long list of words for varieties of red: ‘fulvus’ enim et ‘flavus’ et ‘rubidus’ et ‘poeniceus’ et ‘rutilus’ et ‘luteus’ et ‘spadix’ appellationes sunt rufi coloris, aut acuentes eum, quasi incendentes, aut cum colore viridi miscentes aut nigro infuscantes aut virenti sensim albo illuminantes. Nam ‘poeniceus’, quem tu Graece phoinika dixisti, noster est, et ‘rutilus’ et ‘spadix’ poenicei synonymos, qui factus e Graeco noster est, exuberantiam splendoremque significant ruboris, quales sunt fructus palmae arboris non admodum sole incocti, unde spadici et poeniceo nomen est: spadika enim Dorici vocant avulsum e palma termitem cum fructu.

Gell. NA, 2.26.5. Gell. NA, 2.26.7. 8 Gell. NA, 2.26.6. 6 7

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For fulvus, flavus, rubidus, poeniceus, rutilus, luteus and spadix are names of the color red, which either brighten it (as if setting it on fire), or mixing it with green, or darkening it with black, or invigorating it gradually with gleaming white. For poeniceus, which you call phoenix in Greek, is ours, and both rutilus and spadix (a synonym of poeniceus, which taken from the Greek, is ours) indicate a rich, gleaming red, like the fruit of the palm-tree when not fully ripened by the sun, from which the name spadix and poeniceus comes; for spadika in Doric is what they call a branch torn from a palm-tree with its fruit.9

While it is a subjective list, Fronto does defend the Latin language. To our modern eyes, Fronto seems almost comical in his view of color-terms, stretching the definition of red so far as to include a range of colors under the red umbrella from yellow to purple: fulvus, flavus, rubidus, poeniceus, rutilus, luteus and spadix.10 He also admits to adding other colors to red, such as green (viridi), black (nigro), or white (albo). Fronto includes the Latin color-term poeniceus, but admits that it is a transliteration of the Greek word Φοίνικα. Fronto does not see this as a problem; he considers terms taken into Latin from Greek as ‘ours’; he sees no reason to challenge the status quo. The discussion of fulvus, which Fronto considers a mixture of red and green, broadens and complicates the definition of a colorterm: ‘Fulvus’ autem videtur de rufo atque viridi mixtus in aliis plus viridis, in aliis plus rufi habere. Sic poeta verborum diligentissimus ‘fulvam aquilam’ dicit et ‘iaspidem’, ‘fulvos galeros’ et ‘fulvum aurum’ et ‘arenam fulvam’ et ‘fulvum leonem’; sicque Ennius in Annalibus ‘aere fulvo’ dixit. ‘Flavus’ contra videtur e viridi et rufo et albo concretus: sic ‘flaventes comae’ et, quod mirari quosdam video, frondes

Gell. NA, 2.26.8–10. Spadix is a shade that André (1949) 118–119 categorizes separately at the end of his chapter of Le Rouge; some palms do indeed have bright red fruit, as Fronto says. Holford-Strevens (1971) 312 says ‘spadix is used of horses and means “bay,”’ or reddish brown. 9

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT olearum a Vergilio ‘flavae’ dicuntur, sic multo ante Pacuvius aquam ‘flavam’ dixit et ‘fulvum pulverem’. But fulvus seems to be a mixture of red and green, in some cases to have more green, and in other cases more red. Thus the poet, most careful in his speech, says ‘fulvus eagle and jasper,’ ‘fulvus fur cap’ and ‘fulvus gold,’ and ‘fulvus sand,’ and ‘fulvus lion’; and so Ennius in his Annals says ‘fulvus air’. Flavus, on the other hand, seems to be mixed from green, red and white; thus ‘flavus tresses’ and (which I see some marvel at) flavus is used by Vergil for the leaves of olive trees, and thus much earlier, Pacuvius called water flavus and dust fulvus.11

Here Fronto cites a bewildering variety of examples from Vergil’s Aeneid. All these terms take the color-term fulvus: eagle, jasper stone, fur caps, gold, sand and lion.12 He also cites Ennius, who uses fulvus to describe air.13 In discussing flavus and fulvus, which are usually translated as yellow, Fronto seems slightly ridiculous unless one considers these terms to refer to shades of brown or tawny yellow. He quotes the early Republican poet Pacuvius: Cuius versus, quoniam sunt iucundissimi, libens commemini: ‘Cedo tuum pedem mi, lymphis flavis fulvum ut pulverem Manibus isdem, quibus Ulixi saepe permulsi, abluam Lassitudinemque minuam manuum mollitudine.’ Whose verses I gladly remember, because they are most pleasant: ‘Give me your foot, so that with golden waters, the tawny dust, By the same hands with which I often stroked Ulysses, I may wash away, And lessen weariness with the softness of hands.’14

Fronto may be quoting Pacuvius because doing so lends him more authority as a Roman, given Pacuvius’ venerable antiquity. The verses that Fronto cites may not seem to be the best chosen passages to illustrate how the color-terms flavus and fulvus can be used Gell. NA, 2.26.11–13. Verg. Aen., 11.751, 4.261, 7.688, 7.279, 5.374, 2.722. 13 Enn. Ann., 440. 14 Gell. NA, 2.26.13; Pacuvius, Niptra, 266–268. 11 12

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to describe objects.15 They are, however, lines which contain both terms, and conform convieniently to Fronto’s broad definitions in Latin. Fronto proceeds to describe other color-terms in Latin for red: rubidus, which is a darker red with a mixture of black (rufus atrior et nigrore multo inustus); and luteus, which he describes as a diluted form of red (rufus color est dilutior).16 He directly addresses Favorinus and proclaims that there are indeed just as many color-terms in Latin as in Greek. It is surprising that he uses luteus as his example, because usually it is translated as yellow; once again Fronto is defining color-terms in a broad sense.17 When he gets to the color-terms for green, Fronto again asserts that Greek does not have more color-terms for green than Latin does. Again, his example seems odd to us: neque non potuit Vergilius colorem equi signficare viridem volens ‘caerulum’ magis dicere ecum quam ‘glaucum’.18 When Vergil wanted to indicate the ‘green’ color of a horse, Fronto says that Vergil used the word glaucus, which is Greek, instead of a Latin word, caerulus (a word that is usually translated as blue, another instance of the way Fronto stretches color definitions). Fronto justifies this by saying that Vergil chose a wellrecognized Greek word rather than a rare Latin word. Fronto actually misquotes Vergil, who does not actually say that the horse is ‘green’: he describes it as gilvus, dun-colored.19 To the modern historian it would seem strange to call a horse green in the first place; but Fronto’s point is that it was permissible for Vergil to use Greek words in his Latin poetry; there is no requirement for a Latin speaker to use only Latin. Fronto continues, quoting the Republi15 André (1949) 128–132 considers flavus first in his study of Le Jaune; examples of flavus as applied to hair and complexion are documented in Laughton's articles (1948, 1950). 16 Gell. NA, 2.26.14–16. 17 Favorinus, however, does the same thing, when he lists several Greek words for red (Gell. NA, 2.26.6), including ξανθόσ, which is usually translated as yellow. 18 Gell. NA, 2.26.17–18. 19 The reference is to Verg. G. 3.82: honesti spadices glaucique, color deterrimus albis et gilvo — ‘Chestnut and grays are handsome, the least desirable are white and dun.’ André (1949) 150 suggests that gilvus means white or yellow. Holford-Strevens (1971) 318 says ‘the horse is a grey.’

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can poet Nigidius, who says that earlier poets used the color-term caesia for Greek γλαυκῶπις, ‘gray-eyed,’ based on the color of the sky, caelia.20 In this instance Fronto is admitting that a Latin colorterm is derived from the color of the sky — an example of precisely what Favorinus had charged earlier about Latin color-terms being derived from the names of objects. Rather surprisingly, Favorinus now accepts Fronto’s pro-Latin stance towards color-terms and even suggests that Fronto’s knowledge of Greek permitted the two to have this conversation. Favorinus first says that if it were not for Fronto, the Greek language would win; then he quotes Homer (in Greek), saying that either Fronto would have won or made the result indecisive.21 He then goes on to say that Fronto’s explanation of the color flavus has helped him understand a passage of from Ennius’ Annales which he had never understood before: Verrunt extemplo placide mare marmore flavo caeruleum spumat sale conferta rate pulsum; The calm sea’s golden marble now they skim, plowed by the thronging craft, the green seas foam.22

Favorinus says that comparing ‘green (or blue) seas’ with ‘golden marble’ did not seem at all appropriate; but if, as Fronto said, flavus is a color mixed from green and white, then Ennius must have been calling the foam of the green sea ‘golden marble,’ and Favorinus calls this expression most beautiful (pulcherrime).23 Even without considering the color-terms (caeruleum is usually translated as as blue, not green), the poetic comparison made between the foam of the sea and the hard marble is indeed strange; one possibility is that it refers, not to the foam, but to the smoothness of the calm sea beneath the swiftly-moving ships. Favorinus’ tone may even be sarcastic, as he concludes by conceding completely to Fronto and complimenting him on his excellent ability to argue. Perhaps this is Gell. NA, 2.26.19. Gell. NA, 2.26.20, quoting Hom. Il., 23.382. 22 Enn. Ann. 372–3. 23 Gell, NA, 2.26.21–23. 20 21

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an attempt to ingratiate himself with Fronto; but perhaps Favorinus (and Gellius, too) genuinely felt that Fronto had won the argument. Aulus Gellius’ own interest in color-terms appears again in a later passage in Attic Nights, in which he quotes the rhetorician Gavius Bassus on the color of a famous horse belonging to Seius. Bassus, who saw the horse at Argos, says that it was a beautiful horse of a very striking color (colore exuberantissimo) which he describes as poeniceus, or purple: Quem colorem nos sicuti dixi, poeniceum dicimus, Graeci partim phoinika, alii spadika appellant, quoniam palmae termes ex arbore cum fructu avulsus spadix dicitur — ‘as I said, which color we call poeniceus, the Greeks call phoenika but others call spadika, since it comes from the branch of a palm tree of which the fruit is called spadix.’24 Here Aulus Gellius again draws attention to the derivation of color-terms in both Greek and Latin. His comment about the derivation of the word spadix is almost exactly the same as Fronto’s, so clearly he found it very significant; but what color was the horse? According to this passage, spadix is bright red, and poeniceus is usually translated as purple; but it is also possible that the horse is described as poeniceus because it had a shiny coat; purple color-terms were often used to suggest shiny in texture, as will be seen in later chapters. At the beginning of the discussion in 2.26, Favorinus had said: ‘There are more ways to distinguish colors by eye than by words.’ His comment suggests that the ancients grappled with the same confusion we do when interpreting Latin color-terms. How, for instance, can we explain the way Favorinus and Fronto categorize so many different colors as shades of red? In the dialogue, they seem to consider all hues as shades of either red or green (with the addition of black or white to make them darker or lighter). Purple (poeniceus) and yellow (luteus) come under the red umbrella, while blue (caeruleus) and gray (glaucus and Vergil’s gilvus) are associated with green, and fulvus and flavus are somewhere in between. ‘Red’ is used to describe fire, oyster-purple, and gold, while ‘green’ is used to describe horses, the sky, and the sea. What is going on here? If we try to forget our modern tripartite color wheels, it seems as 24

Gell. NA. 3.9.8–9. This passage is almost identical to 2.26.9–10.

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though Favorinus and Fronto are dividing all colors up into what we would call ‘warm’ (red) and ‘cool’ (green). In our system, red and green are complementary colors, or polar opposites; to these Romans, they seem to indicate color categories into which all hues may be divided. At least this would explain why Fronto talks about ‘the green color of a horse’ (colorem equi viridem) — the horse is not green, but its color belongs in the cool or ‘green’ category. It would also explain the ‘purple’ color of Bassus’ horse as an ‘exuberantly’ warm shade of reddish-brown.

GREEK COLOR-TERMS In order to understand these two passages in Attic Nights, it is useful to consider Greek color-terms and their development. Modern scholars have tended to agree with Fronto that Greek literature does not have as many color-terms as Latin. As Alice Kober says, ‘there are in Greek poetry few descriptions of nature, and absolutely no certain mention of the blue sky or blue sea, green trees, or a brown anything.’25 Eleanor Irwin has posited that Greek colorterms such as γλαυκός and μέλας have multiple purposes, and evoke degrees of luminosity or cloudiness, rather than specific hues.26 Homer uses the term οἶνοψ (wine colored) to describe both the sea and cattle; Anacreon uses the term purple πορφυρέας to describe both a girl’s dress and her hair.27 By the Classical period, more color-terms have developed and authors are more precise in applying color-terms to specific objects: in Aeschylus’ Persae, a young man is described as having a red beard freshly dyed with purple blood and riding on a black horse; Xenophanes uses three colors to describe a rainbow — πορφύρεος, φοινίκεος and χλωρός.28 Maurice Platnauer says, ‘it is lustre or superficial effect that struck the Greeks and not what we call colour or tint.’ 29 He points out, however, that Aristophanes used bright color-terms for specific

Kober (1934) 190. Irwin (1974) 101, 202–203. 27 Kober (1934) 189. 28 Kober (1934) 190. 29 Platnauer (1921) 162. 25 26

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objects, such as φοινικιοὺς for a flamingo, φοινικόπτερος.30 In the play The Knights, the Demos urges the sausage-maker to grab his ‘froggy-green’ (βατραχίδα) cloak and go to dinner; here the colorterm is created from an object, just as Favorinus says Latin is fond of doing, but this usage is rare.31 Color-terms do not make their way into the works of historians, such as Thucydides, Polybius or Arrian. Herodotus, however, provides a colorful description of the palace of Ecbatana, describing the seven stades of the building with their different tile colors.32 Xenophon employs the color-terms όρθνινοσ, πορφυρίσ, and φοινικίς once to describe dyed cloth. 33 Some color-terms are drawn from natural substances and elements, such as κροκέας, derived from the crocus flower, an expensive natural item, which also functions as an adjective to describe the κροκόπεπλος worn by Dawn in the Iliad.34 The principal text on color-terms attributed to the Hellenistic period is the Pseudo-Aristotelian treatise De Coloribus, which equates Greek color-terms with the four elements, fire, air, water and earth.35 The author tries to define color in terms of reflected light and the various changes in materials when they are heated or burned, or when natural substances such as trees and plants ripen and decay. This treatise is of considerable significance in the history of science, comparable to Pliny’s Natural History or Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura, but color-terms are not plentiful in Hellenistic poetry.

FRONTO AND THE ROMAN ARTISTIC BACKGROUND Another way to understand the world of Aulus Gellius, Fronto and Favorinus is by looking at Roman material culture as reflected in art and interior decoration. We know that Fronto was familiar with the visual arts; after coming to Rome in the reign of Hadrian, he Ibid. 158; Aristophanes, The Birds, 272; Thompson (1966) 181. Aristophanes, The Knights, 1406. 32 Hdt., 1.98. 33 Xen. Cyr. 8.3.3, Platnauer (1921) 161. 34 Scheid and Svenbro (2001) 59–60; Hom Il., 8:1. 35 Gottschalk (1964); Wörhle (2002) connects the authorship of De Coloribus to the school of Theophrastus. 30 31

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gained attention as an orator and amassed a great amount of money. He was a consul in Rome, but refused the proconsulship of Asia in 142 CE because of illness, most likely gout. He founded a school of rhetoric in Athens, giving him knowledge of Greek as well as Latin. Fronto engaged in an epistolary exchange with the Emperor Verus, in which he discusses a great range of topics. In his first letter, he protests to the Emperor that he cannot do something for which he lacks innate talent. He invokes the styles and gifts of the great masters of the Greek and Roman world, including painters, poets, orators and historians. The passage on painters is of particular interest: Quid, si Parrhasium versicolora pingere iuberet aut Apellen unicolora, aut Nealcen magnifica aut Protogenen minuta, aut Niciam obscura aut Dionysium inlustria, aut lascivia Euphranorem aut Pausiam t a sa? What, if one bade Parrhasius to paint multicolored hues, or Apelles monochromes, or Nealces grand works or Protogenes miniatures, or Nicias somber pictures or Dionysius brilliant ones, or Euphranor, licentious scenes or Pausanias, austere ones?36

Here Fronto displays not only his knowledge of the famous painters of the ancient Greek world, but also of such sophisticated Latin color-terms as versicolor and unicolor. Our surviving literary sources show that other educated Romans besides Fronto were interested in the famous works of Greek painters. Cicero notes that the earliest Greek painters, Zeuxis, Polygnotus, Timanthus, Aetion, Nichomachos, Protogenes and Apelles, used only four colors, though he does not further elaborate on what the colors were. 37 Pliny the Elder shows which Greek artists were partial to certain colors, marveling that even though they did not employ a multicolored palette, their works were worth a lot of money:

36 37

Fronto, Imp. Ver. (II, 48–49). Cic. Brutus, 18.70.

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Quattuor coloribus solis immortalia illa opera fecere — ex albis Melino, e silaciis Attico, ex rubris Sinopide Pontica, ex nigris atramento — Apelles, Aetion, Melanthius, Nicomachus, clarissimi pictores, cum tabulae eorum singulae oppidorum venirent opibus. Only four colors were used in those immortal works — of whites, Melinum, of yellow ochres, Attic, of reds, Pontic Sinopis, of blacks, atramentum — Apelles, Aetion, Melanthus, Nicomachus, the most famous painters, although each of their pictures sold for the wealth of whole towns.38

By contrast, Pliny describes the wide palette that was available to Roman painters during his time: Sunt autem colores austeri aut floridi, utrumque natura aut mixture evenit. Floridi sunt — quos dominus pingenti praestat — minium, armenium, cinnabaris, chrysocolla, indicum, purpurissum; ceteri austeri. Ex omnibus alii nascuntur, alii fiunt. Nascuntur sinopis, rubrica, paraetonium, melinum, eretria, auri pigmentum; ceteri finguntur, primumque quos in metallis diximus, praeterea e vilioribus ochra, cerussa usta, sandaraca, sandyx, syricum, atramentum. Some colors, however, are somber or brilliant, either by their substance or their mixture. The brilliant ones — which the patron supplies at his own expense to the painters — are minium, Armenium, cinnabar, chrysocolla, indigo, and the brightest purple; the rest are somber. Of them all, some are natural, others are manufactured. The natural colors are Sinopis, rubrica, Paraetonium, Melinum, Eretria, and gold pigment. The rest are manufactured, and first we have listed the ones derived from metals, after that from cheaper materials: ochre, burnt lead, sandraca, sandyx, Syricum, atramentum.39

Plin. HN, 35.32.50. Plin. HN, 35.12.30. Pliny describes in great detail how these colors were mined and manufactured in HN, 33.56.158 through 33.57.164. 38 39

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Pliny makes several distinctions: the cost of colors, whether they are natural or artificial, their rarity and their luster; the more expensive the color, the brighter the hue. Many literary sources attest to the use of colorful materials in Roman architecture, sculpture and mosaic decoration. The interior of the Roman house was also brightly colored in all of its elements: wall paintings, floor mosaics and portable objects such as glass, mirrors, jewelry and ceramics.40 The importation of colored marble into the Roman Empire became commonplace during the reign of Augustus.41 Colored marble was criticized by moralists, such as Seneca, who deplored the use of variegated marbles imported from Alexandria and mosaics made of Numidian stone, ‘and borders faced over on all sides with difficult patterns’ — in picturae modum variata circumlitio praetexitur.42 Pliny also complains about the new style for decorating one’s house with colored marble with fake veining, which he says was invented in the reign of Claudius, but had become fashionable under Nero. Pliny’s reaction to the decoration of marble itself — ut ovatus esset Numidicus, ut purpura distingueretur Synnadicus — ‘representing the marble of Numidia decorated with ovals, and that of Synnada veined with purple’ — is that it was wasteful and indicative of the bad popular taste of the time.43 Recent scientific analysis of painted Greek and Roman sculpture has spurred on significant developments in the study of colored decoration. The Augustus of Prima Porta and the head of Caligula in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek have been reconstructed to show colored hair, clothing, and facial features, including eyes, mouth and complexion. 44 These studies reveal that sculpture was painted in sharply contrasting colors — especially shades of red and green (or red and blue-green), which would have aided in conveying the three-dimensionality of an object, especially when a See, for example, Swift (2009); Clarke (1991); Wallace-Hadrill (1994); Descoeudres (2001). 41 Dodge (1988). 42 Sen. Ep. 86.6. 43 Plin. HN, 35.1.3; see Bradley (2009a). 44 Bankel and Liverani (2004) 235–242; Panzanelli (2008) 110–118. 40

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piece of sculpture was viewed from a distance. These reconstructions suggest dramatic changes in our modern perception of these sculptures, especially since none of it is attested in contemporary literature; but Romans of Gellius’ day must certainly have been accustomed to seeing and appreciating colorful sculpture.45

FAVORINUS AND PHYSIOGNOMY The other member of Gellius’ dialogue in Attic Nights, Favorinus of Arles, has some interesting connections with the visual arts. Favorinus was a flamboyant orator; he described himself as a Gaul who spoke Greek, a eunuch accused of adultery, and a citizen who disagreed with an emperor and lived.46 The only work of literature attributed to Favorinus is the Corinthian Oration, in which he berates the Corinthians for having torn down a statue of him. 47 There were apparently statues of him in several cities, including Athens, which were removed because he quarreled with Hadrian. In the course of his oration, he addresses his statue, citing many episodes from Greek history and mythology; he says he had adopted ‘not merely the language but also the thought and manners and dress of the Greeks.’48 He bemoans this threat to his memory and he feels deceived, he says, because he thought that the Corinthians liked him; he intensely felt the importance of a piece of sculpture to represent the persona of an individual. He was also involved in a famous bitter quarrel with the leading exponent of the physiognomic school, Polemo of Laodicea. A passage in Polemo’s treatise is usually taken as referring to Favorinus: ‘He was greedy and immoral beyond all description. His eyes were those of the most evil of people.’ Polemo holds nothing back, saying that Favorinus had the voice of a woman and practiced deceitful magic; other writers describe Favor-

Ridgway (1999) 103–142. Philostr. Vit. Soph. 1.489; Gleason (1995) 131–158; Beall (2001) 87–106. 47 Dio Chrys. Or. 37. This oration was originally attributed to Dio Chrysostom, but is generally accepted to be Favorinus’ work; see Gleason (1995) 3–20; König (2001). 48 Dio Chrys. Or. 37.25. 45 46

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inus as a hermaphrodite. 49 We do not know if any of these accusations are true; this quarrel, however, shows how physiognomy was used in the second century CE as an acceptable way of attacking one’s opponents (which, as will be seen in Chapter Six, often involved the use of color-terms).

SUMMARY Much can be learned from this small debate in Attic Nights about how the Romans themselves felt about the relative richness of Greek and Latin color-terms and how they derived their meanings. Though the conversation involving these men may be imaginary, their cases for their respective languages are important and necessary. It is interesting to note how the historical Favorinus placed so much importance on a statue as representing the persona of an individual, whereas Fronto was knowledgeable about the skill of painters, suggesting that Fronto was more sensitive to colors and their application than Favorinus was. The color-terms are substitutes for weightier issues: worldly refinement represented by Fronto, versus symbolic meanings as represented by Favorinus. When Fronto retorts that Latin color-terms are varied enough, he is subscribing to his own notion of urbanitas: Rome’s sophistication is revealed in its ability to invent color-terms from Latin nouns, and even to borrow them from Greek. In this dialogue there are no positive or negative colors, but rather simple and complex ones. Whether the dialogue is fact or fiction, Gellius chooses to report a conversation between two men who were skilled in language, probably more so than most Roman citizens. Gellius not only reported the debate, he disseminated it, showing that he and his presumed audience cared about such things as Latin color-terms, their meaning and derivation, and their use in poetry. The argument concludes with Favorinus conceding to Fronto; the implication is that the Latin language (and, by extension, Roman culture) is inferior to none. 49 Evans (1941) 98; Polemo, Scriptores Physiognomonici, I, 160; Hoyland (2007) 377. Lucian in Eun. 7 describes him as ‘a certain academic eunuch from among the Pelasgians.’ Philostratrus in Vit. Soph. 1.489 says ‘he was born double-sexed, a hermaphrodite.’

CHAPTER TWO: ANCIENT DYES: COLOR ME BEAUTIFUL Quid de veste loquar? Nec nunc segmenta, requiro Nec quae de Tyrio murice lana rubes. Cum tot prodierint pretio leviore colores, Quis furor est census corpore ferre suos! Aeris, ecce, color, tum cum sine nubibus aer, Nec tepidus pluvias concitat auster aquas: Ecce, tibi similis, quae quondam Phrixon et Hellen Diceris Inois eripuisse dolis; Hic undas imitatur, habet quoque nomen ab undis: Crediderim nymphas hac ego veste tegi. Ille crocum simulat: croceo velatur amictu, Roscida luciferos cum dea iungit equos: Hic Paphias myrtos, hic purpureas amethystos, Albentesve rosas, Threiciamve gruem; Nec glandes, Amarylli, tuae, nec amygdala desunt; Et sua velleribus nomina cera dedit. What shall I say of clothes? Flounces, I don’t need Nor wool that blushes with Tyrian dye. When so many cheaper colors walk abroad, What madness to carry whole incomes on one’s body! Lo, there is the color of the sky, when it is without clouds Nor does the warm south wind bring showers; Lo, here is one like you [golden ram], who once was said To have rescued Phrixus and Helle from Ino’s wiles; This imitates waves, and from waves takes its name; I could willingly believe it covers the nymphs. This imitates saffron: veiled in a saffron robe, Is the dewy goddess when she yokes her light-bringing steeds; Here, Paphnian myrtle, here purple amethysts,

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT Roses turning white, or the shade of Thracian cranes; Nor, Amaryllis, are your chestnuts lacking, nor yet almonds; And yellow wax has given to fleeces its own name.1

Color-terms are inextricably linked to the dye industry in Rome. A wealth of color-terms is found in literary passages and inscriptions about the dyes, the materials being dyed, and social attitudes towards these colorants. An examination of the dyeing and fulling industry in Rome illuminates the way that colors were derived.2 The most important industry, the making of purple, requires special attention, as it is the most attested in literature; red and other colors are less frequently mentioned but are worth examining. Finally, Vitruvius’ De Architectura is a particularly rich source of information on a variety of colors. We know from literary sources, such as Ovid’s Ars Amatoria cited above, that colorful fabrics were abundantly available in the Roman marketplace. In his advice to women seeking to attract male suitors, Ovid mentions Tyrian purple first of all, which they might not need because there are so many cheaper alternatives, including yellow (crocum and cera), lavender (purpureas amethystos), white (albentes rosas), gray (Threiciam gruem), and a wide range of browns (glandes and amygdala). He not only names the colors, but also describes their origins from all over the Roman Empire, such as Tyre and Paphnos. Unlike many moralistic authors of the early Empire, he seems to be celebrating the variety of available hues. The names of dyers and their collegia are known from literature and also from columbaria inscriptions, which suggest that there were whole families that specialized in the production of one dye color. This is confirmed by Plautus, our chief source for dyers and clothing specialists in the Roman Republic, 200 years before Ovid. Megadorus in Aulularia (Pot of Gold) gives a vivid picture of the crowd of dyers who swarm in front of a wealthy Roman’s villa, along with cloth fullers, goldsmiths, woolworkers, weavers, dealers in lingerie 1 Ov., Ars am., 3.169–184; Sebesta (1994b) 68 discusses each of the colored fabrics in the list. 2 A wall painting from the Workshop of Verecundus in Pompeii shows images of dyeing, fulling, bleaching, carding, and cleaning services that were available in the first century CE.

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and balsam scented footgear, calcei makers, squatting cobblers, sandal merchants, beltmakers, girdle makers, lacemen, and cabinetmakers.3 Plautus’ text mentions five examples of dyers: flammarii, violarii, carinarii, molocinarii and corcotarii. The dyers receive their names from the colors with which they worked — red-orange, violet, wax-yellow, mauve, and saffron-yellow. The flammarii, dyers of the flammeum bridal veil, with its particular red-orange shade, are mentioned first; not surprisingly, as these veils were in high demand and required a whole class of specialists to produce an adequate supply.4 Plautus is the only writer to name dyers for their colors in early Latin literature. Several questions might be asked: whether the name of the color was derived from the dye or the other way around; whether the dyers used the same color-terms among themselves; whether they worked in one district or were distributed among various areas of a city; and whether they were consistently producing the same shade of the color. Plautus’ passage reveals the social and cultural status of the dyers, as they contributed to the noise and bustle of the city, and suggests that the dyers were welcomed by the wealthy people who bought the cloth.

PURPLE DYERS Purpura, or purple, is the most common color-term in Latin literature. A variety of sources show that there were at least seven purple dyes used; there were many shades within the violet-scarlet range, and even a bluish-green could be obtained by mixing the dyes from different species and by dipping it twice as dibaphos.5 The purpurarii, or dyers of the purpura dye, are not mentioned by Plautus, but they appear in a wide assortment of Latin inscrip-

Plaut. Aulularia, 505–522; see also Moeller (1976) 13–14; Sebesta (1994b) 66–67. 4 Plaut. Aulularia, 510; André (1949) 115–116. The grammarian Festus 79.19L (89M) lists flammeari, infectores flammei coloris and also violari violacii dicuntur. 5 Hornblower and Spawforth (1996) 1280; Sebesta (1994b) 69; Reinhold (1970) 52. 3

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tions.6 From the Republican and Imperial period there are inscriptions of sellers of purple and coloratores from the Marian monuments.7 An undated inscription commemorates a purpurarius named Lucius Plutarius Eros from the Vicus Tuscus, connected to the Veturii family;8 there is another freedwoman purpuraria at Capua.9 In the Fourth Eclogue, Vergil imagines a coming Golden Age in which sheep will change the colors of their fleeces spontaneously to murex purple (ipse sed in pratis aries iam suave rubenti / murice) or saffron yellow (iam croceo mutabit vellera luto); the grazing lambs will be scarlet (sponte sua sandyx pascentis vestiet agnos).10 The actual process by which wool was dyed was far more difficult. Pliny the Elder tells us that dyes would not adhere to black fleece (lanarum nigrae nullum colorem bibunt), making their color difficult to change.11 Purple was one of the expensive pigments that patrons had to pay an additional fee to painters to acquire, especially the most intense shade of purple, which he calls ‘purpurissum’ — quos a dominis dari diximus propter magnitudinem pretii, ante omnes est purpurissum.12 He describes how the manufacturing process could produce weaker or brighter shades of purple, the brighter shades being most highly prized by the Romans. Pliny is our best source for where the shades of purple come from, listing Puteoli as the finest because it is combined with hysginum (a red-purple dye) and red-madder, then Tyre, Gaetulia, Laconia, and finally Canosa, known for the cheapest dye. 13 The most important variety of purple mentioned by the writers of the Republic and Empire is murex, derived from the dyeproducing mollusk (Murex brandaris and other species) that bears its name. Murex was used in the production of the varying colors of ‘Tyrian purple.’ While it is difficult to specify this shade in terms of 6 Two important columbaria inscriptions mention a purpurarius: CIL VI 9848 and XI 1069a; Moeller (1976) 14; Forbes (1993) v. 4, 256. 7 Among inscriptions from the Esquiline, a purpuria Marianeis is identified in Tregggiari (1979) 19 n. 24. 8 CIL XIV 2433; Forbes (1993) v. 4, 256. 9 CIL VI 6217. 10 Verg. Ecl., 4.42–45; Irwin (1989) analyzes this imagery. 11 Plin. HN, 8.73.193. 12 Plin. HN, 35.26.44. 13 Plin. HN, 35.26.45.

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twenty-first century equivalents, Pliny describes the desired murex as a rich, dark shade: laus ei summa in colore sanguinis concreti, nigricans aspectu idemque suspectu refulgens – ‘Praise of it [is] highest when in the color of congealed blood, blackish at first glance but gleaming when held up to the light.’14 The brilliant quality of this color was part of its appeal, giving purple an association with ‘shining.’15 The purple manufacturing process is alluded to in Roman poetry. Horace notes that the wool fleece had to be dyed twice in order to reach the maximum saturation desired for the deep purple shade — te bis Afro murice tinctae and muricibus Tyriis iteratae vellera lanae.16 The garment is not specified but it was not necessary to do so, since his use of the term murex is sufficient for the reader to understand that he is speaking about the type of richest and highest quality garments. Martial, on the other hand, comments on the odors of purple clothing: Lunata nusquam pellis et nusquam toga olidaque vestes murice. Nowhere will be seen the crescent shoe, nowhere the toga, And clothes smelling strongly of purple dye.17

The unpleasant odors associated with murex dye were apparent from the production process to the wearing of the final product. Because the dye was produced by boiling mollusks, a strong and unpleasant scent of rotting shellfish was an unfortunate but necessary by-product. For this reason the manufacturing plants were situated in less desirable districts of the city; Martial recognized the negative aspects of murex because even if it was desirable to the elite, its stench, which he may have experienced at first hand, was

Plin. HN, 9.62.135; Sebesta (1994b) 69. Compare Edgeworth (1979), who argues that purpura does not mean ‘bright’ by itself. 16 Hor., Carm., 2.16.35–36; Ep., 12.21. 17 Mart. 1.49.31–32. 14 15

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repulsive.18 Strabo says the dye works of Tyre smelled so badly that the city, while rich, was ‘unpleasant to live in.’19 Ovid also describes the process of dyeing cloth purple. He notes that purple was not native to Rome and required a special manufacturing process: Illic et Tyrium quae purpura sensit aenum texitur et tenues parvi discriminis umbrae There are woven the purple threads dyed in Tyrian kettles, and lighter colors insensibly shading off from these.20

Explaining this technical process, Ovid offers an explanation for this diversity of hues: dyeing is not an exact science and dyes yielded more than one shade depending on the nature of the fabric. Though the fabric that is being dyed in this instance is not specified, his use of the verb texitur suggests that it was woven wool. Addressing his friend Maximus from his exile in Tomi on the Black Sea, he remarks upon the shining quality of the purple border of his toga: Purpura saepe tuos fulgere praetexit amictus Sed non sarmatico tingitur illa mari Often has the gleam of purple bordered your robe, But there is no such dye as that by the Sarmatian Sea.21

For the poet, the absence of purple dye symbolizes his isolation from civilization and his exclusion from the familiar luxuries of his native Rome. Other purple shades and their dyers’ collegia are mentioned in inscriptions. One such inscription mentions an amarantus, a colorator

Mart. 9.62. Strabo, Geography, 16.2.23.757; at 17.3.18.835 he mentions murex dye factories at Zuchis on the North African coast, an inheritance from the Carthaginians. 20 Ov., Met., 6.61–62. 21 Ov., Pont., 3.8.7–8. 18 19

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or dyer of the color amaranthus, or lilac.22 The reddish-purple liquid dye ostrum was extracted, like murex, from sea shells and mixed with honey or fish glue as a preservative.23 Other examples include amethystinus, ianthinus, ostrinus (derived from oysters), and tyrianthinus (a variation on Tyrian purple). Another documented lavender dye, conchyliatus, mentioned by Pliny, was made from a combination of murex, water and urine.24 Returning to Plautus, in Aul. 514 molocinarii are dyers of the color mauve, for which there is no Latin colorterm, but there is a Greek color-term, μολόχη. This term is only used by Plautus, suggesting that this dye was used in the second century BCE, still comparatively early in the growth and spread of the empire and at a time when Rome was still heavily under the cultural influence of the Greeks. Two centuries later, Pliny, describing the mallow plant, says alius in malva ad purpuram inclinans — ‘this mallow plant tends to look purple.’ 25 The Romans still do not have a separate word for the shade mauve in Latin that corresponds to the Greek word, suggesting that mauve dyers or molocinarii had a limited profession before they moved on to more desirable shades. Plautus simply groups all the dyers together, as a show of the plenty and production that existed in Rome, and as a further sign of the extravagance of the day. By citing these exotic color-terms, Roman authors of the late Republic and early Empire show their knowledge of the imported goods that flooded into Rome in this period.

RED DYERS Although some modern translators freely use purple and red or scarlet interchangeably, it is clear that the Romans considered them to be separate colors, even if scarlet was considered to be almost as decadent as purple itself. Martial refers to both scarlet and purple when talking about extravagant clothing — non nisi vel cocco madida vel murice tincta. Scarlet clearly had aristocratic significance as well, 22 CIL VI 6217, VI 6250, VI 6391. The spellings in these inscriptions vary between amaranthus and amarantus. 23 Sebesta (1994b) 69. 24 Ibid.; Plin. HN, 9.65.139. 25 Plin. HN, 21.22.46.

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no doubt because of its cost; red was also used for the cloaks of Roman generals.26 The production of the red color was just as costly and messy as the production of sea-snail based purple dye. A red dye called coccinus or coccineus was produced from the egg sacs of the insect Kermococcus vermilio, which clung to plant stems and so looked like the seeds (cocci). Pliny describes how the insect eggs were collected and made into dye, producing both the red coccinus and a redpurple dye, hysginum.27 Since thousands of insects were needed to yield an ounce of dye, coccinus was a most expensive hue; the color was in such demand that it was widely produced thoughout the Empire, especially in Hispania and Lusitania, as Pliny relates; he says the demand for pure luxury dyes was so great that it led to the creation of counterfeit dyes.28

OTHER DYERS Less known, and absent from Plautus’ passage, are dyers whose names are known from inscriptions, such as atramentarii, makers of black cloth.29 No dyers of blue or green cloth are known from any inscriptions or job titles, but blue dye could be made from woad and several other plants.30 As time went on some dyes and colors were probably more in vogue than others; it would be hard to imagine that all color-terms were used in all times and worn at all times. Pliny the Elder, who was a procurator of the provincia of Africa, observed the Egyptian manner of dyeing cloth. He recognizes it as different from the Roman manner of dyeing: the Egyptians, prior to dyeing, rub fabrics with some medicinal unguent (colorem sorbentibus medicamentis) that causes the fabric to absorb color in different ways, so that the resulting fabric has a series of colors which cannot be washed out. He notes that the fabric is stronger after it Mart. 5.23.5; Plin. HN, 22.3.3; on the use of the red dye for Roman officers, see Sebesta (1994b) 69; Croom (2000) 27; Fuentes (1987) 45–47. 27 Plin. HN, 9.65.140–141. 28 Plin. HN, 16.12.32; Sebesta (1994b) 71. 29 CIL IV 9127; Moeller (1968); Moeller (1976) 14. 30 Sebesta (1994b) 66. 26

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has been dyed in this manner. 31 Unfortunately for us, Pliny does not specify what sort of unguent was used, but the passage suggests that Romans were interested in adopting foreign methods of dyeing textiles, to enhance their own industry and to exploit methods from other provinces of the Empire.

VITRUVIAN COLORS Vitruvius’ De Architectura is another major source for natural and unnatural colorings in the Augustan age. Like Pliny, he had a scientific interest in the application of color and how it was processed. In Book Seven, Vitruvius discusses the various methods of obtaining the colors from stones, metals, and sand; he identifies different procedures for of developing color: natural, which he prefers, and man-made. While ancient authors do not often compare colorterms side by side or in context, Vitruvius distinguishes among a range of colors, assigning them names according to their origins. He is also the only Roman writer who attempts to establish historical criteria for how long colors had been in use. Vitruvius considers all colors in terms of their constructive purposes: their use in substantial building projects, activities related to consumer interests, and the betterment of the city. Because of his concern with the acquisition of new materials — he often explains often how these colors were imported into Rome proper — he offers a rare glimpse into the Roman production industry. Vitruvius first discusses naturally obtained colors — quae per se nascentia fodiuntur. He begins with yellow ochre, or sil (quod Graece ochre dicitur), which, he says, occurs in many places, even in Italy, although the best quality came from Attica.32 Vitruvius describes two red shades: the first is rubrica, which is usually translated as ‘red ochre,’ which he says is found in many places, including Sinope, Egypt, the Balearic Islands and Lemnos.33 Another red shade, sandaraca, usually translated as ‘red arsenic,’ is also found in many places, the best quality in the Pontus region near the Hypanis River.34 Plin. HN, 35.62.150. Vitr. De arch. 7.7.1. 33 Vitr. De arch. 7.7.2. 34 Vitr. De arch. 7.7.5. 31 32

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He proceeds to discuss minium, which is usually translated as ‘vermilion,’ which is a dust found with iron ore — vena uti ferram, magis subrufo colore, habens circa se rubrum pulverem.35 His use of the prefix sub in subrufo suggests that it is a lighter tone of red; other sources, such as Petronius’ Cena Trimalchionis, tell us that this natural material might be sprinkled on the floor of a banqueting room.36 In the next section, he mentions other natural materials, some named for their provenance: Chrysocolla adportatur a Macedonia; foditur autem ex is locis, qui sunt proximi aerariis metallis. Armenium et indicum nominibus ipsis indicatur, quibus in locis procreatur. Chrysocolla [malachite] is imported from Macedonia; it is mined in places which are near copper mines. Armenium [ultramarine] and Indicum [indigo] show by their names the places where they came from.37

As early as the late Republican period, it seems, the Romans had made inroads into places as far away as Armenia and India and had access to exotic shades that could be used to decorate Roman interiors.38 Vitruvius was also concerned with how colors changed in the manufacturing process. He describes the change from white lead to red, achieved by cooking in a furnace — cerussa vero, cum in fornace coquitur, mutato colore ad ignem incendi efficitur sandaraca.39 According to Vitruvius, the blue dye industry began not in Rome but in Alexandria and was an example of a man-made process for making blue (caeruleo colore). For the first time, Vitruvius credits an individual Roman, Vestorius of Puteoli, with the invention of a new process related to color.40 He describes the complex chemical process of Vitr. De arch. 7.8.1. Petron. Sat. 68. 37 Vitr. De arch. 7.9.6. 38 For examples, see Ling (1996); Beard (2001); Stewart (2008); Mattusch (2008). 39 Vitr. De arch. 7.12.2. 40 Vitr. De arch. 7.11.1. ‘Vestorian blue’ (Vestorianum, ab auctore appellatum) is also described by Pliny, HN 33.57.162. 35 36

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making this type of blue, by grinding up sand, sulfur and copper to make a paste that is rolled into balls and then heated in a furnace. He recognizes that by heating up the two major ingredients, sand and copper, they take on different qualities from one another — inter se dando et accipiendo sudores a proprietatibus discedunt suisque rebus.41 This particular dye industry encompassed prominent members of society: Vestorius was a banker of Puteoli in Campania and a friend of Cicero and Atticus, who advised Cicero about building materials.42 Cicero says he was not interested in philosophy, but was well versed in arithmetic, presumably recognizing the financial possibilities in the production of blue dye.43 Vitruvius’ discussion about this time-consuming process suggests how valuable it was. Like other Latin authors Vitruvius was concerned with the natural and unnatural origins of the color purple. Vitruvius is the only author who describes the process of harvesting the dye from the murex shells by breaking up the shells with iron tools, making the purple liquid flow out like tears — e quibus plagis purpurea sanies, uti lacrima profluens. He says that the resulting ostrum is so salty that it dries quickly, thus it is mixed with honey as a binder. 44 Vitruvius uses an assortment of color-terms to express the shades of purple: purpura, conchylio marino, violacio colore and even rubra. He notes that the color varies according to its geographical origin — quod habet non in omnibus locis, quibus nascitur, unius generis colorem, sed solis cursu naturaliter temperatur.45 Purple from Northern countries such as the Pontus region and Gaul is black (atrum) because these regions do not receive as much sunlight; paler shades (lividum) come from the northwest, while southern regions produce a redder shade (rubra), which is also found in the Island of Rhodes because it is near the sun’s orbit (quae proximae sunt solis cursui).46 Last in Vitruvius’ list is the violet blue shade, violacio — quod autem legitur ad aequinoctialem orientem et occidentem invenitur violacio colore — which is found in the Ibid. Cic. Att. 14.9.1. 43 Cic. Att. 14.12.3. 44 Vitr. De arch. 7.13.3. 45 Vitr. De arch. 7.13.1. 46 Vitr. De arch. 7.13.2. 41 42

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equinoctial region in the east and west.47 Vitruvius must have spent considerable time with the dyers and producers of color to note these properties. He even describes how yellow sil can be turned into purple, by heating it red hot and quenching it in vinegar — glaeba silis boni coquitur, ut sit in igni candens; ea autem aceto extinguitur et efficitur purpureo colore.48 He shows how well the Romans could manipulate dyes to their liking by using heat and chemicals. Another color he discusses that has a special process associated with it is black ink (atramentum), which was made into a liquid substance by heating resin in a furnace with various other ingredients. He describes how the process by which the black pigment is made determines the use to which it will be put — for example, ink for writing, which is mixed with gum; or black resin for house walls, which is mixed with glue. He also provides alternative recipes for making black if the resin cannot be obtained. Vitruvius notes, however, that the color black, no matter what material it is made of, is always achieved through fire and heat.49 Here Vitruvius notes the textural qualities of coloring materials after they have been obtained. The black dye of atramentum was presumably shiny and slick, possibly more illuminated in the dark when lit with a candle; thus it became the preferred medium to write with as ink, because of its flexibility and composition. Other dyes may not have had a similar effect. Finally, Vitruvius devotes one chapter to cheaply obtained or imitation colors, including imitation ochre, some types of purple, blue and green, made from a whole variety of substances including violets, whortleberries, woad, chalk, glass and even milk.50 Vitruvius is concerned with those colors because he knows that they will be used in the construction of homes and in providing decorative resources to the Romans. He is aware of the practicality and costs of these materials as an important issue for the architect and painter, when it comes to production methods and consumption, either for building or decoration. Ibid. Vitr. De arch. 7.11.2. 49 Vitr. De arch. 7.10.1–4. 50 Vitr. De arch. 7.14.1–2. 47 48

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SUMMARY The industry of color making was spread all over the Roman Empire, and there were specialists in each dye. For each hue there was a variety of shades and source materials, and color-terms reflect this: for purple, purpureus, ostrinus, conchyliatus, and hysginum; for red, coccinus, minium, and sandraca. Romans were interested in all types of dyeing methods and all types of materials and did not restrict their sources; nothing was out of bounds or off limits. The tremendous variety of colors that was available to the Roman consumer, male or female, shows that there was an eager market for colored fabric. As will be shown, moralistic writers were not so eager to embrace this colorful display, and railed against this abundant variety of colorful materials.

CHAPTER THREE: COLORED CLOTHING: YOU ARE WHAT YOU WEAR In the Roman Republican and Imperial periods, colored clothing was viewed as a source of pride by men and women, slave and free. It also aroused emotion and conflict: in his Life of Nero, Suetonius describes how Nero, upon seeing a woman dressed in purple, a color that he limited to his own use, pointed her out to the procurators, who dragged her out of the theater and stripped her of her clothes and her property as well.1 For Nero, this display shocked and enraged him; the color she wore was not merely inappropriate, it was illegal. This anecdote shows how far the restrictions on clothing in Roman society could extend. Roman literature reveals a wide range of attitudes regarding the colored clothing of the late Republic and Empire.2 Pairings of specific colors with specific garment types had common and readily recognizable meanings which would have been apparent to the authors’ intended audience. These combined descriptive terms are repeated sufficiently in the literature to identify them as standard tropes, formulae, or stereotypes. These stock phrases were used as codes for social types and for the sentiments they aroused among their contemporaries.

Suet. Ner., 32.3. Quin etiam inter canendum animadversam matronam in spetaculis vetita purpura cultam demonstrasse procuratoribus suis dicitur detractamque ilico non veste modo sed et bonis exuit. 2 References connecting costume and dyed fabrics with luxuria and moral or social degeneracy are extensive; see, for example, Gibson (2003) 162–163. 1

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PURPLE COLORED CLOTHING From earliest times purple played a distinct role in the Roman triumph.3 The reference to purpura and purpureus by a variety of ancient authors testifies to its great popularity in the Republican and Imperial periods. Writing in the Republican period, the poet Lucretius associates the colors purple and gold with flashy but empty visual effects rather than nobility. Lucretius’ comments about the purple clothing are resoundingly negative because he felt that people had invested too much money and effort in the color. For him a rational person is not moved or intimidated by the trappings of wealth and power: Inter reges rerumque potentis versantur neque fulgorem reverentur ab auro nec clarum vestis splendorem purpureai… If they boldly mingle with kings and sovereigns of the world, if they respect not the sheen of gold nor the glowing light of purple raiment...4

Here Lucretius associates purpura with brightness, but its power to make the wearer seem brilliant compares unfavorably with the light of reason. The adjectives fulgorem and splendorem are paired with the color purple because it was a shade that made the being more divine. The wearers of this color, however, can shine only temporarily — the garments can be removed and are not fixed to one’s person. The wise person’s innate wisdom constantly illumines him or her. Besides paling before the light of wisdom, purple for Lucretius is a barbarous and foreign color: Iam tibi barbaricae vestes Meliboaeaque fulgens purpura Thessalico concharum tacta colore… Then, I tell you, barbaric robes and shining Meliboean purple touched with the dye from Thessalian shells…5

Beard (2007) 14. Lucr. 2.50–52. 5 Lucr. 2.500–501. 3 4

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Someday this will go out of fashion, because everything in the world must end, even such luxuries as imported purple clothing In contrast, Vergil’s Aeneid shows several examples of characters who wear purple garments as symbolic of royal rank. Vergil describes the hero Aeneas using a common literary formula, in which a purple cloth hung from the shoulders is a signifier of royal status: Tyrioque ardebat murice laena / demissa ex umeris — ‘And a cloak hung from [Aeneas’] shoulders blazing with Tyrian purple.’6 The verb ardeo links purple with shining, and makes Aeneas appear more heroic. Earlier, when Aeneas meets Dido, she appears in a purple cloak with a gold clasp, her hair knotted with gold, and a golden quiver as well — cui pharetra ex auro, crines nodantur in aurum, / aurea purpuream subnectit fibula vestem.7 The pairing of purple and gold reinforces the association with royalty. At the same time Vergil’s description of Dido could be interpreted as reflecting garish barbarism or decadence. As queen of Carthage, the historical rival to Rome’s power during the Republic, she represents the embodiment of all that is foreign and therefore suspect. Even more than a century after the destruction of Carthage by the Romans, all his readers would have understood this reference. Vergil’s attitude towards the color purpura may not have been without ambivalence.8 Later in the poem, Vergil again pairs the shining quality of murex with the brightness of yellow embroidered decoration, but here it is in the context of insulting words shouted by Numanus at the Trojan forces: Vobis picta croco et fulgenti murice vestis, desidiae cordi, iuvat indugere choreis, et tunicae manicas et habent redimicula mitrae. But you are clothed in embroidered saffron and gleaming purple; sloth is your joy, your delight is to indulge the dance,

Verg. Aen., 4.262–263. Verg. Aen., 4.138–139. 8 As the descendants of Phoenician colonists from the Levantine coast, the Carthaginians would also have been associated for the reader with Tyre, if Tyre was the main source of purpura for the Romans. 6 7

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT your tunics have sleeves and your turbans have feminine ribbons.9

Here purple and gold suggest indulgence, not heroism. Mezentius, a formidable opponent of Aeneas, enters the battle and attacks Acron, a Greek attired in purpura and in another shade of purple, ostrum: Hunc ubi miscentem longe media agmina vidit, Purpureum pinnis et pactae coniugis ostro. When [Mezentius] saw him in the distance, dealing havoc amid the ranks, with purple plumes, and in lavender robes given by his promised bride.10

The clothing that Acron wears serves as a highly visible sign of his status in the midst of battle. The brilliance of the color ensures that it can be seen from far away, and he becomes an easy target for Mezentius, whom Vergil compares to a ravening lion. In such passages, purple garments give no assistance in battle. Ovid also associates purpura-dyed garments with gods: the divine figure of Phoebus is portrayed wearing a purple robe, seated on a throne gleaming with brilliant emeralds — purpurea velatus veste sedebat / in solio Phoebus claris lucente smaragdis.11 Even without a specific identification of the type of garment, Ovid’s readers would immediately understand that the character described was of great importance. Ovid’s Narcissus, for example, wears the color purple along with a red pectoral; these colors together create a startling presentation suitable for a youthful divine being: Pectora traxerunt roseum percussa ruborem non aliter quam poma solent, quae candida parte, parte rubent aut ut variis solet uva racemis ducere purpureum nondum matura colorem. Verg. Aen., 9.614–616. Verg. Aen., 10.721–722. Compare the equally useless purple attire of Chloreus (Aen., 11.772), and the versicolor armor of Astyr (10.180–181), discussed below and in Chapter Seven. 11 Ov. Met., 2.23. 9

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His breast when it is struck takes on a delicate glow, Just as apples sometimes, though white in part, Blush in part, or as grapes hanging in clusters Take on a purple hue when not quite ripe.12

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses there is only one specific mention of murex: verrit humum Tyrio saturata murice palla — his mantle, dipped in Tyrian dye, swept the ground. 13 The garment’s colossal scale implies that the wearer, Phoebus, is a divine figure. The use of saturata palla was probably a formulaic expression to stress the intense brightness of garments dyed with murex. In another passage, Ovid refers to garments made from wool with finely molded gold and embroidered decoration. The form of the clothing that the subjects of this verse wear is unclear, but the combination of gold and purple denotes its importance: Pars ibi de septem genitis Amphione fortes conscenduunt in equos Tyrioque rubentia suco terga premunt auroque graves moderantur habenas. There some of Amphion’s seven sons mounted their strong horses, sitting firm on their backs blushing with Tyrian purple and guided them with gold-mounted bridles.14

Plainly purple and gold clothing could be worn while the wearers were engaged in battle or hunting and was not restricted to sedentary ceremonial occasions; royal status affected all aspects of life and the wearing of purple went with it. In the Metamorphoses, Ovid even includes the story of King Nisus and his purple lock, purpureum crinem, which was stolen by his daughter. His royal status was symbolized by that lock: without it, he lost his power.15 In the Ars Amatoria, Ovid provides advice for gentlemen seeking girlfriends: Ov. Met., 3.482–485. Ov. Met., 11.166. 14 Ov. Met., 6.221. 15 Ov. Met., 8.93; Ars am., 1.331; see also Tib. 1.4.63: Carmine purpurea est Nisi coma. 12 13

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT Sive erit in Tyriis, Tyrios laudabis amictus Sive erit in Cois, Coa decere puta. If she be in Tyrian attire, then you will praise her Tyrian gown; Or in Coan, then find the Coan style becoming.16

Ovid employs the phrase Tyrios amictus; it did not matter what form the garment took, but rather the type of material and the dye. Ovid mentions two expensive garments, one dyed in Tyrian purple and the other woven of Coan silk, a material in great demand among elites during Ovid’s time.17 In Statius’ Silvae, Venus drapes a purple garment on the shoulders of Earinus, giving him an aura of divinity: Sic ornat crines; Tyrios sic fundit amictus, dat radios ignemque suum. So she arranges his hair and drapes him with a Tyrian purple garment, gives him beams of her own fire.18

Statius continues with this image when describing the young Crispinus, born to a Senatorial family and a Tyrian tunic — mox Tyrios ex more sinus tunicamque potentem / agnovere umeri — ‘Soon your shoulders recognized the customary Tyrian folds and the mantle of power.’19 In a poem honoring his father, Statius uses the phrase purpureos amictus, evoking the toga praetexta he wore as a boy, paired with a gold pectoral, pectoris aurum, both signs of noble birth.20 Worn together, purple and gold project an image of wealth and Ov. Ars Am.,1.315. Coan silk, Coae vestes, was frequently mentioned by Augustan poets like Vergil and Ovid but not later; Olson (2008) 14. This type of silk was imported from the Greek island of Cos, which was the only home to the silk moth in the Mediterranean. By the time of Tiberius local sources of silk were no longer available and it was difficult to import from the Orient. Pliny suggests that the wearing of Coan silk began with a woman named Pamphile: Plin. HN, 11.26.76. For more on Coan silk, see Dalby (2000) 151–152. 18 Stat. Silv., 3.4.55–56. 19 Stat. Silv. 5.2.29–30. 20 Stat. Silv., 5.3.119–120. 16 17

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power; Statius does not need to specify the type of garment in order for the reader to understand the allusion to nobility. The writings of Martial reflect both the use of purpura across different strata of Roman society and its ability to call attention to the wearer, to make him stand out. Martial’s subjects are not gods and kings, but his friends and passersby, and his observations about purple clothing are part of his description of the daily couture of the Romans of his time. By the middle of the first century CE, Tyre had been formally annexed to the empire, and the Romans were able to import more clothing from other far-flung reaches of the empire. Non-royal persons now display purple clothing in full view. Martial does not distinguish among different shades of purple, but he expresses strong opinions about the color in general. The royal color of purple had such everlasting effects that even the Calydonian boar would submit to its power: Quod frenis Libyci domantur ursi et, quantum Calydon tulisse fertur paret purpureis aper capistris. Libyan bears are tamed with a rein; A boar as big as that Calydonian one Yields to a purple halter.21

Although the color is no longer the exclusive prerogative of royalty, it is still extremely costly. In one verse he considers the cost of wearing purple: Nec roges Atrectum hoc nomen dominus gerit tabernae: de primo dabit alterove nido rasum pumice purpuraque cultum denaris tibi quinque Martialem. No need to ask Atrectus, for that is the name of the shopkeeper: out of the first or second pigeonhole, he will offer you

21

Mart. 1.104.

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT smoothed with pumice and attractive with purple, for five denarii, a Martial.22

This luxurious treatment, complete with a facial and purple clothing, is too expensive for the writer; at the same time he seems to have great respect for the color, he would not mind wearing it and does not view it as barbarous or foreign. A more negative attitude toward wearing purple appears elsewhere in his writing: Te Cadmea Tyros, me pinguis Gallia vestit; vis te purpureum, Marce, sagatus amem? Cadmean Tyre clothes for you, greasy Gaulish clothes for me; do you wish that I should love your purple cloak, Marcus?23

Martial’s reference reflects the fact that forms of clothing in his day were bought, traded or copied from all sections of the Empire. He knows that his friend prefers this expensive type of clothing with its exotic color, and his attitude is critical. Yet one can detect under his scandalized attitude the taste of sour grapes. The attention Martial devotes to his friend’s clothing may amount to an admission of admiration for foreign luxury goods that he could not afford. Whoever his friend is, he has a good deal of money. Elsewhere Martial arraigns the wealthy Romans of his time: Dimisit nostras purpura vestra togas — ‘Your purple has ousted our togas.’24 Here Martial creates an opposition between his own group and people who wear purple-dyed garments, accusing the latter of abandoning Roman dignitas for costly foreign fashions. Bassus purchased a garment for a large sum and Martial delivers a barbed epigram as a backhanded tribute to him. Martial criticizes his friend’s use of the color and rejects it as foolish luxury: Non nisi vel cocco madida vel murice tincta veste nites et te sic dare verba putas; quadringentorum nullae sunt, Basse, lacernae.

Mart. 1.117. Mart. 6.11.7–8. 24 Mart. 10.10.12. 22 23

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You shine in garments steeped in scarlet or dyed with purple and you think that thereby you cheat him; no cloak, Bassus, is worth 400,000.25

Martial uses specific terms associated with the technical aspects of manufacturing this dye such as tincta, dyed or tinted, and described how the wearer of the murex shone (nites). Martial’s sarcastic attitudes towards murex are reflective of his critique of the social classes who could afford it. Since only the rich could afford murex garments, another possible way of getting them was by theft: a thriving second-hand clothing market existed which dealt in garments stolen from the patrons from the bathhouses and gymnasia, and even from private homes; another poet, Tibullus, prays to Venus to keep him safe at night from being attacked or robbed of the clothes on his back — qui corpora ferro / vulneret aut rapta praemia veste petat.26 When Crispinus’ murex-dyed cloak was stolen at the baths, Martial suggests that the thief would be a better person if he stole a plain toga instead: Non quicumque capit saturatas murice vestes Nec nisi deliciis convenit iste color. Si te praeda iuvat foedique insania lucri, qua possis melius fallere, sume togam. Not everybody can wear garments saturated with murex colored dye. That very color is suitable for fashionistas. If loot and the madness of vile gain are what you want, take the toga! You would look better that way!27

The participle saturatas, besides being associated with excess (fully saturated), connotes full color saturation, reflecting Martial’s knowledge of the technical processes employed in the use of the murex dye. Although it produced a rich purple color, it was equally famous for its terrible smell, so that while wearers might look imMart. 5.23.5–7. Tib. 1.2.25a–26; Croom (2000) 23. 27 Mart. 8.48.5–8. 25 26

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pressive, people could smell them coming from a long way off. Martial refers to a woman, Philaenis, who wore murex-dyed clothes day and night so that the smell of the dye overwhelmed her own body odor: Tinctis murice vestibus quod omni et nocte utitur et die Philaenis non est ambitiosa nec superba: delectatur odore, non colore. Because Philaenis night and day wears garments dipped in every kind of purple, she is not ambitious or proud. She is pleased with the smell, not with the color.28

Wearing the color may have had its privileges, but it left an after odor or stench similar to the very creature it came from. But the satirists, such as Juvenal, comment on the status that Tyrian purple clothing afforded the wearers: spondet enim Tyrio stlattaria purpura filo — ‘his exotic purple with its Tyrian thread acts as a guarantee.’29 Martial says that the new fashionable attire would have scandalized an earlier generation: Si Tyrios sumpsi cultus unxive capillos Exclamas: ‘numquam fecerat ista pater.’ If I put on Tyrian clothes or gel my hair, you exclaim: ‘your father never did that.’30

His comments are put in the mouth of a young man, reflecting an era when any color of purple garment was available and could be worn by anyone without shame, and older people are regarded as holdovers from the time of Cato. The historian Suetonius cites the word purpura as the choice color for emperors, and their introduction of sumptuary laws.31

Mart. 9.62. Juv. 7.134. 30 Mart. 11.39.11–12. 28 29

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Suetonius records that the emperor Caligula once generously distributed purple clothing to women and children — feminis ac pueris fascias purpurae atque conchylii distribuit. These gifts were extravagant symbols of the emperor’s love for the citizens of Rome, and also an indication that he had gone too far.32 Later Suetonius records that Caligula restricted purple garments to the emperor and members of his family; when the Roman client king Ptolemy of Mauretania appeared in Rome at public spectacles, his purple regalia attracted so much attention that Caligula ordered him put to death: quam quod edente se murrus ingressum spectacula convertisse hominum oculos fulgore purpuram abollae animadvertit — ‘because he noticed that [Ptolemy], on entering the theater, attracted general attention by the splendor of his purple cloak.’33 The combination of the color-term purpura and the adjective fulgore designates a shining brilliance, a spectacle that was intended to impress but also ignited jealousy. The incident also suggests that the use of purpura was widely accepted in other parts of the Roman Empire. While chroniclers usually ignored the details of clothing and sumptuary consumption, Suetonius recognized that it was the purple cloak that made the instance memorable and commented on it accordingly. Apuleius, the second-century Numidian novelist, discusses the religious function of purple garments. In his novel The Golden Ass, he describes priests wearing saffron and white robes with bright purple designs: Mitellis et crocotis et carbasinis et bombycinis iniecti, quidam tunicas albas, in modum lanciolarum quoquoversum fluente purpura depictas, cingulo subligati, pedes luteis induti calceis. [They went out] wearing turbans and saffron-colored robes and silk and linen tunics; some had white tunics decorated with purple lance-shaped designs flowing in every direction, gath-

31 According to Cicero, purpura was already policed in the Twelve Tables, allowing one purple tunic to be used at funerals (Tabula 10.3= Cic. Leg. 2.23.59); Reinhold (1970) 40. 32 Suet. Calig., 17.2. 33 Suet. Calig., 35.1. See also Reinhold (1970) 50.

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT ered up into a tight banded halter, and on their feet they wore yellow shoes.34

The special purple stripes seem to sparkle against the white background. It is unclear exactly what he means by this process, but the term employed here, depicta, usually refers to painting. Combined with the saffron-colored robes, the visual image produced by purple is quite powerful and positive, in direct contrast to Lucretius and Martial’s depictions. Apuleius was interested in showing how the colors together produced a harmonious effect. The saffron vestments suggest that the people described in this passage were probably worshippers of Isis or another foreign deity; the use of these colors together connotes wealth and membership in the cult. In a later passage Apuleius illustrates how the combination of murex with gold made garments more luxurious: Sed et stragula veste auro ac murice Tyrio depicta probe consternunt — ‘But over these they carefully laid covers colored with gold and Tyrian purple dye.’ 35 In this instance the generic use of the term veste makes it clear that the type of covering is not important, rather the colors are of supreme importance; he again employs the term depicta, implying that the color was painted on rather than woven or sewn. Besides murex there were other shades of purple.36 The colorterm amethystina first appears during the Augustan age when a wider range of pigments became available to Roman citizens to create luxury clothing for social display.37 Like the precious stone, this was a violet color derived from a mineral source. Martial describes a man who thinks amethystina is only for women’s clothing: amethys-

Apul. Met., 8.27. Apul. Met., 10.20. 36 According to Bradley (2009b) 197–198: ‘by the late Republic there is some evidence that the trained eye could decipher one's political character from the shade of purpura one chose to wear the senatorial toga praetexta… so institutionalized was this color within Roman politics that there emerged an elaborate discriminatory vocabulary of light purples, dark purples, Tyrian purples vs. Italian/Sicilian/Greek purples, and doubledyed purples.’ 37 Sebesta (1994b) 68. 34 35

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tinasque mulierum vocat vestes.38 Juvenal, however, describes the violet robe of a lawyer which helps him to attract clients — purpura vendit / causidicum, vendunt amethystina.39 Following Caligula’s restrictions of the use of purpura to members of the imperial family, Nero prohibited the general use of purpura and amethystina, restricting their display to the emperor only, and closing down public dealers of purple garments.40 As we have seen earlier, Suetonius describes how harshly the emperor punished violators of his decrees; but Suetonius’ account shows how widespread the practice of wearing purple had become by Nero’s day. In the later Empire, shades of purple were more and more associated with royal power and quasi-divine status, as in the Scriptores Historiae Augustae’s description of the emperor Antoninus Diadumenianus in the second century CE: Hic ubi primum indumenta coccea et purpurea ceteraque castrensia imperii insignia accepit, quasi sidereus et caelestis emicuit, ut amaretur ab omnibus gratia venustatis. And when first he assumed the scarlet and purple garments and other imperial insignia used in the camp, he was radiant as a being from the stars or a dweller in heaven, so that he was beloved of all because of his beauty.41

The combination of the color-terms coccea and purpurea suggest that these two colors were worn because of his role as a commander in the army as well as the emperor of the state. The wearing of the combination of these colors elevated his status to a quasi-divine 38

Mart. 1.96. Juv. 7.135–136. 40 Suet. Ner., 32.3. Et cum interdixisset usum amethystini ac Tyrii coloris summisissetque qui nundinarum die pauculas unicas venderet, praeclusit cunctos negotiatores — ‘Having forbidden the use of amethystine or Tyrian purple dyes, he secretly sent a man to sell a few ounces on a market day and then closed the shops of all the dealers.’ 41 SHA, Diadumenus Antoninus 3.3. Reinhold (1970) 58–70 describes the increasing association of purple with imperial rank in the later Empire, not only in the use of purple garments, but in the use of porphyry in imperial buildings and sarcophagi. 39

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level; like purple, red was also regarded as a highly prized color, as will be discussed below.

RED COLORED CLOTHING The social importance of red dyes is illustrated when Juvenal remarks that the man who has a coccina cloak and a long line of male followers — quem coccina laena / vitari iubet et comitum longissimus ordo — ought to be avoided.42 By his dress the wearer was obviously of a distinctive rank and an innkeeper gives him preferential treatment. While Juvenal does not state the job this cloaked man performs, he is probably a military officer.43 Juvenal criticizes the social values of the innkeeper for preferring the rich man to one who cannot afford such opulent attire. Like other authors, Martial comments on the brilliance of the color red and how it had a visually commanding effect on the viewer: Sed magnum vitium quod est poeta, pullo Mevius alget in cucullo; cocco mulio fulget Incitatus. But his one great fault is that he is a poet, it’s Maevius who shivers in a gray cloak; Incitatus the Muleteer shines in scarlet.44

Again Martial is complaining: Incitatus, who was probably a charioteer for the Red faction, can afford to buy a red cloak, while a poet who has real substance and contributes to the cultural life of the city can only wear a worn cloak of rough wool.45 The formulaic combination of the color-term and the present-tense verb fulget demonstrates the luxurious quality of this shade of crimson, such Juv. 3. 283–284. The paludamentum, a general’s cloak, was dyed with coccinus; see Sebesta (1994b) 69. 44 Mart. 10.76.7–9. 45 Incitatus was also the name of a favorite horse of Caligula’s, but that was before Martial’s time. Here he is more likely to be a charioteer: he is mentioned again by Martial in 11.1, along with Scorpus, a famous charioteer of the Green faction whose early death Martial mourns in 10.50. 42 43

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that the poet cannot put it out of his mind; here its brilliance commands not his respect but considerable resentment and irritation. The title of another of Martial’s epigrams, Lacernae coccineae (Scarlet Cloak), alludes to supporters of both sexes who attended the chariot races.46 As usual Martial comments on the cost of the red garments: Misit Agenoreas Cadmi tibi terma lacernas; non endes nummis coccina nostra tribus. The land of Cadmus has sent you Agenorian cloaks; you couldn’t sell our scarlet for three sesterces.47

While the type of the red garment is not stated, the implication is that for loyal fans of the Red team, they weren’t for sale. In the social circles of the freedmen who rose up from slavery and acquired new wealth, the color of choice was any shade of the scarlet family. Since they were not aristocrats who could wear the purple color, scarlet was the next best thing. There are two instances in Petronius’ Cena Trimalchionis where the lead character, a vain and boorish caricature of a freedman, wears a red garment to show off his wealth: hinc involutus coccina gausapa lecticae impositus est — ‘then he was rolled up in a scarlet woolen coat and put in a litter.’ 48 Trimalchio wears a distinct article of clothing called a gausapa, or felt waterproof cloak, one of the most expensive garments of the day because of the extreme difficulty of the process of manufacturing felt, and because considerable effort was required to press the dye into this fabric.49 Later he wears a scarlet pallium, a large rectangular mantle worn by non-Romans, especially by Greeks. His use of this garment, as well as the depilatory treatment of his head, is shown negatively as an unnatural effeminate trait:

Mart. 14.131. Mart. 2.43. 48 Petron. Sat., 28. 49 Pliny discusses the process for making felt for clothing and slippers in HN 8.192 and 19.32. Athenaeus describes the purple felt shoes of Demetrios Poliorketes, 12.535. On waterproof felt and the gausapa, see Sebesta (1994b) 66, 70, 72. 46 47

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT Pallio enim coccineo adrasum excluserat caput circaque oneratas veste cervices laticlaviam immiserat mappam fimbriis hinc atque illinc pendentibus. His head was shaven and peered out of a scarlet cloak and over the heavy clothes on his neck he had put on a cloth with a broad stripe and fringes hanging from it all around.50

From the detailed descriptions of his obvious and ostentatious displays of luxury, Trimalchio is shown as a disreputable person who desires to look like a great man. Paired with his small physical size and his humble social origins, the scarlet cloak creates a strange and awkward appearance, hinting that he is not suited for anything other than his original status as a slave. Apuleius’ Metamorphoses gives a description of another slave, the girl Photis: Ipsa lintea tunica mundule amicta et russea fasceola praenitente altiuscule sub ipsas papillas succinctula… She herself was neatly dressed in a linen tunic and had a dainty, bright red band tied up under her breasts…51

By his choice of the word russea, Apuleius infuses a description of a woman doing an ordinary menial job with sexuality and even possibly passion which is visually marked by her clothing. Her visage appears to glow brightly as she sways while performing her responsibilities. She is thus characterized as being filled with lustful desires as she performs her responsibilities, dressed in a lascivious manner. As late as the third century, the author in the Scriptores Historiae Augustae provides another use of the color-term russeus: Paraverat sane paenulas populo coloris russei dare Macrinus imperator in honorem Antonini filii sui, quae vocarentur Antoninianae, ut caracallae Bassiani dictae sunt. Now Macrinus, as emperor, proposed in honor of his son Antoninus to present to the populace mantles of a reddish hue,

50 51

Petron. Sat., 32. Apul. Met., 2.7.

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to be called ‘Antoninian’ as Bassianus’ Gallic mantles had been.52

The association of russeus with the manufacture of mantles suggests that the color was still readily available at the time of the Severans and was considered worthy to be given as an emperor’s gift to his people.

BLUE AND GREEN COLORED CLOTHING While the most sought-after, and therefore most frequently mentioned, colors of the late Republic and early Empire were purple and red, other colors are mentioned by contemporary writers in both poetry and prose, which help us to identify and understand the social uses of and symbolic meanings of these colors both singly and in combination. Blue- and green-colored clothing was not easy to produce.53 Venetus was the color manufactured for the use of wearable blue cloaks by the chariot faction bearing its name. 54 The word venetus is linguistically related to the Latin name Veneto, or Venice; it is a dark blue color, which suggests more about the region that it came from, and is related to the marine-based economy and geography of northern Italy.55 Juvenal uses this color-term for a utilitarian blue cape: Fictilibus cenare pudet, quod turpe negabis translatus subito ad Marsos mensamque Sabellam contentusque illic veneto duroque cucullo. You are ashamed to dine off earthenware; but you would not be disgusted

SHA, Diadumenus Antoninus, 2.8. Forbes (1993) v. 3, 183. 54 On the Blue chariot faction, see Chapter Five below. 55 André (1949) 181–182 says the term venetus is an epithet used for the sea and sky; it can also refer to Paphlagonian horses, as in Euripides’ Hippolytus 231, as '. 52 53

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT if you were transported suddenly to a Marsian or Sabellan table, where you would be happy there with a rough hood of Venetian blue.56

Here Juvenal contrasts the luxuriousness of Roman clothing with the simplicity of clothing worn in the provinces. There is no mention of caeruleus colored clothing, except when Juvenal denounces an effeminate man — caerulea indutus scutulata aut galbina rasa — ‘wearing blue checks or smooth faced yellow.’57 Juvenal criticizes both the smooth felt-like fabric and the bright colors of this clothing as decadent and unbecoming to a proper Roman. 58 As for green, the color-term prasinus is associated with the Green chariot faction, which will be discussed in a later chapter. Callaina is a green stone mentioned by Pliny, and also a color associated with women’s garments.59 In the Metamorphoses, Ovid describes the river god Achelous struggling to take off a piece of clothing: reieci viridem de corpore vestem, bracchiaque opposui, tenuique a pectore varas I then threw back from my body the green coat, I put up my arms, and I held my clenched fists out in front of my chest…60

This is the only extant instance in Latin literature of a deity wearing a green garment, but it shows that both men and women could wear green.

Juv. 3.168–170. Juv. 2.97. 58 On the toga rasa, see Sebesta (1994b) 68; on scutulata, Wild (1964) 264 suggests that this garment would have been a kind of tartan plaid. 59 Plin. HN, 37.33.110. André (1949) 192–193; a silk robe, dyed both purpurea and callaina, was offered to Isis at her shrine in Nemi; Sebesta (1994b) 71. 60 Ov. Met., 9.31–33. 56 57

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YELLOW COLORED CLOTHING The color-term yellow was applied only to women’s garments, or to the robes of priestly eunuchs.61 Women wearing yellow appear in the wall paintings of Pompeii and Herculaneum: in the House of the Tragic Poet, Iphigenia, about to be offered as a sacrifice, is pictured in a yellow robe; Medea also wears yellow as she contemplates the death of her children. The yellow garment most often mentioned by writers is the flame-colored mantle called the flammeum, part of the bridal costume worn at Roman weddings.62 This tradition of Roman bridal costume remained constant from the first century BCE through the late Empire.63 Pliny uses the word luteus to describe the color of the flammeum; he also asserts that the color yellow was confined entirely to women: lutei video honorem antiquissimum, in nuptialibus flammeis totum feminis concessum. I observe that yellow was the earliest color to be highly esteemed, but was granted as an exclusive privilege to women for their bridal veils.64 61 Olson (2008) 13: ‘This color strongly denoted clothing as female, and a man who wore a yellow garment risked being branded as effeminate.’ On various yellow colorants of antiquity, see André (1949) 151–155; Forbes (1993) v. 3, 226. 62 Flammeus is a color-term that recurs continuously through the entire span of Latin literature and is mentioned by many different authors. André (1949) 115–116 describes flammeus as a lively orange, close to red, and sparkling; LaFollette (1994) 55–56 derives the term from the flame of a candle. Edgeworth (1992) 114 cites the only instance in which this term occurs in Verg. Aen., 7.448–449: flammea torquens / lumina — Allecto ‘turns her fire-red (or fire-filled) eyes’ on Turnus. 63 Treggiari (1991) 163; LaFollette (1994) 54–64. 64 Plin. HN, 21.22.46; see also HN, 10.74.148, where Pliny uses luteus to describe an egg yolk. Although Pliny’s equation of luteus with flammeus implies that luteus means a fiery or reddish-yellow, the color-term luteus is a subject of debate among modern classicists. According to Edgeworth (1985) 212, luteus is used inconsistently across Roman writers to describe shades ranging from pale yellow to flame-red.

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The flammeum was worn in the same fashion as the palla, the mantle worn by Roman women for everyday use, but instead of the edge of the cloth resting on the top of the woman’s head, the flammeum was pulled forward to cover half of the bride’s face. Petronius parodies the wedding ceremony in an orgy scene in the Satyricon: Iam Psyche puellae caput involverat flammeo — ‘and now Psyche put a flamecolored veil upon the girl’s head.’65 This flame-colored mantle was the costume of the Flaminica Dialis, the wife of the priest of Jupiter, who was unable to divorce; the flammeum therefore represented marital fidelity and was worn by all brides as a good omen. 66 It was believed to protect the bride from negative spiritual forces as she passed through the liminal space between the protection of her family and her new husband’s home. In the context of the wedding ceremony, this would have connotations of propriety emphasizing the bride’s virginity, as well as producing a pleasing visual effect. The fiery red and yellow of the flammeum would function as a symbol of the change of status that a woman underwent in a wedding ceremony from a puella to a matrona, just as the flammeum combines the color yellow of virginity with the red blood of its loss. The bride’s shoes were also dyed yellow to match the flammeum. Catullus invokes Hymen, the god of love and marriage, on the morning of a wedding: Cinge tempora floribus suave olentis amaraci, flammeum cape, laetus huc huc veni niveo gerens luteum pede soccum Bind your brows with fragrant flowers of amaranth. Put on the marriage veil, approach joyfully

65 66

Petron. Sat., 25. LaFollette (1994) 55, quoting Festus 79.23L (89M).

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Come wearing on your white foot the yellow slipper.67

It is not clear why the shoes needed to match the flammeum, but the symmetrical display of yellow at the opposite ends of a woman’s body may have signified visual balance and wholeness. It is possible that the yellow socci were worn by women for daily use and only the flammeum was strictly confined to the marriage ceremony.68 In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the bridal god Hymen presides over the wedding ceremony; he is also associated with a saffron-colored mantle — inde per inmensum croceo velatus amictu.69 Both the color-term and the name employed for the garment imply that Ovid is not alluding to the flammeum. Perhaps he refers to a wedding garment analogous but not identical. He shows Hymen dressed in a similar fashion to a mortal bride, demonstrating the divine or mythological origins of the wearing of the saffron mantle. Croceus is the preferred color-term for yellow in Vergil’s Aeneid. A yellow-colored mantle or palla is described twice as croceo velamen and is always used in conjunction with unmarried female characters; in both instances this palla is hand-decorated with embroidered designs executed in golden thread and representing acanthus foliage, as in Vergil’s description of a robe worn by Helen: pallam signis auroque rigentem, / et circumtextum croceo velamen acantho — ‘a mantle stiff with figures wrought in gold, and a veil fringed with yellow acanthus.’70 This robe is brought by Ascanius as a gift to Dido, and is admired by all the Carthaginian court — pallamque et pictum croceo velamen acantho.71 There is a suggestion that Vergil is linking Dido with the famous seductress Helen; both women were foreigners to the men that they loved. The palla was originally intended as protection against bad weather or the cold, but it soon became a necessary covering for a modest woman, and no respectCatull. 61.5–10; the soccus, a light shoe originating in Greece, was adopted by the Romans, but its use was restricted to women, or to effeminate men or actors portraying female roles; Sebesta (1994) 246. 68 Dana (1919) 15. 69 Ov. Met., 10.1. 70 Verg. Aen., 1.648–649. 71 Verg. Aen., 1.711. 67

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able woman would leave her house without her head covered and her body concealed by it. 72 The gold embroidery mentioned in the Aeneid implies that it is an elite garment; as an epic poet working for an elite patron, Vergil writes only about the clothing of the aristocratic class and divine figures. A variation on the term croceus appears in the word epicrocum, a thin yellow garment worn by women. A women’s undergarment, the crocotula, contains the same root; Plautus lists it along with another women’s undergarment, the calthula — indusiatam, patagiatam, caltulam aut crocotulam.73 Much later, the grammarian Nonius, quoting Varro, describes the calthula as ‘a little wrapping device which binds the nude breasts’ — calthula est palliolum praecinctui quod nudae infra papillas praecinguntur.74 Elsewhere Nonius recalls that Varro said: utrumque mulieres, et epicrocum virum quoque habitarunt — ‘women and also men were accustomed to wearing the epicrocum.’75 This passage suggests that at some point during the Republic men wore yellow clothing, perhaps only as underwear. There are several literary instances in which the color yellow is worn by men, often with very negative connotations. As mentioned above, Juvenal ridicules the man who wore blue checks or yellow clothing — caerulea indutus scutulata aut galbina rasa.76 Varro quotes Naevius, who chided a man who wore a saffron robe and slippers — erat amictus epicroco.77 In his oration attacking Publius Clodius, Cicero includes a lurid accusation that Clodius cross-dressed and profaned the rituals of the Bona Dea. He describes Clodius’ costume: a crocota, a mitra, mulieribus soleis purpureisque fasceolis — ‘his saffron robe, his turban, his women’s shoes and his purple stockings.’78 The whole image conveys the outrageously inappropriate behavior to which Clodius would stoop. Cicero seems especially Olson (2008) 33–36; Croom (2000) 87–89; Sebesta (1994a) 48–50. Plaut. Epid., 231; Nonius 880L (548–549M) derives the words calthula and crocotula from the names of yellow flowers, caltha and croco. 74 Nonius Ibid. 75 Nonius 498L (318M), Varro de sermone latino lib. III. 76 Juv. 2.97. 77 Varro. Ling. 7.53. 78 Cic. De Harus. Res. 21.44; Heskel (1994) 139–140. 72 73

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shocked that Clodius was able to acquire such clothing; how was it possible for a man to access women’s private sphere? Cicero seems to be offended not only by the clothing that he wore, but rather that he went out of his natural boundaries as a man and passed himself off as a member of the female sex. Much later, the satirist Persius describes Caligula’s wife preparing yellow cloaks (lutea gausapa) for captive Gauls. These particular garments may have been chosen in accordance with their status as captives, thus humiliating them. The color luteus was not a color chosen for honoring men: [Aris] frigidus excutitur cinis aciam postibus arma, iam chlamydas regum, iam lutea gausapa captis essedaque ingentesque locat Caesaonia Rhenos. The cold ashes are being cleared from the altars, and arms for the doorposts, mantles of kings, yellow cloaks for the captives, Caesonia is contracting for chariots and huge effigies of the Rhine.79

Yellow may have been a cheaper dye that was easy to obtain, as compared to the red dye (coccina) of Trimalchio’s gausapa. The garment type was not considered humiliating, but rather the color of the dye. In the religious realm, however, priests of foreign cults are often described as wearing yellow. In the Aeneid, Chloreus, fighting as a Trojan ally, wears very colorful battle array, in foreign purple (ipse peregrina ferrugine clarus et ostro) and a yellow robe (croceam chlamydemque), making him, ironically, a prime target for the warrior maiden Camilla: tum croceam chlamydemque sinusque crepantis carbaseos fulvo in nodum collegerat auro, pictus acu tunicas et barbara tegmina crurum. his saffron chlamys and its rustling linen folds were gathered into a knot by yellow gold;

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT his tunic and his barbarous stockings were embroidered with a needle.80

Priests of Cybele, an Anatolian earth goddess worshipped by eunuchs, whose cult became popular in Rome during the Republic, ritually castrated themselves as a part of their initiation rite. Here the garment functions as a visual symbol of Chloreus’ improper role as a war leader; the specific association of croceus chlamys serves to underline his lack of manliness. By contrast, in the passage of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses quoted earlier, the initiates of the mystery cult are described by their clothing: saffron robes (crocotis) and yellow shoes (luteis), and white tunics (albas), light-colored shades reserved for the initiates.81 Evidently they are necessary elements for completing this ritual associated with Isis, one which is not Roman; yet Apuleius is fascinated by this exotic spectacle. It seems as if color is being employed by Apuleius to emphasize both how strange these non-Roman rites were, and how ready some Romans were to embrace these foreign cults.

WHITE, GRAY, BLACK AND BROWN White linen garments are the dominant clothing for cultic rituals in Apuleius’ world. Linen was originally imported from Egypt, in contrast to the austere toga made from wool, native to Rome; by Apuleius’ time, it was grown all around the Mediterranean. 82 Apuleius, himself a north African, elevates the low fashion of these foreign cults: Eas amoenus lectissimae iuventutis veste nivea et cataclista praeniten ssequebatur chorus, carmen venustum iterantes.

Verg. Aen., 11.772–777. Apul. Met., 8.27; Dana (1919) 29. 82 Sebesta (1994b) 72. Liu (2009) 86 and n. 133 provides extensive documentation on the preparation and distribution of Egyptian linen for the Roman army, including ‘a series of 4th century price declarations collected in P.Oxy. LIV, which mentions preparers of raw flax, bleachers of flax, sellers of linen textiles, wool-sellers, fullers, and dyers,’ showing their importance in the Roman economy. 80 81

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They were followed by a beautiful chorus of picked youths, brightly shining in snow-white garments reserved for special occasions, singing a beautiful song.83

Roman attitudes towards foreign religious cults are usually negative, but here Apuleius presents such religious practices as striking and attractive.84 In another passage, Apuleius shows the beautiful effect of the initiates’ garments as they proceed through the streets: Tunc influunt turbae sacris divinis initiatae, viri feminaeque omnis dignitatis et omnis aetatis, linteae vestis candore puro luminosi Then the crowds of those initiated into the divine mysteries came pouring in, both men and women of every rank and age, shining in the pure radiance of their linen robes.85

The garments are described as candore, a gleaming white, which is a color normally associated with the toga worn by men of stately age, but here the adjective is used to describe men and women of a markedly different status and geographical location.86 As a result of their initiation into a new cult, Apuleius implies that they have been reborn and appear bright and shining in their newfound wisdom. When describing the Tiber river god, Vergil likens him to an old man wearing a gray garment: Huic deus ipse loci fluvio Tiberinus amoeno populeas inter senior se attollere frondes visus (eum tenuis glauco velabat amictu carbasus et crinis umbrosa tegebat harundo)… Before him the very god of the place, Tiber, the pleasant river, seemed to raise his aged head among the poplar leaves, (thin linen draped him in a gray mantle, and shady reeds crowned his hair)…87 Apul. Met., 11. 9. On the worship of Isis in Rome itself, see Orlin (2010) 203–206. 85 Apul. Met., 11.10. 86 On the association of the toga with candida, see Titin. com. 167; Livy 39.39.2; Val. Max. 3.5.1; Plin. HN, 7.34.120. 87 Verg. Aen., 8.31–33. 83 84

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This garment, the amictus, is a general body covering and is derived from the word amicire, ‘to wrap.’ In this passage, the river god Tiber is veiled with a glauco amictu, symbolic of his age and wisdom. Later, clad in a similar gray wrapping, which visually links her with the Tiber, Juturna, grieving for her brother Turnus, dives to her death: Tantum effata caput glauco contexit amictu multa gemens, et se fluvio dea condidit alto. So saying, she veiled her head in a gray mantle and moaning greatly, the goddess plunged into the deep river.88

The gray color was probably the natural shade of the undyed wool, though Vergil does not specify the material, beyond implying that it is rough in texture.89 There are two color-terms for black, ater and niger: Ater is used to describe ink, atramentum; niger, which was frequently used to describe leather, may refer to a glossy black. Black could be obtained via the natural hues of fleece, but if black wool was not readily available, the color could also be produced using a dye of iron salts and tannic acid from oak galls, although this process could reduce the strength of wool fibers.90 Black color-terms were most commonly used with shoes, as in Juvenal’s description: Felix et sapiens et nobilis et generosus adpositam nigrae lunam subtexit alutae The man is happy, wise, noble and generous; he sews on his black shoe the crescent of the senator.91

The text implies that the person was smart, noble and generous and therefore entitled to wear leather shoes, a luxury item; magistrates had crescents on their black shoes.92 There are a variety of different words for shoes, boots, slippers and socks, not all of Verg. Aen., 12.885–886. Bender (1994) 149 cites all examples of the term amictus in Vergil’s writings, with color-terms or alone. 90 Sebesta (1994b) 66. 91 Juv. 7.191–192. 92 Watson (2003) 269; Martial 1.49.31, 2.29.7. 88 89

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which are easy to identify from the scanty literary references. 93 Still it was evidently important for a respectable man to wear the correct form of shoe in the proper circumstances; closed boots, for example, with the toga, but openwork shoes with the mantle.94 As for brown colored clothing, Petronius describes a catamite in a ‘fine brown suit with a waistband,’ using the rare color-term myrtea — Ultimo cinaedus supervenit myrtea subornatus gausapa cinguloque succintus.95 The context and the garment, gausapa, also worn by Trimalchio on his litter, suggest that myrtea was not considered a somber or dignified color.

PULLUS There are two ways to define the color-term pullus. It was used to describe dark, gray or black-colored material, and it was also used to describe mourning garments. 96 In The Metamorphoses, Ovid describes Phoebus and his dealings with the Cimmerians: Custos in limine nullus; at medio torus est ebeno sublimis in antro, plumeus, atricolor, pullo velamine tectus… No guard [is] on the threshold; but there is a bed made of ivory in the middle of the cave, raised on high, feathery, dark-colored, spread about with a pullus coverlet…97

The use of the color-term atricolor (known only from this passage) and pullo are significant as they mean approximately the same thing. Pullo in this instance reasserts that the blanket covering is really dark and thus unpleasant; the overall mood of the scene is dictated Goldman (1994) 102–103 illustrates a variety of Etruscan and Roman shoes, ranging from the Tomb of the Baron in Tarquinia to the Ravenna mosaics. 94 Goldman (1994) 116. 95 Petron. Sat., 21. André (1949) 190 translates myrtea as ‘myrtle green’ in this instance. 96 André (1949) 71–72; Sebesta (1994b) 65, 68, 75 n.32; Heskel (1994) 141; Croom (2000) 70. 97 Ov. Met., 11.609–611. 93

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by the repetition of the color-terms. Earlier in The Metamorphoses, Ovid describes a scene in which naiads and dryads mourn over Orpheus, with disheveled hair and wearing garments that are described as pullus.98 Both the naiads and dryads are described as wearing an ambiguous type of cloth (obstrusa carbasa pullo), but the color-term indicates that the figures are mourning. Ovid also uses the word pulla in his poem Ibis to describe the threads spun by the Parcae, and the color is once again a solemn one: Dixerat; at Clotho iussit promissa valere, nevit et infesta stamina pulla manu; She had spoken: but Clotho ordered her promise to prevail, and with a hostile hand, spun dark threads;99

Martial uses the same color-term, addressing the Fates: Si mihi lanificiae ducunt non pulla sorores stamina nec surdos vox habet ista deos… If the wool-working sisters draw me not dark threads and this voice finds the gods not deaf...100

These examples suggest that pullus was used consistently as a trope when describing the Fates. Martial also employs the color-term pullo to describe the hooded cloak that a poor poet wears, in contrast to Incitatus, the charioteer, who wears bright scarlet garments: pullo Mevius alget in cucullo / cocco mulio fulget Incitatus.101 These two men from different occupations are recognized by the color of their garments; Martial addresses the invisible Fortune who is responsible for this mismatched luck in life. The use of the color-term pullus in Roman history functions as a premonition or a form of surrender. In Roman historical works, descriptions of colored garments are rare, but Livy makes note of the garment, pullo amictu, of Perseus:

Ov. Met., 11.48. Ov. Ib., 243–244. 100 Mart. 6.58.7. 101 Mart. 10.76.8. 98 99

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Pullo amictu cum filio Perseus ingressus est castra nullo suorum alio comite, qui socius calamitatis miserabiliorem eum faceret. Perseus entered the camp in dark-colored garb, with his son, but unattended by any other of his people whose presence as a sharer of his downfall might have made him more pitiable.102

The shape of the garment is not described but Livy notes that it is pullo, showing Perseus’ fall from a higher status. Velleius Paterculus describes the defeated Lepidus being granted a pardon by Caesar while wearing a very similar garment — et a militibus et a fortuna desertus, pulloque velatus amiculo — befitting a man of his humiliated status, abandoned both by his troops and by fortune.103 Tacitus gives an account of the unpopular emperor Vitellius, who lost a whole legion at Narnia, and in distress wore a pullo amictu and staged a mock funeral for the loss of his troops.104 The historical writers use pullo amictu as a trope and consistently use it to describe a personage who wears this color garment to show sadness or submission. Florus also mentions a type of mourning garment, a pullo pallio, a sign of misfortune in Pompey’s dream: Dux ipse in nocturna imagine plausu theatri sui in modum planctus circumrotates et mane cum pullo pallio — nefas— apud principia conspectus est. [Pompeius] himself dreamed that he was surrounded in his own theater by a clapping of hands which resembled the beating of breasts, and in the morning appeared at his headquarters clad in a dark cloak — an omen of misfortune.105

The pallio was another type of garment, worn particularly by nonRomans; rectangular in shape, it could cover a full-sized man; Pompey the Great arriving at his headquarters in this garment seems to be in mourning for himself. Even in non-military contexts, pullo carries an association of destruction and misfortune. In Livy 45.7.4. Vell. Pat. 2.80.4. 104 Tac. Hist., 3.67. 105 Flor., Epit. 2.13.45. 102 103

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Ovid’s Ars Amatoria, the word pulla is repeated three times, describing Briseis’ garment: Pulla decent niveas: Briseïda pulla decebant: cum rapta est, pulla tum quoque veste fuit. Snow-white skins like dark gray colors: dark gray was becoming to Briseis; when she was carried off, her robe was also dark gray.106

Her garment or veste is pulla, and the repetition puns on the fact that she is a puella, or girl. The garment she wears complements her skin tone, making her beautiful, but her fate in the Iliad is a mournful one. In the texts that have been surveyed, Roman clothing has often been characterized as bright and gleaming, new and therefore clean. Literary and archaeological evidence shows that the Romans cleaned their clothing with soap and rendered fat. 107 There was a huge industry dedicated to the manufacture of soap and a highly developed laundry system.108 To describe dirtiness, the Romans used pullus. In his speech on rhetoric, Quintilian compares a base or debauched circumstance to the production of clothing; a bad beginning cannot produce a good outcome: non possum togam praetextam sperare, cum exordium pullum videam — ‘I am not able to hope for a purple striped toga, when I see the beginning of the web is dark.’109 It is interesting to note how the notion of proper dress is woven into Quintilian’s consciousness; he wants Roman people to wear pristine clothing, which cannot originate from soiled threads.

SUMMARY By examining descriptions of clothing based on color terminology, it is possible to clarify the attitudes of Roman writers towards this subject. In some instances, overt hostility to luxury garments thinly masks an envious desire for such clothing. The description of colOv. Ars am., 3.189. Moeller (1976) 12. 108 Forbes (1993) v. 3, 187–188. 109 Quint. Inst. 5.10.71. 106 107

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ored clothing by these authors also reflects the fashion tastes and sensibilities of the Roman street; colored clothing provides specific social contexts for the actions of characters, whether on the battlefield or at a dinner party. While we do not have plentiful material remains that would provide physical examples of these specific colors, the contemporary documents show how Romans wore clothing, where they wore it, how they obtained it from neighboring provinces, and perhaps most important, how others viewed the social and moral status of the wearer.

CHAPTER FOUR: CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN: CLASS AND COLOR-TERMS The previous chapter dealt with the appropriateness of certain colors as worn by men and women, but there are many other aspects of Roman society in which appropriateness of color was important. Class distinctions are most vividly shown through appearance in Roman literature, and this is seen most prominently in descriptions of Roman freedmen, former slaves. In Roman sculpture the tomb portraits of freedmen carry a high degree of austerity, showing that they have ‘arrived.’1 In Roman literature, however, descriptions of freedmen give an entirely different picture. The two most famous fictional examples of Roman freedmen are Petronius’ Trimalchio and Martial’s Zoilus; descriptions of these two establish an extremely negative image of the freedman’s place in Roman society, much of which is established by color-terms. These descriptions are worth examining in detail.

TRIMALCHIO THE FREEDMAN In Petronius’ Cena Trimalchionis, color is a way to mark a person’s status and level of luxury.2 Roman law made freedmen a class apart, creating tension that is exhibited in every aspect of Trimalchio’s behavior; even his name ‘tri-malchio’ implies that he is indeed a slave three times over.3 Trimalchio’s liminal place in society is Kleiner (1977) 5–21, 114–117, Fig. 1–95; Kampen (1981) 85. On the legal and social status of freedmen, see Treggiari (1969) and Duff (1928) passim. 2 Petron. Sat., 26–78. On the Cena as a trope in Latin literature, see Shero (1923). 3 Courtney (2001) 77; Bodel (1999) 41–43; Duff (1928) 125. 1

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marked by excess; his grotesque initial appearance in The Satyricon, his ill-suited activities and lavish household decorations, and his indulgent feast, replete with items unrecognizable to the middleand lower-class Roman, are all reflected through a lens of color. The abundance of color-terms and clothing-terms used together in this work is significant, and Trimalchio’s selection of colors suggests much about the perception of the freedman’s social class. When the novel was written, during the reign of Emperor Nero, there was a great influx of luxury consumer goods, which especially found favor with freedmen. In the Cena, Petronius shows how Trimalchio’s misuse of these reveals his inability to be a true aristocratic Roman. What happens outside Trimalchio’s house is just as bizarre as what happens on the inside. The servant of Agamemnon says to the narrator, Encolpius: ‘Quid? vos’ inquit ‘nescitis, hodie apud quem fiat? Trimalchio, lautissimus homo, horologium in triclinio et bucinatorem habet subornatum, ut subinde sciat, quantum de vita perdiderit.’ Do you know at whose home the dinner is taking place? Trimalchio, a very rich man, who has a clock with a horn in his dining room, to keep telling him how much of his life is lost and gone.4

Trimalchio is immediately situated as a man known for his possessions. He has no ancestors, no family history, and thus no ancestral masks or trophies of honor to decorate his home — a circumstance which allows him to decorate his home with anything else that would lend him due status, such as brightly colored clothes and adornments.5 Petronius introduces this character with the mention of a color-term, a red tunic, which is followed immediately by a green ball:

Petron. Sat., 26. Bodel (1994) 245–246; Flower (1996) 212–213 discusses the way Trimalchio’s house parodies a genuine aristocrat’s house, with wall paintings depicting the freedman’s life in epic terms. 4 5

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Cum subito videmus senem calvum, tunica vestitum russea, inter pueros capillatos ludentem pila. Nec tam pueri nos, quamquam erat operae pretium, ad spectaculum duxerant, quam ipse pater familiae, qui soleatus pila prasina exercebatur. Suddenly we saw a bald old man in a red tunic, playing ball with some long-haired boys. It was not the boys that attracted our notice, though they deserved it, but the head of the family himself, wearing slippers, busily engaged with the green ball.6

Neither term used here, russea and prasina, is a commonly used color-term to describe red and green. Russea has its roots in shades of red and rust, which modern commentators link to maroon or deep red. The color-term prasina means leek-colored, here applied to the ball the young boys are tossing around, probably made from leather. Both colors, however, carry direct references to the chariot factions, and may show an allegiance that Trimalchio and his household had to these teams. Given the narrator’s position as a spectator, Petronius makes this scene into a mock-game as entertainment for Encolpius, the narrator, alone. Here Trimalchio may be wearing a Roman version of a red team jersey.7 In any case, when Trimalchio is at last introduced, he lacks dignity: he is surrounded by servants, but he is bald and wearing a brightly colored undershirt. This is Petronius’ way of showing how Trimalchio subverts normal roles by not wearing acceptable clothing for a man of his age; his baldness is an additional physiognomic quality that makes him look less socially acceptable, virile or attractive.8 He then makes his departure, rolled up in a scarlet woolen Petron. Sat., 27. One garment that Trimalchio is not wearing is the pileus (in Greek, πίλεον…λευκόν) a white cap associated with the freeing of slaves: Dio Sic. 31.15.2. 8 According to Quintilian, bright colors like red and purple are not suitable for an older man: Sicut vestibus quoque non purpura coccoque fulgentibus illa aetas satis apta sit. In iuvenibus etiam uberiora paulo et paene periclitantia feruntur — ‘Just as in clothing, indeed, neither purple nor red gleaming clothing is appropriate; that age is suitable enough. In youths, however, we are able to endure a flashier and even risky taste.’ Quint. Inst. 11.1.31–32. 6 7

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coat before he is put into a litter — hinc involutus coccina gausapa lecticae impositus est.9 A gausapa, as mentioned earlier, is a type of covering worn outdoors in inclement weather; that the cloak is coccina, the type of red made from cocceus or cochineal berries, also suggests that the clothing was most expensive. We do not know how much clothing was in the average Roman wardrobe, but the wealthy new Roman Trimalchio has enough outfits to change at every interval. Besides his extravagant wardrobe, Trimalchio is also adorned with a great deal of jewelry, some of which may not be appropriate or even legal for his social status: Habebat etiam in minimo digito sinistrae manus anulum grandem subauratum, extreme vero articulo digito sequentis minorem, ut mihi articulo digito sequentis minorem, ut mihi videbatur, totum aureum, sed plane ferris veluti stellis ferruminatum. Et ne has tantum ostenderet divitias, dextrum nudavit lacertum armilla aurea cultum et eboreo circulo lamina splendente conexo. Moreover he wore on the little finger of his left hand a massive ring of silver gilt, and on the last joint of the next finger a smaller ring which appeared to me to be entirely of gold, but was really set all around with iron cut out in little stars. Not content with this display of wealth, he bared his right arm, where a golden bracelet shone, and an ivory bangle clasped with a plate of bright metal.10

In this passage, Trimalchio is described as the supremely crass host; it is not only his appearance that provokes disapproval, but also the rare color-term subauratus: it is not a pure gold, but merely coated with gold or gilt. By wearing this ring, Trimalchio flouts the respected conventions of Roman society; by a Senatus consultum of 23 CE, gold rings could only be worn by freeborn men of equestrian status or higher. Because this is a gilded ring, perhaps he could bypass the law without being questioned.11 Petron. Sat., 28. Petron. Sat., 32. 11 Schmeling (2011) 115–116; Smith (1975) 69–70. There are examples of gilt rings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, with an ivory base covered with gold foil. 9

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The narrator and his group come to the entrance of the house and are introduced to the butler: In aditu autem ipso stabat ostiarius prasinatus, cerasino succinctus cingulo, atque in lance argentea pisum purgabat. Super limen autem cavea pendebat aurea. In the entrance the butler was standing wearing green clothes, with a cherry-colored belt, shelling peas in a silver dish. A golden birdcage hung in the doorway.12

Petronius holds nothing back in describing the uniforms of Trimalchio’s staff, adding a rare view of the culture in the Bay of Naples region that does not appear in other texts. It was probably a surprise for the narrator to see such a colorful individual after coming from an otherwise nondescript environment. The silver bowl also demonstrates the lavish material culture found in the home of a freedman: an example is found on a wall painting in Pompeii.13 The decoration found on silver bowls in Pompeii ranges from acanthus leaves to small animals and even skeletons, which perhaps suggest the brevity of human life.14 The butler is putting a staple and humble food item into his silver bowl, suggesting an inappropriate use of this costly item. In describing the butler’s uniform, the color prasinatus is used, the same shade that appeared on the leather ball. Within Trimalchio’s household there may be a clash of chariot team loyalties, as Trimalchio wears russea, while his butler wears prasinus; the butler’s belt, however, is cerasino, cherry-red, a word that appears only in Petronius.15 The color-term cerasinus was probably derived from cherry trees imported from the Pontus region beginning in 74 BCE by Lucullus; it is possible that cerasinus was favored by the freedmen

Petron. Sat., 28. In the tomb of Vestorius Priscus in Pompeii, an entire suite of silverware was used to show his wealth as a freedman; Oliver (2004) Fig. 1; Dalby (2000) Fig. 37. 14 Dunbabin (1986) 185–188; Kuttner (1995) 27–35. 15 André (1949) 118, Sebesta (1994b) 70. 12 13

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because it, like they themselves, was new.16 Along with the human characters and their surroundings, Petronius is also keen to describe the overfed dog: Puer autem lippus, sordidissimus dentibus, catellam nigram atque indecenter pinguem, prasina involvebat fascia panemqe semissem ponebat super torum atque [hac] nausea recusantem saginabat. A boy, with bleary eyes and very unclean teeth, was tying up an unnaturally obese black puppy in a green handkerchief, and then putting a broken piece of a bread on a chair, and cramming it down the throat of the dog, who did not want it and was sick.17

Once again the word prasina is used, indicating the household’s preference for this color and showing how far the household staff would go to show support for their favorite team. The long-drawn-out dinner provides strange surprises at every turn: inter haec tres pueri candidas succincti tunicas intraverunt — ‘meanwhile three boys came in with their white tunics all bunched up,’ carrying Timalchio’s household gods.18 The three boys are adorned in the brightest white cloth, made from wool or cotton, which was intended for the most elevated members of society and was costly to make; their tunics might be compared to the toga virilis which was also pure white and worn by Roman male citizens. Here we see Trimalchio’s desire to be accepted into aristocratic society, which is reflected in every aspect of his household.

THE FREEDMAN’S WIFE At long last another character emerges, but only after she has been summoned several times. Fortunata, a freed slave as noted by her name, wears attire as colorful as her husband’s: The specific tree was the dwarf cherry tree, P. Cerasus, which was small enough to have in one’s garden. It is possible that Trimalchio could manufacture this color on his property; the narrator is told that all Trimalchio’s clothes and food are home-grown (omnia domi nascuntur): Petron. Sat. 38. 17 Petron. Sat., 64. 18 Petron. Sat., 60. 16

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Venit ergo galbino succincta cingillo, ita ut infra cerasina appareret tunica et periscelides tortae phaecasiaeque inauratae. So she came in with a high yellow waistband on, which allowed a cherry-red skirt to appear under it, and twisted anklets, and shoes embroidered with gold.19

Petronius uses the color-terms galbino and cerasina, rather than the standard flavus and rubor. The color galbinus, which is usually derived from the plumage of an oriole (galgulus) was introduced to the Roman world during the early Empire.20 Presumably the newly rich admired the color both because it was new and because it was expensive to produce; evidently women were able to wear as expensive clothing as men.21 It is interesting to observe that Fortunata wears a yellow waistband, a woman’s color, but she does not wear any garment described as prasinus or russeus, suggesting that these color-terms are associated with sports favored by men. Fortunata shows off all of her jewelry: Eo deinde perventum est, ut Fortunata armillas suas crassissimis detraheret lacertis Scintillaeque miranti ostenderet. Fortunata then went so far as to take the bracelets off her fat arms to exhibit them to Scintilla so that she might admire them.22

More important than the details of the bracelets’ appearance is the fact that Fortunata has many of them and takes the time to show them off to another woman. Tension is thus created between the women and illustrates how one freedwoman succeeds in life while the other has not yet reached her level, despite her status as free. It also shows how big Fortunata may be; her gold bracelets are large and commensurate with her girth. The gold material accents her outfit completely: ultimo etiam periscelides resolvit et reticulum aureum, quem ex obrussa esse dicebat. — ‘at last she even took off her anklets Petron. Sat., 67. Plin. HN, 30.28.94; Thompson (1966) 67; Sebesta (1994b) 70; André (1949) 148–150. 21 Sebesta (1994b) 70. 22 Petron. Sat., 67. 19 20

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and her hair net, which she said had been tested for gold.’ 23 There are relatively few descriptions of women and jewelry together, either because it was usually not of interest to male writers, or it was a subject of criticism and censure.24 Valerius Maximus recounts the famous tale of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, whose friend was showing off her beautiful jewelry; when Cornelia’s children returned home from school, she said, ‘These are my jewels.’25 In her display, Fortunata reveals that she is the antithesis of this virtuous Roman matrona, who was known for her patience and modestas. Like any person who feels emotion, however, Fortunata is so embarrassed that she blushes when Habinnas lifts her up, causing her to expose her privates to all of the guests. Since she is humiliated and inebriated, she can only do what is natural and blush bright red, incensissimam rubore faciem, burning extremely red in the face. This type of bodily function is always described by the color-terms rubor or rubens.26 She is not respected by her husband, but rather receives the brunt of Trimalchio’s quick and abrasive temper. As her name suggests she may be fortunate enough to have material goods — her own slaves, friends to host and her freedom — but her past as a slave still follows her. The freedmen were never to escape their past and lived in a liminal state for their entire lives.

Petron. Sat., 67; Olson (2008) 76. Hair nets are mentioned by the Scriptores Historiae Augustae, as the emperor Alexander Severus disapproved of them: …matronas autem regias contentas esse debere uno reticulo atque inauribus et bacato monili et corona, cum qua sacrificium facerant — ‘women of the royal household should be content with one hairnet, a pair of earrings, a pearl necklace and a diadem to wear while sacrificing.’ SHA, Alexander Severus, 41.1. 24 At HN, 9.56.114, Pliny the Elder expresses his distaste for the long, jangling pearl earrings that women wore in his time, suggesting that this extravagance will lead to the downfall of Roman virtues and values. 25 Val. Max., Mem. 4.4. 26 Petron. Sat., 67; on blushes, see Lateiner (1998). 23

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THE FREEDMAN’S FEAST The preparation of Trimalchio’s elaborate meal also involved decorating the table with a variety of colors, in a way that Encolpius had never seen before. At one point the ceiling opened: Ecce autem diductis lacunaribus subito circulus ingens, de cupa videlicet grandi excussus, demittitur, cuius per totum orbem coronae aureae cum alabastris unguenti pendebant. Behold, suddenly the whole ceiling parted and an enormous hoop, apparently knocked out of a giant cask, was let down. All around it were hung golden crowns and alabaster boxes of perfumes.27

In the interval spent preparing for the second course, the slaves sprinkled the tables with a variety of powders. To the narrator this seems a strange enough experience that it warrants a description: Sustulerunt servi omnes mensas et alias attulerunt, scobemque croco et minio tinctam sparserunt et, quod nunquam ante videram, ex lapide speculari pulverem tritum. The slaves took away all the tables, brought in others, and sprinkled about sawdust colored with saffron and vermilion, and, something I have never seen before, powdered talc.28

The combination of the yellowish hue with the striking vermilion would certainly have caught the attention of the guests. These two colors would have created the illusion of being at the theatre; sprinkling the stage with a solution of saffron is mentioned by several other Roman writers. 29 Like all of Trimalchio’s luxuries, the

27 Petron. Sat., 60. This could be a direct reference to Nero, whose house, the Domus Aurea, had a famous banqueting hall with a roating ceiling. 28 Petron. Sat., 68. 29 Lucr. 2.416: et cum scena croco Cilici perfusa recens est — ‘and when the stage is freshly sprinkled with Cilician saffron.’ Martial also mentions the sprinkling of expensive natural materials in 5.26.5–7: Hoc, rogo, non melius quam rubro pulpita nimbo spargere et effuso permaduisse croco? — ‘Is not this, I

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process of obtaining these pigments was extremely expensive and time-consuming. Trimalchio had carefully orchestrated this meal to include colors, in the form of powders and trinkets, in order to create a sensory experience for his guests. During the conversation at the feast, another newly rich guest brags that his son’s books are decorated in red (libra rubricata) — like epigraphic inscriptions, they are highlighted in red, expensive books that reveal an extravagant style.30 Another guest marvels at Trimalchio’s wealth: Vides tot culcitras: nulla non aut conchyliatum aut coccineum tomentum habet. — ‘You see all the cushions here: every one has purple or scarlet stuffing.’31 In Trimalchio’s house, even what is under covers is rich and colorful.

FREEDMEN IN POETRY A similar example of an extravagant freedman is Zoilus, a figure found in Martial’s epigrams, a rich social climber like Trimalchio, portrayed as being just as obnoxious. Zoilus’ name suggests that he was originally from Asia Minor, possibly the province of Cappadocia or Pergamene. At a feast similar to Trimalchio’s, Martial describes the way Zoilus is attired as a signifier of his status and a byproduct of his wealth: Iacet occupato galbinatus in lecto cubitisque trudit hinc et inde convivas effultus ostro Sericisque pulvillis. Stat exoletus suggeritque ructanti pinnas rubentes cuspidesque lentisci, et aestuanti tenue ventilat frigus supina prasino concubina flabello, fugatque muscas myrtea puer virga.

ask, better than to sprinkle the stage with a ruddy shower and be drenched with streams of saffron?’ 30 Petron. Sat., 46. Pliny mentions in HN, 33.40.122 that cinnabar, a hard red-colored stone, was used to decorate incised letters in inscriptions; the process was an expensive one. 31 Petron. Sat., 38.

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Garbed in yellow, he lies on a couch he alone fills and with his elbows thrusts off his guests on either side, propped up as he is on purple and on silken cushions. A youth stands by, supplying red feathers and toothpicks as he belches, while a concubine, lying on her back, makes a gentle breeze with a green fan to relieve his heat, and a boy keeps off the flies with a sprig of myrtle.32

In describing Zoilus’ luxurious surroundings, the color-terms galbinatus and ostro are used instead of the more common color-terms for yellow and purple. As noted earlier, yellow is generally associated with women’s clothing; Fortunata’s waistband is galbinus. Ostro, as mentioned earlier, is a deep purple shade, but not the royal purple hue. Perhaps this is a direct hit by Martial to suggest that Zoilus is not a member of the aristocratic class but rather that he is aping that class by wearing this shade. The dining experience is not a pleasant one, and Martial emphasizes the tension and the awkwardness of the scene with these two words. Here Martial may be echoing Petronius’ Cena at 38.5, where all Trimalchio’s cushions are stuffed with purple or scarlet, but suggesting that it was not the ‘right’ shade of purple or scarlet. Martial’s colors are not the same shades that Petronius uses, but color and freedmen are always linked together as a trope for literary measure.33 Zoilus is being fanned with bright red or pink feathers; although there is no exact term to describe the color pink in Latin, Martial uses the phrase pinnas rubentes, the feathers blushing red; in another poem he describes the feathers of the flamingo (phoenicopterus) as rubentes.34 The practice of carrying fans originated in the East, where public at-

Mart. 3.82.5–12. The scenes are mirror images: Zoilus uses a mastic wood toothpick in 3.82, just as Trimalchio uses a silver toothpick (Petron. Sat., 33), Watson (2003) 267–269. 34 Mart. 13.71; the flamingo also has associations with sumptuous dining: Thompson (1966) 181–182. 32 33

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tendance of a fan-bearing slave symbolized royal status; Martial may be suggesting that this practice is exotic and non-Roman.35 Readers are again introduced to Zoilus in 2.16, in which he is sick and lying on some extravagant coccina colored pillows and bedspreads; the fact that he is ill and surrounded by luxurious goods signifies that not even these goods can help him recover. Martial suggests that his manner of life causes his illness: Zoilus aegrotat: faciunt hanc stragula febrem. Si fuerit sanus, coccina quid facient? quid torus a Nilo, quid Sidone tinctus olenti? ostendit stultas quid nisi morbus opes? quid tibi cum medicis? dimitte Machaonas omnis. vis fieri sanus? strangula sume mea. Zoilus is ill: it is his bed-sheets that cause this fever. Suppose him well; what will be the use of scarlet coverlets? What of a mattress from Nile, or one dipped in strong-smelling purple of Sidon? What but illness displays such foolish wealth? What do you want with doctors? Dismiss all your physicians. Do you wish to become well? Take my sheets.36

In this instance the color-terms are related to their places of origin, either Sidon or the Nile, both known for their natural resources. In this passage, Martial acknowledges the Roman dependency on the provinces for their extraction of goods. But once again through these color-terms Martial shows distaste for this leisure class and indicates that they are not capable of becoming aristocratic Romans. Martial satirizes two additional freedmen in similar terms. Red-faced Phasis sits in the theatre, happy with his purple cloak 35 Women generally used the fans: Ter. Eun. 595; Olson (2008) 57; Croom (2000) 106–107. Martial also mentions a purple one (10.30.15); Ammianius Marcellinus deplores gilded fans, aurata flabella (28.4.18). Claudian (Eutrop. 1.109) mentions a fan with pink feathers: et cum se rapido fessam proiecerat aestu / patricius roseis pavonum ventilat alis — ‘and when overcome by the heat she threw herself upon her couch, there would stand this patrician fanning her with bright peacock feathers.’ 36 Mart. 2.16.

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(Phasis purpureis ruber lacernis) and boasts that he does not have to sit with lower-class people, thanks to an edict of Domitian that segregated the classes into different seating areas. Martial juxtaposes two bright colors, red for his complexion and purple for his clothes, which make him stand out in the crowd, although he thinks he fits in.37 In another epigram, Euclides boasts about the income from his farms and claims to trace his pedigree back to Leda, but suddenly out of his pocket falls a key, revealing that he is merely a doorman. Like Trimalchio, he is introduced as coccinatus Euclides — wrapped up in red.38 Both men are ejected from the elite section by the same guard, Leitus, exposing their social climbing and showing that their position is actually quite precarious.

SUMMARY Trimalchio, Zoilus, Phasis, and Euclides are shown, through the eyes of hostile writers, as prime examples of the Roman freedman who has left behind his life as a slave and tries to become accepted in high society. They use all their clothing and household possessions in pursuit of this goal, but instead end up only revealing their incongruous position, with colors that the writers consider grossly inappropriate for a member of the Roman upper class. Color-terms are used in these texts more than in any other works of Roman literature to convey these standards of appropriateness. Both a poet like Martial and a prose writer like Petronius use the same colorvocabulary to ridicule the freedman. Color is used as a line of demarcation for what is acceptable practice and how one should behave in society, physically and metaphorically.

37 38

Mart. 5.8.5. Mart. 5.35.2.

CHAPTER FIVE: COLOR WARS: ROMAN CHARIOT TEAMS In Petronius’ Cena Trimalchionis, Trimalchio chides his slaves Philargyrus and Carius, ‘you are such terrible fans of the Greens.’ 1 The use of color in games, which is reflected in literature, makes a powerful statement about the Romans and their loyalty to sports teams. The four chariot teams were known by their colors: Green, Blue, Red and White; Domitian tried, unsuccessfully, to add two more, Purple and Gold.2 The chief rival teams were the Blues (whom Vitellius and Caracalla supported, and whom Domitian particularly disliked) and the Greens, who evidently enjoyed the greatest popularity: supporters of the Greens range from a whole gallery of emperors at one extreme (Caligula, Nero, Lucius Verus, Commodus and Elagabalus) to Trimalchio’s butler at the other.3 Juvenal snorts that a defeat of the Greens was like a second Cannae.4

THE SETTING Roman authors evoked the sensory experience of attending chariot races in the circus, games in the arena and plays in the theater, all in rich detail. Nero built more than one amphitheater covered with colored awnings, or vela, which Pliny the Elder describes:

Petron. Sat. 70. Baran (1983) 396–397 and n. 156; Suet. Dom., 7.1; Dio Cass. 67.4.4. The color-terms in Greek are  and . 3 Dio Cassius in 63.6.3 describes Nero publicly singing with a lyre, driving a chariot and decked out in the costume of the Greens, topping it off with a charioteer’s helmet. 4 Juv. 11.200. 1 2

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT Vela nuper et colore caeli, stellata, per rudentes iere etiam in amphitheatris principis Neronis. Recently awnings of sky blue and spangled with stars had been stretched with ropes even in the emperor Nero’s amphitheaters.5

The color is described as colore caeli, that of the sky, instead of caeruleus, possibly to emphasize that it was decorated with stars. The fabric could have been dyed or painted in order to receive this color, while the stars were either painted or sewn on. Lucretius provides the most vivid description of the effects of sitting underneath the vela as the light passes through the awnings onto the stage and the audience: Et volgo faciunt id lutea russaque vela et ferrugina, cum magnis intenta theatris per malos volgata trabesque trementia flutant; namque ibi consessum caveai supter et omnem scaenai speciem patrum matrumque deorum inficiunt coguntque suo fluitare colore. Et quanto circum mage sunt inclusa theatri moenia, tam magis haec intus perfusa lepore omnia conrident correpta luce diei. This is often done by yellow and red awnings, and rust-colored, when outspread in the public view over a great theater, on posts and beams they tremble and flutter; for then they dye the assembly in the great hollow below, and all the display of the stage, fathers and mothers and gods, and force to flutter in their own color. And the more the walls of the theater are enclosed all around, the more all within smile in the flood of beauty when the light of day is thus confined.6

5 Plin. HN, 19.6.24. Since the awning was stellata or starry, possibly the velum might have been black, but it seems more likely that it was light blue. 6 Lucr. 4.75–83.

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The color-terms used in this passage show that not all vela were sky-blue and that there was a great variety of colors used in the amphitheaters. The use of ferrugina (rusty) is a particularly interesting choice; perhaps it suggests a red awning that had aged or faded. Propertius evokes Rome’s early days before there was a standard amphitheater with vela: nec sinuosa cavo pendebant vela theatro / pulpita sollemnis non oluere crocos — ‘no rippling awnings hung over the hollow theatre, nor was there the scent of the accustomed saffron on the stage.’7 Here he describes what spectators were accustomed to seeing in his own time. Suetonius describes the red and green colored sand that was strewn on the circus floor — minio et chrysocolla constrato Circo.8 Since minium and chrysocolla were natural stone materials, it is assumed that Caligula had these materials ground up into a powder, an act that was viewed as a ritual to ensure future success to those involved. Pliny describes a similar event under Nero, using the same colorterm chrysocolla: Visumque iam est Neronis principis spectaculis harenam circi chrysocolla sterni, cum ipse concolori panno aurigaturus esset. We have already seen at the shows given by the Emperor Nero the sand of the circus sprinkled with green when he himself was a charioteer, wearing a coat of that same color.9

Some names of the race horses also denote color or colored markings, such as ‘Aureus,’ ‘Candidus,’ ‘Purpureus,’ ‘Glaucus,’ and ‘Roseus.’10 The color-terms most associated with the circus, however, were the names of the chariot teams.

THE TEAMS The earliest mention of the team colors is in Pliny the Elder’s Historia Naturalis, in which he discusses the suicide of a supporter of the Red team with particular poignancy: Prop. 4.1.15–16. Suet. Calig., 18.3. 9 Plin. HN, 33.27.90. 10 Toynbee (1973) 178. 7 8

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT Invenitur in actis Felice russei auriga elato in rogum eius unum e faventibus iecisse se, frivolum dictu, ne hoc gloriae artificis daretur, adversis studiis copia odorum corruptum criminantibus. It is found in the official records that at the funeral of Felix, the charioteer of the Reds, one of his fans threw himself on the funeral pyre — a pitiful story — and the opposing backers tried to prevent this score to the record of a professional by asserting that the man fainted on account of the quantity of scents.11

Pliny the Younger expresses a skeptical view of the chariot racing industry in a letter, in which he comments on the blind loyalty of the fans to the team colors: Quo magis miror tot milia virorum tam pueriliter identidem cupere currentes equos, insistentes curribus homines videre. Si tamen aut velocitate equorum aut hominum arte traherentur, esset ratio nonnulla; nunc favent panno, pannum amant, et si in ipso cursu medioque certamine hic color illuc, ille huc transferatur, studium favorque transibit, et repente agitatores illos, equos illos, quos procul noscitant, quorum clamitant nomina relinquent. I am the more astonished that so many thousands of grown men should be possessed again and again with a childish passion to look at galloping horses, and men standing upright in their chariots. If, indeed, they were attracted by the swiftness of the horses or the skill of the men, one could account for this enthusiasm. But in fact it is a bit of cloth they favor, a bit of cloth that captivates them. And if during the running the racers were to exchange colors, their partisans would change sides, and instantly forsake the very drivers and horses whom they were just before recognizing from afar, and clamorously saluting by name.12

Pliny presents this fanaticism without naming the teams, but the purpose of the colors, as he says, must have been to make the rac11 12

Plin. HN, 7.53.186. Plin. Ep. 9.6.

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ers recognizable from a distance despite the dust in the circus; though the fans could not tell one charioteer from another, or one horse from another, they cheered for the colors themselves, a habit which Pliny regards as ridiculous. The two color-terms most specifically linked to sports teams, prasinus (Green) and venetus (Blue), are frequently named by Martial in his epigrams: De prasino conviva meus venetoque loquatur, Nec faciunt quemquam pocula nostra reum. Let my guest converse of the Green and the Blue; My cups don’t make any man a defendant.13

In another example he admonishes the chariot fans for their lack of loyalty if they don’t wear the team colors: Si veneto prasinove faves, quid coccina sumes? Ne fias ista transfuga sorte vide. If you favor the Blue or the Green, why put on scarlet? See that by this lot you do not become a deserter.14

He sympathizes with Oppianus, who lost a lot of money betting on the wrong team: Esset, Castrice, cum mali coloris, Versus scribere coepit Oppianus. Because he had a bad color, Castricus, Oppianus started to write verses.15

It is interesting to note that the color-terms chosen for these teams are the brightest out of their color group: prasinus rather than viridis, venetus rather than caeruleus or caesius, russeus rather than coccinus, albatus rather than canus or niveus.16 The teams’ names emphasize the

Mart. 10.48.23–24. Mart. 14.131. 15 Mart. 7.4. 16 Sometimes other color-terms were used for the teams in literature: Martial uses coccina for the Red team (compare Incitatus the charioteer 13 14

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visibility of these colors in the arena. Otherwise these terms have neutral connotations: for example, canus is associated with old age and white hair, and niveus with snow, but albatus has no such associations.

THE GREENS Prasinus is a Latin word derived from Greek , with natural connotations and translated to mean ‘leek-green.’17 An inscription mentions a member of the prasinus team as winning the first prize: Si prasinus proximis circensibus primam palmam.18 The literature suggests that the Greens were the winning faction of the period, as Martial says: Saepius ad palmam prasinus post fata Neronis pervenit et victor praemia plura refert I nunc, livor edax, dic te cessisse Neroni: vicit nimirum non Nero, sed prasinus. Since Nero’s death the Green often wins the race and brings back many prizes of victory. Go now, gnawing envy, and say you yielded to Nero; for sure, it was not Nero who won, but the Green.19

Suetonius describes Caligula’s devotion to the Green faction: Prasinae factioni ita addictus et deditus, ut cenaret in stabulo assidue et maneret, agitatori Eutycho comisatione quadam in apophoretis vicies sestertium contulit. [Caligula] was so passionately devoted to the Green faction that he constantly dined and spent the night in their stable, and in one of his revels with them he gave the driver Eutychus two million sesterces in gifts.20 who wears cocco in Mart. 10.76.9), and Juvenal uses viridis for the Greens, as discussed below. 17 André (1949) 192. 18 CIL VI 10047c. 19 Mart. 11.33. 20 Suet. Calig., 55.2.

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Caligula was one of the many emperors who actively participated in sports and had specific preferences for a particular team and gave them presents.21 Nero was equally a strong supporter of the Greens, as Suetonius confirms: Equorum studio vel praecipue ab ineunte aetate flagravit plurimusque illi sermo, quanquam vetaretur, de circensibus erat; et quondam tractum prasinum agitatorem inter condiscipulos querens, obiurgante paedagogo, de Hectore se loqui ementitus est. From his earliest years [Nero] had a special passion for horses and talked constantly about the game in the Circus, though he was forbidden to do so. Once when he was lamenting with his fellow pupils the fate of a charioteer of the Greens, who was dragged by his horses, and his preceptor scolded him, he told a lie and pretended that he was talking of Hector.22

Julius Capitolinus says that the emperor Verus was also very fond of the Greens — amavit et aurigas, prasino favens.23 Verus went even so far as to insult other teams that competed with the Green faction. His absurd behavior extended to the veneration of one of the horses from the Green team, as Capitolinus relates: Et cum Marco sedens, multas a Venetianis est passsus iniurias quod turpissime contra eos faveret. Nam et Volucri equo Prasino aureum simulacrum feceret, quod secum portabat…. cui mortuo sepulchrum Vati-

Dio Cassius relates in 78.1.2 that Caracalla killed a former charioteer simply because he was a member of the ‘wrong’ team: ‘Even in Rome itself he put out of the way a man who was renowned for no other reason than his profession, which made him very conspicuous. I refer to Euprepes the charioteer. He killed him because he supported the opposite faction to the one he himself favored. So Euprepes was put to death in his old age, after having been crowned in a vast number of horse-races; for he had won seven hundred and eighty-two crowns, a record equaled by no one else.’ The text does not state the color of the chariot teams involved. Dio Cassius also says in 77.7.2 that whichever team Caracalla supported, his brother Geta would have supported the opposite (). 22 Suet. Ner., 22.1. 23 SHA, Verus, 4.8–9. 21

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT cano fecit... in tanto autem equus ille honore fuit, ut ei a populo Prasinianorum saepe modius aureorum postularetur. When he was present and seated with Marcus, he suffered many insults from the Blues because he had outrageously, as they maintained, taken sides against them. For he had a golden statue made of the Green horse Volucer, and this he always carried around with him… and he built him a tomb when he died, on the Vatican Hill… In such honor was this horse held, that often a whole peck of gold pieces was demanded for him by the faction of the Greens.24

The modern scholarly perception that green was foreign, exotic and effeminate seems at odds with the success of the Green chariot faction which had many fans, including the emperors Caligula and Nero. This suggests that the perception may be wrong. Martial describes the gouty Zoilus being fanned with a prasino flabello, which could suggest weakness and effeminacy; but the prasino flabello could also be a prop that showed his allegiance towards the Green team in a marked fashion.25 While the color-term prasinus is clearly linked to the chariot team faction, in one of Juvenal’s Satires he uses the term viridis for the Greens instead.26 This may explain an ambiguous passage in another of his Satires in which the color-term viridis is used for a green-colored garment. In Satire 5 the main character Virro, a boorish rich man, distributes a curious series of presents to the children of his impoverished client Trebius: a viridis thorax, nuts and an as, a small bronze coin: Sed tua nunc Mycale pariat licet et pueros tres in gremium patris fundat semel, ipse loquaci gaudebit nido, viridem thoraca iubebit adferri minimasque nuces assemque rogatum, ad mensam quotiens parasitus venerit infans. But as it is, if your Mycale gives birth to three boys into your paternal bosom, [Virro] will be charmed SHA, Verus, 6.2–6. Mart. 3.82.11. 26 Juv. 11.198. 24 25

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with the chattering brood, and will order a green thorax to be given them, and little nuts and small coins if asked for, when the little parasites present themselves at his table.27

Juvenal considers these gifts trivial and condescending; according to Marianne Hopman’s reading of the text, ‘the viridis thorax has unRoman and effeminate connotations akin to the description of patronage as a sexual perversion.’28 However, there may be several ways to look at the viridem thoraca. One possibility is that is was an oxidized metal thorax with rusty encrustations of verdigris, but this would be a strange and inappropriate gift; Trebius’ children would have no need for this worn-out display and grandeur. An alternative translation for viridem thoraca would be as a type of textile, not a piece of metal armor. The colored garment is given by a rich aristocrat to a poorer member of society, who would not know what to do with such a garish piece of clothing, and might find it insulting, incongruous, and socially useless. There is also a possible play on words, since Virro is giving a garment which is etymologically related to his name, suggesting manliness (vir), youth, and strength, although the thorax as a garment originating in Greece suggests the opposite of masculinity.29 Since it was a gift from an important man, and because any hue of green was expensive and not easy to produce, Trebius could not reject the questionable present. But there is another possible interpretation: if it was a trophy from the winning Green faction, then it would be an exceptional gift for anyone.

Juv. 5.141–145. Hopman (2003) 557. 29 Hopman (2003) 572, and 566–567: ‘the thorax seems to bear other connotations that make it a garment which is not only foreign but also effeminate… it is difficult to have a precise idea of what it actually was, since Lucilius and Suetonius are the only other Latin authors who use the word to designate a piece of clothing. However, their references suggest that it was quite unusual for a Roman male to wear a thorax.’ In Suet. Aug., 82.1 there are references to it as unmanly. 27 28

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THE BLUES The Green color team was consistently a winner, in contrast to its rival, the Blues. This team was associated with the durable blue garments that they wore. One inscription commemorates the Blue charioteer Hyla: HYLA AGITATOR PANNI VENETI — VIX ANN XXV.30 It is a rare instance in which the name of a charioteer is identified in an inscription. Martial derides the performance of a popular Blue charioteer: Vapulat adsidue veneti quadriga flagello Nec currit: magnam rem, Catiane, facis. The four-horse car of the Blue charioteer is repeatedly lashed on, and yet goes slow. You are doing a great feat, Catianus.31

Suetonius mentions the Blue team twice in his chapter on Vitellius: Adiutum putant T. Vinii suffragio, tunc potentissimi et cui iam pridem per communem factionis Venetae favorem conciliatus esset: Some think that it was due to Titus Vinius, who had great influence at the time, and whose friendship Vitellius had long since won through their common support of the Blues.32

The description of this emperor is not flattering, and Suetonius does not approve of his actions in a later episode: Quosdam et de plebe ob id ipsum, quod Venetae factioni clare male dixerant, interemit contemptu sui et nova spe id ausos opinatus. He even killed some of the common people, merely because they had openly spoken ill of the Blue faction.33

Vitellius’ alliance with the Blue team suggests that in addition to being a failure as emperor, he also followed the losing team.

30 CIL VI 37835. All the chariot teams are mentioned together in CIL VI 10048. 31 Mart. 6.46. 32 Suet. Vit., 7.1. 33 Suet. Vit., 14.3.

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THE REDS, WHITES AND OTHERS There are two color-terms associated with the Reds, russeus and russatus. These color terms are normally associated with brightcolored clothing, particularly cloaks and outer garments. As mentioned earlier, we are introduced to Trimalchio as he wears a tunica russea, which is possibly his version of the team jersey. In literature, the Reds and the Whites are mentioned only rarely, but inscriptions refer to them, such as a curse-tablet from a fanatical opponent of the Reds: Help me in the Circus on 8 November. Bind every limb, every sinew, the shoulders, the ankles and the elbows of Olympus, Olympianus, Scortius and Juvencus, the charioteers of the Red. Torment their minds, their intelligence and their senses so that they may not know what they are doing, and knock out their eyes so that they may not see where they are going— neither they nor the horses they are going to drive.34

Tertullian, as a Christian, disapproved of the games; he says that each team was allied with a pagan divine force. In particular, the Reds were allied with Mars: Talibus auctoribus quadrigae productae merito et aurigas coloribus idololatriae vestierunt. Namque initio duo soli fuerunt, albus et russeus. Albus hiemi ob nives candidas, russeus aestati ob solis ruborem voti erant. Sed postea tam voluptate quam superstitione provecta russeum alii Marti, alii album Zephyris consecraverunt, prasinum vero Terrae matri vel verno, venetum Caelo et Mari vel autumno. Such being the [pagan] inventors who produced them, the chariots very properly have their drivers clad in the colors of idolatry. For at first there were but two colors, white and red. White was sacred to winter, for the gleaming white of the snow, red to summer because of the sun’s redness: Afterwards as pleasure and superstition gained ground together, some dedicated the red to Mars, others the white to the Zephyrs, green

The Latin text of this curse tablet is corrupted; the English translation is taken from Harris (1972) 235–236. 34

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According to Suetonius, Domitian added two more factions, the gold and the purple, in the first century CE: Multa etiam in communi rerum usu novavit… duas circensibus gregum factiones aurati purpureique panni ad quattuor pristinas addidit. He made many innovations also in common customs… he added two factions of drivers in the Circus, with gold and purple, as their colors, to the four former ones.36

Purpureus was the color-term chosen for the purple faction; aureus was used for the gold faction and was a fairly standard term for describing any golden object, but the fact that the color-term was not yellow — flavus, fulvus, luteus, or croceus — suggests that there were royal overtones in the two terms that Domitian chose. Moreover yellow, with its feminine overtones, would not be suitable for the masculine chariot racers of the day.

EPILOGUE The chariot races continued on for many centuries, from the early Empire into the Byzantine period.37 Besides the literary references, visual evidence for the four teams exists in art: a mosaic from the fourth century CE in the Museo Nazionale in Rome shows the consul Junius Bassus in a chariot surrounded by charioteers of the four principal teams; charioteers from the Red and Green teams appear in mosaics in the Piazza Armerina in Sicily, the imperial baths at Trier in Germany, and at the Museum of Gallo-Roman Civilization in Lyons, France.38 Tertullian’s discussion of the chariot teams in Tert. De spec., 9. Suet. Dom., 7.1. 37 Cameron (1973) and (1976) 46–73. 38 By an interesting coincidence, the ball that the ‘Bikini girls’ in the Piazza Armerina mosaics are throwing around is red, blue, green and yellow, approaching gold. It is possible that the choice of colors reflects the chariot teams. The shield in the Hunt Scene of Piazza Armerina is also divided into the same colors; Dragotta (1989) 13–16. 35 36

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De Spectaculis is the only time when all the color-terms are mentioned in the same literary passage, which suggests much about the cultural environment of his time: unlike Suetonius, who does not need to mention all the teams because they were a well-known part of Roman culture, perhaps Tertullian discusses them by name to explain them to his Christian readers, emphasizing their pagan origins. But the passion of the fans continued unabated through the late Empire, as an inscription from Hadrumentum in North Africa attests: I call upon you, demon, whoever you are, and I charge you from this hour from this day, from this moment — torment and strike down the horses of the Green and White [factions]. Strike down the charioteers Clarus and Felix and Primulus and Romanus, and cause them to crash, and leave no life in them. I call upon you by the one who loosed you for periods of time, the god of sea and air. [Greek letters] IAO IASDAO OORIO AEIA.39

This wide variety of literary and inscribed sources attests to the popularity of the events associated with the teams, and the passionate emotions displayed by all social classes. The factional loyalty and competitiveness of the Roman people are reflected through this vivid display of leisure activity.

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ILS 8753; Lee (2000) 30–31; Harris (1972) 235.

CHAPTER SIX: COLOR PHYSIOGNOMY: YOU ARE WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE Nil nimium studeo, Caesar, tibi velle placere, nec scire utrum sis albus an ater homo. I have no great desire to try to please you, Caesar, Nor to know if you are a white or black man.1

When Catullus throws a barb at Julius Caesar, his first consideration is what ‘color’ Caesar is; despite Catullus’ feigned indifference, there is an implication that he is really talking about Caesar’s character. Early Roman historians such as Livy and Valerius Maximus do not discuss the physical appearance of historical figures, but Sallust includes a brief description of Catiline which is of interest: Igitur color ei exanguis, foedi oculi, citus modo modo tardus incessus; prorsus in facie voltuque vecordia inerat — ‘hence his pallid complexion, his bloodshot eyes, his gait now fast, now slow; in short, his face and his every glance showed the madman.’2 Sallust notes Catiline’s ‘color,’ his eyes and his face as indications of his true character. According to the physiognomic theorists of the Roman Empire, particularly Polemo of Laodicea, physical traits corresponded to moral and psychological characteristics.3 Since color-terminology is usual-

Catull., 93; see Cameron (1998) 116. Sall. Cat., 15.5. 3 The work of Polemo, which was originally in Latin, survives in a fourteenth-century Arabic translation, which was in turn translated into Latin in modern times (Scriptores Physiognomonici I); consequently it is not possible to determine what Polemo’s original color-terms were. See Swain (2007); on colors in Polemo’s text, see Elsner (2007) 218–224. For a new 1 2

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ly not considered part of an ancient historian’s rubric, it is especially interesting when a passage in a history text includes a detailed description, in which color often plays a prominent role. The emperors, as the rulers, receive the most attention. Ordinary individuals receive little attention, unless they have distinguishing traits that a historian wishes to emphasize; women receive hardly any attention at all. Poets, however, devote much attention to descriptions of women, indicating their preferences for particular types of complexion and hair color. Finally, Roman authors such as Tacitus, Pliny the Elder and Martial describe non-Romans, such as the Gauls and Britons, with characteristic — indeed, stereotyped — color-terms.

DESCRIPTIONS OF EMPERORS Suetonius, adhering to the physiognomic handbooks precisely, uses color to describe the hair, eyes and complexion of eight of the twelve Caesars. Pliny the Elder also subscribed to the notions of physiognomy in his Historia Naturalis, devoting particular attention in his work to the description and interpretation of eyes. Suetonius is the first writer to draw links between the emperors’ appearance and their deeds. He begins with Julius Caesar, whose description consists of five attributes: Fuisse traditur excelsa statura, colore candido, teretibus membris, ore paulo pleniore, nigris vegetisque oculis, valitudine prospera He is said to have been tall in stature, with a fair complexion, smooth limbs that were in proportion, a somewhat full face, and keen black eyes, with favorable health.4

Julius Caesar’s color is emphasized because it would indicate his overall health. His complexion is shining white, candido, his black eyes are vegetis, indicating sharpness and alertness. His complexion and eyes are traits that would make him a respected orator and leader. English translation of the Leiden MS. of Polemo’s Physiognomy, see Hoyland (2007). 4 Suet. Iul., 45.1.

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Suetonius’ description of Augustus is lengthier and incorporates more elements. It may appear that he had more sources to consult, but also that this emperor captured more of his interest. There are twelve characteristics related to his physical appearance: his body, which remained handsome all his life (forma fuit eximia et per omnes aetatis gradus venustissima); his hair and beard (barba), which he was careless about; his mild and serene expression (vultu… adeo tranquillo serenoque), his bright shining eyes (oculos habuit claro ac nitidos), his wide, ill-cared-for teeth (dentes raros et exiguos et scabros); his curly golden hair (capillum leviter inflexum et subflavum); his joined brow (supercilium coniuncta); his medium-sized ears (mediocres aures); his bent nose (nasum et a summon eminentiorem et ab imo deductiorem); his complexion, between dark and fair (colorem inter aquilum candidumque); his short stature (staturam brevem), though his limbs were wellproportioned (sed quae commoditate et aequitate membrorum); and his body (corpore) covered in birthmarks that resembled the constellation of the Great Bear. 5 An unusual color-term, subflavum, or ‘diminished yellow,’ is used in the description of his hair, suggesting that Augustus’ hair was not as bright as it had been and may have grayed.6 Suetonius recognizes the importance of Augustus’ eyes: according to the pseudo-Aristotelian school, bright eyes were a good sign of an emperor’s leadership. Pliny also discusses the traits of the divine Augustus, focusing on his eyes: Divo Augusto equorum modo glauci fuere, superque hominem albicantis magnitudinis, quam ob causam diligentius spectari eos iracunde ferebat.

Suet. Aug., 79–80. On subflavum and other color-terms beginning with sub- see André (1949) 224–225. Reconstructions of the Prima Porta sculpture show Augustus with reddish-brown hair; this feature came as a shock to art historians and classicists, because they had come to identify Augustus as blond, but perhaps this color was the only one available to the painter; Bankel and Liverani (2004) fig. 107, 115; Panzanelli (2008) Pl. 10. 5 6

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT The Divine Augustus had gray eyes like those of horses and the whites were larger than in average men. For this reason he would get angry if people observed his eyes too attentively.7

Gray eyes are an ancient trope for descriptions of gods and goddesses, following Greek precedents.8 Augustus’ eyes, his hair, and his good proportions are similar to the physiognomists’ description of a lion.9 Suetonius and Pliny describe Augustus as a hero. Suetonius’ physical description of Tiberius is less positive than that of Augustus, though it includes positive qualities: his body was large and strong (corpore fuit amplo atque robusto); he was tall (statura quae iustam excederet); he was broad in shoulders and chest, and otherwise well-proportioned (latus ab umeris et pectore, ceteris quoque membris usque ad imos pedes aequalis et congruens); his face was handsome (facie honesta), though pimply.10 Suetonius describes his complexion as colore erat candido — a bright white, which could mean health, but according to some physiognomists, might suggest fearfulness.11 His eyes are described in depth: Cum praegrandibus oculis et qui quod mirum esset, noctu etiam et in tenebris viderent. His eyes were unusually large, and, strange to say, had the power of seeing even at night and in the dark.12

In his History of Animals, Aristotle says that greenish eyes are the sharpest; perhaps one might conclude that Tiberius had green eyes?13 But according to the physiognomists, such sharp eyes could Plin. HN, 11.54.143. This is a trope that follows the standard Greek description of Athena as gray-eyed: γλαυκῶπις Άθηνα. 9 Evans (1969) 54; Sassi (2001) 47 says ‘the lion represents the power of the male in its most complete form.’ [Aristot.] Physiogn. 809b14–35 et al. On the authorship of the Physiognomonica, attributed to Aristotle, see Vogt (1999) 192–197. 10 Suet. Tib., 68. 11 Suet. Tib., 68.2; André (1949) 37–38; Evans (1969) 55; [Aristot.] Physiogn. 812a. 12 Suet. Tib., 68.2. 13 Aristot. Hist. Anim. 1.10 (492a4). 7 8

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denote tendencies either to laziness or to injustice. Furthermore, he walked with his neck stiff and bent forward (incedebat ceruice rigida et obstipa), suggesting haughtiness.14 Suetonius’ analysis of Caligula is associated with his weaknesses as a ruler. His description consists of seven physical traits easily translated into physiognomic coordinates: tall stature (statura fuit eminenti), very pale complexion (colore expallido), ungainly body (corpore enormi), thin neck and legs (gracilitate maxima cervicis et crurum), hollow eyes and temples (oculis et temporibus concavis), broad and grim forehead (fronte lata et torva), thin hair and bald on top (capillo raro et circa verticem nullo) and intimidating facial expression (vultum vero natura horridum ac taetrum).15 Suetonius says that mentioning a goat in Caligula’s presence was a capital crime. The entire description may be compared with the physiognomic qualities of goats or panthers, inferences that were encouraged by the pseudo-Aristotelian school.16 Pliny adds that Caligula had staring eyes — Gaio principi rigentes.17 Here is Seneca’s description: Tanta illi palloris insaniam testantis foeditas erat, tanta oculorum sub fronte aiuli latentium torvitas, tanta capitis destituti et emendicaticiis capillis aspersi deformitas; adice obsessam saetis cervicem et exilitate crurum et enormitatem pedum. Such was the ugliness of his pale face bespeaking his madness, such the wildness of his eyes lurking beneath the brow of an old hag; such the hideousness of his bald head with its sprinkling of beggarly hairs; he had, besides, a neck overgrown with bristles, spindle shanks, and enormous feet.18

Evans (1969) 56; [Aristot.] Physiogn. 807b, 811b. Suet. Calig., 50.1. 16 [Aristot.] Physiogn. 809b35; Polemo 2 (Scriptores Physiognomonici, I, 172) and Hoyland (2007) 385; Evans (1969) 54–55; Sassi (2001) 47–48. According to Varner (2000) 96: ‘Caligula’s small eyes and bodily appearance are characteristic of panthers, known for being thieving and deceitful, as well as goats, who were sensual.’ 17 Plin. HN, 11.54.144. 18 Sen. De Constantia, 18.1. Compare Sallust’s description of Catiline’s pallor and madness. 14 15

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All the descriptions of Caligula are similar, except Seneca adds more details: his wild eyes and pale complexion are interpreted as symptoms of madness. The description of Claudius in Suetonius’ Lives is nearly as negative as his description of Caligula. Suetonius lists his physiognomic attributes as follows: tall but not slender in body (et prolixo nec exili corpore erat), attractive face and white hair (specie canitieque pulchra), full neck (opimis cervicibus); but weak knees (poplites minus firmi), runny nose (umentibus naribus), stuttering tongue (linguae titubantia) and shaking head, especially when he made any sort of exertion (caputque cum semper tum in quantulocumque actu vel maxime tremulum).19 For the first time in a description of a Caesar, the eyes are not specifically mentioned, but Pliny provides a description of Claudius’ eyes: ab angulis candore carnoso sanguineis venis subinde suffusi — ‘bright but frequently bloodshot and had a fleshy gleam at the corners,’ which amplifies the negative impression of the emperor. 20 The description of Nero lists nine physical attributes that correspond to the physigonomic inventory: average height (statura prope iusta), body spotted and stinking (corpore maculoso et fetido), blondish hair (subflavo capillo), face handsome, but not beautiful (vultu pulchro magis quam venusto), dim blue eyes (oculis caesis et hebetioribus), thick neck (cervice obesa), projecting belly (ventre proiecto), thin legs (gracillimis cruribus) and fortunate good health (valitudine prospera).21 Nero’s hair was a grayish blond, and his eyes were blue (oculis caesis), a description which also fits the appearance of the god Helios, who is regularly shown with blond curls and light blue eyes in mosaics and painting.22 Caesis, meaning gray or light blue, is a word that was usually reserved for the description of gods — or animals, such as Catullus’ imaginary lion: solus in Libya Indiaque tosta / caesio veniam Suet. Claud., 30. Plin. HN, 11.54.144. 21 Suet. Ner., 51. 22 In a mosaic discovered in the mausoleum of Julius, beneath St. Peter’s in Rome, Sol Invictus (or Helios) is seen riding in a sun chariot, crowned by a halo with seven rays. As late the sixth century CE the Galilean synagogue of Hammath Tiberias also featured a blond and blue-eyed Helios riding a quadriga. 19 20

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obvius leoni — ‘may I, in Libya or sunburnt India, meet a blue-eyed lion alone.’23 Possibly following Suetonius, later writers use the phrase oculis caesiis as a trope, as Ammianus Marcellius applies it to Emperors Jovian and Valentinian.24 While Nero has Augustus’ hair color and god- or lion-like blue eyes, Suetonius does not describe him as a hero; there are several faults which Suetonius lists, revealing that Nero was not fit to be a ruler. Moreover, according to the pseudo-Aristotelian text On Physiognomy, weak eyes (hebetioisus) are a sign of orderliness yet cowardice.25 Suetonius’s description of Galba is brief but formulaic: average height (statura fuit iusta), very bald (capite praecalvo), blue eyes (oculis caerulis), hooked nose (adunco naso), hands and feet distorted by gout (manibus pedibusque articulari morbo distortissimus), with a fleshy growth on his right side (excreverat etiam in dexteriore latere).26 It is interesting to note that he uses the word caerulis here, instead of caesis, to indicate blue eyes; the difference between the color-terms caesis and caerulis may be significant, as they do not have a similar root. 27 Caeruleus is usually used for landscape, as in Catullus’ address to Venus born from the blue sea: Nunc, o caeruleo creata ponto, quae sanctum Idalium, Uriosque apertos quaeque Ancona Cnidumque harundinosam…

Catull., 45.6–7. Amm. Marc. 25.10.14; 30.9.6. As we have seen in Chapter One, Fronto in Aulus Gellius’ NA 2.26 equates caesia with gray, not blue. Either way it would mean a light eye color. Cicero uses the term caesios oculos to describe the goddess Minerva’s eyes, Nat.D.1.83. 25 [Aristot.] Physiogn., 807b, 808a. 26 Suet. Galb., 21. 27 André (1949) 164–166 (caeruleus); 178–180 (caesius, used only for the color of eyes). In Gellius’ NA 2.26, Favorinus quotes Ennius using caeruleus to describe the sea; Cicero uses caeruleos to describe the eyes of Neptune, Nat.D.1.83. 23 24

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This color-term is not regularly used for eyes; it is interesting that Suetonius employs it for Galba, but not for Nero. Perhaps Suetonius thinks Galba was more attractive in appearance than Nero, but according to Polemo, still blue eyes indicate that ‘their owner is remote from women, remote from blessings, and very desirous in hoarding money.’29 The last of Suetonius’ Caesars who has a detailed description with color-terms is Domitian: Statura fuit procera, vultu modesto ruborisque pleno, grandibus oculis, verum acie hebetiore. He was tall of stature, with a modest expression and ruddy complexion, his eyes were large but his sight was somewhat dim.30

Once again this is a negative description: people with red faces in Rome were thought to be subject to fits, anger, rage and other unbalanced tendencies; they were also assumed to be shameless and rude.31 Furthermore the dim eyesight suggested cowardice. Suetonius goes on that Domitian was handsome as a young man, but as emperor he was bald, with a protruding belly and spindly legs. Tacitus repeats the part about the red face: saevus ille vultus et rubor, quo se contra pudorem muniebat — ‘that crimson face, which flushed continually lest shame should unawares surprise it.’32 Pliny the Younger agrees: superbia in fronte, ira in oculis, femineus pallor in corpore, in ore impudentia multo rubore suffusa — ‘he had arrogance on his brow and fury in his eye, a womanish pallor spread over his body but a deep Catull. 36.11–13. Polemo, Scriptores Physiognomonici I, 112; Hoyland (2007) 345. 30 Suet. Dom., 18.1. 31 [Aristot.] 812a; Helmbold (1950) 388–389. The association of red faces with rage is discussed more fully in the section about ordinary men below. 32 Tac. Agr., 45. 28 29

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flush to match the shameless expression on his face.’33 Domitian was not a person to be trusted or respected. Descriptions of the later emperors in the Scriptores Historiae Augustae also include physical descriptions with distinct colorterms. While there is debate over the authorship of the SHA, the authors’ attitudes towards these emperors is considerably more positive than that of other historians. Their purpose is clearly to glorify the emperors, with particular attention to their crowning glory, their hair. The emperor Verus is described in the usual manner, listing corpore, vultu, barba, fronte; but the most attention is given to the pride that he felt for his yellow hair (flaventium capillorum) and to his practice of sprinkling his hair with gold dust to make it even more brilliant — quo magis coma inluminata flavesceret. 34 Commodus is described as doing this as well, in his case contributing to a very negative impression: Fuit forma quidem corporis iusta, vultu insubido, ut ebriosi solent, et sermone incondito, capillo semper fucato et auri ramentis inluminato, adurens comam et barbam timore tonsoris. Physically he was very well proportioned. His expression was dull, as is usual in drunkards, and his speech uncultivated. His hair was always dyed and made lustrous by the use of gold dust, and he used to singe his hair and beard because he was afraid of barbers.35

Herodian describes Commodus in a Greek source in a more positive fashion. He says that the young Commodus’s hair was naturally blond and curly, and some thought that he sprinkled his hair with gold dust before appearing in public, while others thought his hair looked like a divine halo.36 In order to achieve the otherworldly appearance necessary to look like Helios, the historian reveals the process by which he achieved this appearance through artificial means; previous emperors did not rely on these cosmetics to look Plin. Pan., 48.4. SHA, Verus, 10.7. 35 SHA, Comm., 17.3. 36 Herodian, 1.7.5. 33 34

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their best. The authors of these texts do not regard Verus and Commodus as unsuccessful leaders, but they reflect a changing opinion towards the office of the emperor and its increased distance from ordinary humanity. Other emperors follow in similar fashion. Gallienus was also known to sprinkle gold dust into his hair — crinibus suis auri scobem aspersit.37 According to SHA, he did so for a slightly different reason, to look like the barbarians: dilexit Piparam nomine barbaram regis filiam quare Gallienus cum suis semper flavo crinem condit — ‘he loved a barbarian girl named Pipara who was the daughter of a king; and for this reason, Gallienus, along with his followers, always dyed his hair yellow.’38 The description of Septimius Severus, in contrast, shows his prominent white hair: ipse decorus, ingens, promissa barba, cano capite et crispo, vultu reverendus — ‘in person he was large and handsome; his beard was long; his hair was white and curly, his face was such as to inspire respect.’ 39 Here is an entirely different manner of inspiring respect: the approach that Severus took required little maintenance. The description of Antoninus Diadumenianus lists the usual traits: tall stature (statura longiuscula), golden hair (crine flavo), black eyes (nigris oculis), aquiline nose (naso deducto), attractive chin (mento), ‘mouth designed for a kiss’ (ore ad oscula parato), his overall health strong and graceful (fortis naturaliter, exercitio delicatior). Then the description turns to a deity-like image: he was radiant as a being from the stars — quasi sidereus et caelestis emicuit.40 Even though Antoninus began his rule as a young boy, he was required, like other emperors, to take on a god-like image, with golden hair and all the trappings of a code for divine beauty. The black eyes, like those of Julius Caesar, suggest an otherworldly intelligence as well. Gordian I, who reigned only thirty-six days, is described according to the usual list of characteristics (longitudine, facie bene lata, oculis, ore, fronte verendus, corporis subcrassulus). But the most striking of these traits was his face (vultu) that was characterized as being more SHA, Gallieni Duo, 16.4. Ibid., 21.3. 39 SHA, Septimius Severus, 19.9. 40 SHA, Diadumenus Antoninus, 3.2–3. 37 38

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red than white (ruber magis quam candidus).41 He does not have the requisite god-like appearance and he was not willing to enhance it with hair color or makeup. There seems to be an implied correlation between the length of his reign and his ugly appearance. These passages show how often Roman writers equated good looks with good rulership.

DESCRIPTIONS OF ORDINARY MEN Besides emperors and members of the aristocratic circle, Suetonius was fond of writing about the writers who shaped Latin literature, including Publius Terentius Afer and Publius Vergilius Maro, both of whom he described in a pattern similar to the one he used for the emperors, showing that this was a standard trope in the descriptions of men; the appearance of these authors must have been widely known by the time Suetonius was publishing his work. In his description of Terence, he comments on his height, weight and skin complexion: fuisse dicitur mediocri statura, gracil corpore, colore fusco — ‘he is said to have been of moderate height, slender and of dark complexion.’42 Ordinarily the color-term fusco is reserved for people not native to Rome, appropriately in this case, because Terence was born in Carthage. Vergil, too, is described with attention to his body type, his height and complexion color — corpore et statura fuit grandi, aquilo colore, facie rusticana, valentudine varia.43 Aquilo, meaning swarthy, is also a color-term usually reserved for non-Romans, but in this case it probably applies to his country background in Mantua. Neither of these descriptions of respected authors carries negative connotations, but it is notable that these characteristics would not be guessed from their portrait busts or their writings. Faults in ordinary people are described at length in public declamations and speeches. Cicero and Quintilian point out all sorts of faults in people in their invectives and guides to rhetoric. The Romans viewed physical peculiarities as marks of deviation from the pure and natural state, and extended them further to suggest that individuals were responsible for their own deformities. Catullus SHA, Gordiani Tres, 6.1–2. Suet. Terence, 4. 43 Suet. Vergil, 8. 41 42

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remarks negatively on the gleaming white teeth of Egnatius, which he allegedly cleans in urine, saying that his endless smiling on all occasions is improper, and probably false — Egnatius, quod candidos habet dentes, / renidet usquequaque.44 It appears from the extant literature that good-looking people were regarded as good-willed and well accepted, while those who were perceived as ugly and deformed were considered wicked. With this in mind, Catullus implies that people such as Egnatius tried to deceive others by enhancing their appearance. He suggests that Roman society needed to recognize that good looks were not necessarily a sign of good character. The protagonist of Apuleius’ The Golden Ass, Lucius, is described with attributes corresponding to the desirable physiognomic traits of the second century CE. Lucius’ aunt Byrrhena comments how much he resembles his mother: he is well-proportioned, slim, has a ruddy complexion (rubor temperatus) and naturally golden hair (flavum et inaffectatum capillitium), sparkling blue eyes like those of an eagle (oculi caesii quidem, sed vigils et in aspectu micantes, prorsus aquilini), a face blooming with beauty in every direction (os quoquoversum floridum, speciosus et immeditatus incessus).45 The overall positive description of Lucius is somewhat deceiving, because he is insatiably curious and wants to experiment with magic, only to end up transformed into an ass. Apuleius’ careful placement of the color-terms suggests how important it is to cast Lucius as a hero: first his countenance is described, his hair, then his eyes. The organization and placement of the physiognomic attributes, as well as the combination of the color-terms, should alert Apuleius’ readers, because Lucius may be attractive with his blond hair and blue eyes, but the placement of rubor as the first attribute suggests more about his inner traits: being impetuous and having an overwhelming curiosity to meddle with magic.

44 Catull. 39.1–2; Small (1982). Compare Martial 5.43 and his description of women with white and black teeth in the section on women below. 45 Apul. Met., 2.2.

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Rubor, meaning ruddy or blushing, is often a negative characteristic in Roman literature.46 Perhaps the act of blushing was not considered appropriate for a leader or orator. The word rubor is consistent for all descriptions of a red face, in every context: Martial describes his book as being so proper that even Germanicus could read it without blushing (ore non rubenti) in front of a virgin goddess.47 Those who were perpetually red-faced were perceived as being untrustworthy or mad. According to the pseudo-Aristotle, ‘too ruddy a hue marks a rogue, as in the case of the fox... a red hue indicates hastiness. A flaming skin denotes mania.’48 Polemo declares: ‘if the color of the face is red to the exclusion of the rest of the body, judge for its owner lack of modesty. If only the cheeks are red, it indicates love of drunkenness and greed.’49 In his treatise De Ira, Seneca claims that fair-haired and red-faced people are naturally hot tempered (iracundissmi sint flavi rubentesque) because they have restless and agitated blood (mobilis enim illis agitatusque sanguis est).50 He compares the physical traits of an angry man to one who is insane: his face is red with the blood that comes from the lowest depths of his heart (multus ore toto rubor exaestuante ab imis praecordiis sanguine), his lips quiver, his teeth are clenched, his hair stands on end, his breathing is harsh and he can barely articulate his speech.51 When describing a part of the body or insulting someone, Roman writers employed certain shades of red such as rufus, rutilus and ru46 According to Sassi (2001) 52: ‘The color associated with shameless and impudence, but also with passion and irascibility, is red. A shameless man is incapable of blushing (today we might call him “brazen-faced”), unlike the modest man, while passionate and angry men have a permanently heated look about them, typical of bouts of anger and other violent emotions.’ [Aristot.] Physiogn. 807b33 et al. 47 Mart. 5.2.6. 48 [Aristot.] 812a; Helmbold (1950) 389. 49 Polemo 38 (Scriptores Physiognomonici, I, 246); Hoyland (2007) 429. According to Helmbold (1950) 389, there were two schools of physiognomic interpretation of a permanently red face; one school associated such faces with ‘shyness or alcoholism, the other considered them to be crafty, sly and cruel.’ 50 Sen. De Ira, 2.19.5; Laughton (1948) 110–111. 51 Sen. De Ira, 1.1.4.

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bidus, but not other red color-terms like coccinus, cerasinus, russeus and russatus. Insults had their own shades of meaning and had to conform to the strict rules for physiognomy. Two more examples, in Greek, appear in Plutarch’s Lives, showing how authors of the day tried to capture a man’s inner character by describing the more noticeable features of his appearance. In his Life of Cato Maior, Plutarch describes Cato as having reddish hair (ὑπόπυρρος) and gray eyes (γλαυκός); he describes Cato as trying to gain entrance into the underworld, but with his red hair, defiant manner and gray eyes — πυρρόν, πανδακέτην, γλαυκόμματον — he will be thrown back.52 There is a similar attention to physical detail in his Life of Sulla; the general who besieged Athens is described with violent gray eyes (ὀμμάτων γλαυκότητα δεινῶς) and an equally violent complexion with a mixture of red and white patches on his skin (ἐξήνθει γὰρ τὸ ἐρύθημα τραχὺ καὶ σποράδην καταμεμιγμένον τῇ λευκότητι) so that he was mocked with the phrase ‘Sulla is a mulberry sprinkled over with meal.’53 Sulla’s appearance was one that inspired fear and contempt in the Athenians. Throughout their history Romans used cognomina to label individuals with physical deformities: Strabo — ‘Squinty-eyed,’ Naso — ‘the Nose,’ Plautus — ‘Bigfoot,’ Cicero — ‘Chick-pea,’ and Varro — ‘Knock-kneed.’54 ‘Rufus,’ a common name which means ‘Red,’ was often used for slaves.55 There is no consistent reason as to why the person received the name — either he had red hair, or his complexion was that shade, or he had a distinguishing birthmark or a red beard. Catullus describes an unnamed man whom he does not like: Plut. Vit. Cat. Mai.,1.3. Plut., Vit. Sull., 2.1. 54 Plutarch says in Coriol. 11.4: ‘Moreover from their bodily features they not only bestow such surnames as Sulla [blotches], Niger [black], Rufus [red], but also such as Caecus [blind] and Claudius [lame].’ On cognomina generally, see Corbeill (1996) 74–98. 55 There are many inscriptions citing the slave name Rufus or Rufio: CIL I 728, I 737, I 1032, I 1068, II 440, II 4970, IV 1847, VI 4632, VI 6514, IX 597, IX 6700, X 1216. The nomen Rufreius also appears as a slave name: CIL X 5817. 52 53

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Praeterea addebat quendam, quem dicere nolo nomine, ne tollat rubra supercilia. She added besides one whom I do not choose to mention by name, lest he should arch his red brows.56

Rufa, moreover, was a common female slave name, a fact that further indicates the ancient association between red hair and foreign descent, condemning those with unusual traits.57 In this respect color-terms have the ability to create a language about origins of nationality and social attitudes about identity. In The Captives, Plautus makes use of the color-term subrufus for a description of Philocrates, a foreign and not well respected man: HEG. Sed qua faciest tuos sodalis Philocrates? ARIST. Dicam tibi: macilento ore, naso acuto, corpore albo, oculis nigris, subrufus aliquantum, crispus, cincinnatus. HEG. Convenit. HEG: But what does your friend Philocrates look like? ARIST. I’ll tell you: thin face, sharp nose, complexion fair. Black eyes, hair a little reddish, waving, and curled. HEG: That fits!58

He is described with curly reddish hair, which makes him an easy target for barbs; in short, he comes across as a buffoon. In another example from Plautus’ Pseudolus the same concept is featured: BAL. eho tu, qua facie fuit dudum quoi dedisti symbolum? HAR. Rufus quidam, ventriosus, crassis suris, subniger, magno capite, acutis oculis, ore rubicundo, admodum magnis pedibus. BAL. What did he look like, that fellow you gave the token to some time ago?

Catull., 67.45–46. There are number of inscriptions that mention the slave name Rufa: CIL I 1034, I 1094, I 1102, I 1242, I 1260; VI 3927; IX 3527. 58 Plaut. Capt., 646–648. 56 57

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Plautus once again draws upon these negative features — red hair, red face, dark complexion — which taken together present a standard trope for a Roman comic character. Julius Pollux, a rhetorician of the time of Commodus, catalogues all types of theatrical masks from the New Comedy in his Onomastikon. In this catalogue he lists three types of comic male slaves, all of them red-haired. One is even described as having hair as red as his skin: εἰσὶ δὲ πυρραὶ ὥσπερ καὶ τὸ χρῶμα.60 Pollux shows that certain color-terms were associated with characters in comedy as late as the second century CE. In his oration Pro Sestio, Cicero belittles and mocks Numerius Quintus Rufus, emphasizing his cognomen, rather than addressing him with his nomen or family name. Cicero belittles Rufus by comparing him to a nitedula, a red (rufus) field mouse, trying to nibble a piece out of the republic. An ancient scholiast on this passage recognized the significance of Rufus’ mouse-like qualities: quod esset non tantum statura depressus, verum etiam colore rubidus, nitedulam nominavit — ‘he called him nitedula because he was not only short in stature, but red in color.’61 Cicero marks him as an opponent because he is of foreign descent and does not have the true Roman values of dignitas, urbanitas, and virtutis. Rather this man is a little rat determined to upset the Roman state. By contrast in the Pro Caelio, where Cicero defends his friend Marcus Caelius Rufus, he never refers to him as Rufus, once again suggesting that the cognomen had negative connotations.62 Arguing for the defense in the Pro Milone, Cicero uses the name Rufio to represent a hypothetical slave, whose testimony

Plaut. Pseudo., 1217–1220. Poll. Onomast. 4.149; Wiles (1991) 76, 165. Compare Saunders (1966) 102–103. 61 Cic. Pro Sest. 33.72; Scol. Bob. 134.28–29; Corbeill (1996) 86–87; he suggests that the cognomen Rufus ‘is likely to have originated as a label for a red-haired non-Roman.’ 62 Cic. Pro Cae., passim. 59 60

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could not be trusted. By Cicero’s time a name like Rufus or Rufio was a slight on one’s identity.63 Red was not the only sign of bad temper. In Plautus’ Menaechmi, written in the second century BCE, the wife exclaims that her husband must be mad because of the ‘greenness’ of his complexion: Viden tu illi oculos virere? Ut viridis exoritur colos ex temporibus atque fronte, ut oculi scintillant, vide. Can you see how his eyes are turning green? How a green color Is arising from his temples and his forehead; how his eyes glisten, look!64

Perhaps this was an earlier way of describing anger.65 Descriptions of men with white hair are usually more dignified, but not always. Vergil describes the supremely white beard and hair of an ancient king of Rome: Nosco crinis incanaque menta regis Romani, primam qui legibus urbem fundabit, Curibus parvis et paupere terra missus in imperium magnum. I know the locks and hoary chin of that king of Rome, who shall base the infant city on his laws from the poor land of lowly Cures called to sovereign might.66

Scholars suggest that canus is exclusively a color-term to describe white or gray hair, specifically human hair, not animal fur: the prefix in- serves as an intensifier.67 Another example appears in Pliny

Cic. Pro Mil. 60. Plaut. Menach., 828–829. 65 Harris (2001) 201–228 delves into the subject of anger in Roman literature, though he does not deal with colors. 66 Verg. Aen., 6.809–812. 67 Edgeworth (1992) 119. 63 64

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the Younger’s description of Euphrates in his Letter to Attius Clemens: Ad hoc proceritas corporis, decora facies, demissus capillus, ingens et cana barba. His outward appearance is agreeable to all the rest: he has a tall figure, a comely aspect, long hair, and a large white beard.68

In Plautus’ Rudens, however, the character Plesidippus asks Daemones Senex to describe the odd fellow that he has seen. This description is ridiculous and hints at his extravagant nature, with wild curly white hair: PLES: Dic quod te rogo, ecquem tu hic hominem crispum, incanum videris, malum, periurum, palpatorem — DAEM: Plurimos, nam ego propter eius modi viros vivo miser. PLES: Tell me what I ask you, whether you’ve seen anybody here with curly white hair a wrongdoer, perjurer, con man — DAEM: A lot. It’s because of such men that I live so wretchedly.69

Plautus’ comedies present a generally negative view of old age, as in the flirtatious exchange between the slave-woman Sophoclidisca and the boy Paegnium in his Persa: PAE: Temperi hanc vigilare oportet formulam atque aetatulam, ne, ubi versicapillus fias, foede semper servias. PAE: This youthful beauty needs to be on its guard early, so that you won’t disgracefully be a slave forever when your hair changes color.70

Plin. Ep., 1.10. Plaut. Rud., 124–127. 70 Plaut. Per., 229–230. 68 69

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Plautus is the only writer who employs the term versicapillus, which means hair that is changing color — hair that is turning gray. His views about old age, which are common in comedy, emerge from his plot, suggesting that old age was not pleasant and that a youthful appearance was valued. In Petronius’ Satyricon, the narrator meets Eumolpus, a white-haired poet, in a picture gallery: intravit pinacothecam senex canus, exercitati vultus et qui videretur nescio quid magnum promittere — ‘his face was troubled, but there seemed to be the promise of some great thing about him.’71 Other writers only use the word senex to denote an old man; apparently Eumolpus still has an abundance of white hair on his head. As a comic character, he could be a counterpart to Trimalchio, who is described as bald (senem calvum), but may be of comparable age. Yet another view of old age appears in The Satyricon as Trimalchio and his guest Phileros describe Chrysanthus, a recently deceased friend: septuagenta et supra, sed corneolus fuit, aetatem bene ferebat, niger tamquam corvus — ‘seventy and more, but he was a tough old thing, carried his age well, as black as a crow.’72 The passage could simply mean that Chrysanthus’ hair was still black, but here Petronius contradicts the physiognomic theory that people with good character are white or shining-bright, while a person of bad character is described as black or dark.73 Vergil’s description of old age is the most unusual, describing the old age of a god, Charon, the boatman of the underworld: Ipse ratem conto subigit velisque ministrat et ferruginea subvectat corpora cumba, iam senior, sed cruda deo viridisque senectus. Unaided, he poles the boat, tends the sails, and in his rust-colored craft brings the dead; now aged, but a god’s old age is hardy and green.74

Petron. Sat. 83. Petron. Sat., 43. 73 [Aristot.] Physiogn. 806b10, 811a25. 74 Verg. Aen., 6.302–304. 71 72

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Contrary to the association in English of green with inexperience and even foreignness (‘greenhorn’), the Roman perception of green included positive associations relating to nature, being fresh and vibrant, and these connotations carry over into perceptions of people; Vergil says that the older a god was, the more vital and bursting with green energy he appeared.

DESCRIPTIONS OF WOMEN In Latin literature, physical descriptions of individual women are rare. Cassius Dio, writing in Greek, provides the only description of Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni who rebelled against Rome, using a physiognomic trope very similar to the descriptions of male rulers. Boudicca is described as tall in stature (τὸ σῶμα μεγίστη), intimidating in appearance (τὸ εἶδος βλοσυρωτάτη τό τε βλέμμα δριμυτάτη), with fierce eyes (καὶ τὸ φθέγμα τραχὺ εἶχε), tawny hair (τήν τε κόμην πλείστην τε καὶ ξανθοτάτην οὖσαν), and harsh voice (μέχρι τῶν γλουτῶν καθεῖτο); she wore a gold necklace and a multicolored tunic (ά χρ ἐό, χιτῶνά τε παμποίκιλον ἐνεκεκόλπωτο).75 For a frightening foreign ruler, she is given a surprisingly favorable physiognomic description: she appears just like a lion, with tawny hair. In the Scriptores Historia Augustae, there is a description of Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, which also follows the physiognomic principles: face somewhat swarthy (vultu subaquilo), dark coloring (fusci coloris), powerful black eyes (oculis supra modum vigentibus nigris), a divine spirit (spiritus divini), incredible seductiveness (venustatis incredibilis), and teeth as white as pearls (tantus candor in dentibus, ut margaritas eam plerique putarent habere, non dentes).76 She has many impressive attributes, including black eyes like Julius Caesar’s, white teeth, a clear voice indicating a good orator and leader, severe at some times and at other times merciful when it was appropriate. The color-terms subaquilo and fusci as used in this portrait diminish an overall pleasing description, while also emphasizing her foreignness.

75 76

Dio Cass. 62.2.3–4. SHA, Tyr. Trig., 30.15.

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Descriptions of Roman women are generally far less detailed, and tend to focus on their hair. Pliny describes Poppaea, the wife of Nero, a rare instance of a physical description of an imperial woman in ancient literature. It is not a complete physiognomic description because it is entirely confined to her hair, which Nero referred to as sucini, or amber-colored. Pliny says that from that time on, Roman women were eager to adopt this hair color. 77 The fact that Roman women are not included in the typical physiognomic handbook descriptions suggests that it was not considered appropriate to describe Roman matrons in this fashion.78 The elegiac poets, however, have a fascination with their object of desire, usually in the form of a blonde girlfriend. Propertius provides a vivid and luscious description of his beloved Cynthia, highlighting her golden-brown hair: Fulva coma est longaeque manus, et maxima toto corpore, et incedit vel Iove digna soror... Tawny is her hair and tapering her hands, tall and full Her figure, and stately her walk, worthy the sister of Jove...79

Propertius’ vocabulary is unusual for his genre, as he uses the color-term fulva. Other authors use flava, and each of the women that they extol is marked with this color-term trope. Horace asks for whom Pyrrha ties back her yellow hair in simple elegance — cui flavam religas comam / simplex munditiis?80 Pyrrha’s name is based on the Greek color-term πύρρος, which means red. It suggests that she is the embodiment of a red flame; but significantly, her hair is yelPlin. HN, 37.34.50. Earlier this coloring was evidently not admired in women: a character in Terence, HT 1061–1062, says he can’t love a girl with red hair and blue eyes: rufamne illam virginem / caesiam, sparso ore, adunco naso. See Holford-Strevens (1971) 320. 78 Bartman (1999) 26; on public sculptures of Roman women, see Bartman (1999) 62–64. 79 Prop. 2.2.5–6. He uses the phrase fulva coma rather than flava coma. Both Vergil and Ovid use the term fulvus for the hair of men (Aen., 10.562, 11.642; Met. 12.273; Pont. 3.2.74). 80 Hor., Carm., 1.5.4. Horace also describes Ganymede using the same color-term: Ganymede flavo, Hor., Carm., 4.4.4. 77

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low, not red. Horace also employs the term flava in his description of Phyllis (Phyllidis flavae decorent parentes); and again in his description of Chloe (si flava excutitur Chloe).81 Tibullus says that his beloved Delia bewitched him, not with words, but with her physical beauty, tenderness, and blonde hair — flavis nostra puella comis.82 As for royal and divine figures in poetry, Ovid repeatedly addresses the goddess Minerva as golden-haired, flava Minerva.83 Vergil also describes prominent women, queens and heroines, with the color-term flava, suggesting its special nature. He refers to the blonde hair color of Dido twice: once before her suicide, Dido beats her breast and cries ‘Pro, Iuppiter’ while tearing her golden hair (flaventisque abscissa comas); then after her death Proserpine is described as not yet having taken a lock of her golden hair (nondum illi flavum Proserpina vertice crinem). 84 Later in the Aeneid, the silent Lavinia tears at her blonde hair (flavos… crinis) and her rosy cheeks.85 Most extravagantly, Catullus describes an imaginary speech by a lock of hair belonging to the Ptolemaic queen Berenike II, which desires to shine in the sky as sacred relics of a golden head — devotae flavi verticis exuviae.86 The attractive woman to all poets’ eyes is clearly a blonde. This preference for blonde women, natural or otherwise, may have been established not just by the men who preferred the women, but also from the women themselves. Roman women used the natural resource of sapo to lighten their hair color.87 Pliny reveals what sapo was composed of: a combination of beech ash and goat suet, which, he says, originated with the Germans, among whom it was used more by men than by women. Interestingly, he uses the phrase rutilandis capillis, or ‘reddening’ one’s tresses, using the verb

Hor. Carm., 2.4.14; 3.9.19. Tib., 1.5.44. 83 Am., 1.1.7–8; Met., 2.749, 6.130, 8.275; Fast., 6.652; Tr., 1.10.1. 84 Verg. Aen., 4.590; 4.698. 85 Verg. Aen., 12.605, in some versions; the Loeb edition has floros… crinis, which makes less sense. 86 Catull., 66.62. 87 André (1955–6) 348–355. 81 82

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rutilare rather than flavescere, turning them yellow.88 This is curious, especially since hair from Germanic slaves was considered the best quality for wigs to create elaborate hairstyles for Roman women.89 Ovid refers to this widespread phenomenon, addressing women in his Amores: Nunc tibi captivos mittet Germania crines — ‘Now imprisoned Germans give you hair.’90 Martial plays on this notion that the best wigs were thought to be of German hair: Arctoa de gente comam tibi, Lesbia, misi, Ut scires quanto sit tua flava magis. From a northern race I sent you, Lesbia, a lock of hair, So that you will know how much yellower is yours.91

Roman women were warned by the moralists against these fashions because they stripped away the natural beauty that they possessed in favor of more artificial effects. Juvenal does not mask his contempt for Messalina, the wife of the cuckolded emperor Claudius, going so far as to describe the blonde wig she wore on her nightly shifts in the brothel — sic nigrum flavo crinem abscondente galero / intravit calidum veteri centone lupanar / et cellam vacuam atque suam.92 This passage suggests that even when she was slumming, blonde was the preferred hair color of the Roman woman. When Roman poets mention non-blonde women, their descriptions are not as flattering, but Roman men still fancy the fusca woman. In Plautus’ Rudens, the slave Sceparnio flirts with Ampe-

Plin. HN, 28.51.191. According to Olson (2008) 73, sapo did not redden the hair; Green (1979) 392 n. 86 notes that dark Mediterranean hair would have been turned reddish or auburn by bleaches, not pure blonde; perhaps this would explain the use of ‘reddening’ in the sources. 89 Bartman (2001) 14. 90 Ov. Am., 1.14.45; Bartman (1999) 39. 91 Mart. 5.68. Compare Mart. 14.26: Chattica Teutonicos accendit spuma capillos captivis poteris cultior esse comis — ‘Chattian foam lights up Teutonic locks. You can be more beautiful with captive hair.’ Mart. 5.37.7–8: quae crine vicit Baetici gregis vellus / Rhenique nodos aureamque nitellam — ‘whose hair surpassed the golden fleece of a Baetic flock, and Rhine knots.’ 92 Juv. 6.120–122. 88

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lisca, and in an aside to the audience, exclaims his amazement at her beauty: Pro di immortales! Veneris effigia haec quidem est. Ut in ocellis hilaritudo est, heia, corpus quoius modi, subvolturium — illud quidem, subaquilum volui dicere. Immortal Gods! This girl is the very picture of Venus. Just see that merry twinkle in her eye, wow! What a body, A bit like a vulture — I meant to say, dark like an eagle.93

Sceparnio describes her complexion as subaquilum, meaning a rather dark complexion. Normally Roman women were expected to maintain a pale complexion: a dark complexion was the sign of working hard outside. Plautus does not give her the typical passive feminine attributes; she is described as “vulture-like,” which suggests a predatory character. Given the context of this play, it would seem that Plautus is ridiculing the man (a slave) who finds this type of woman attractive. In another play, Poenulus, the color-term perniger is used to conjure up an image of a Carthaginian nursemaid, suggesting that perniger is a negative description used for race. Since the play concerns Rome’s foe of old, Carthage, one would expect the word to show the contempt that Romans still had for those people: HAN: Sed earum nutrix qua sit, mi expedi MIL: Statura hau magna, corpore aquilo est. HAN: Ipsa ea est. MIL: Specie venusta, ore atque oculis pernigris. HAN: But tell me what their nurse looks like. MIL: She’s not very tall, swarthy in body. HAN: That’s her. MIL: Beautiful to look at. Very dark in face and eyes.94

In this context the color-term pernigris is used in a positive manner; here she is presented as an attractive woman with intensely black eyes. Since Plautus is the only Latin writer to use this color-term, 93

Plaut. Rud., 421–423.

94

Plaut. Poen., 1111–1113.

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he may have created it. Milphio, the character who uses the word, is telling Hanno, who is himself a Carthaginian, that this nursemaid is a countrywoman of his. By using pernigris to describe her, Milphio implies that Hanno will find her attractive.95 The poets describe dark-skinned women in a number of instances. For example, Lucretius ironically describes various kinds of women and their pet-names: Nigra ‘melichrus’ est, inmunda et fetida ‘acosmos,’ caesia ‘Palladium,’ nervosa et lignea ‘dorcas’ ... The dark girl is a nut-brown maid, the dirty and rank is a sweet disorder, the blue-eyed girl is a little Pallas, the stringy and wooden girl is a gazelle...96

In the same vein Propertius exhorts a young man that all women, regardless of color, are dangerous, but that young men are drawn to them regardless. He tells the youth that he has seen the fairfaced girl (vidistis pleno teneram candore puellam), the dark-skinned girl (vidistis fuscam), the Greek-figured girl (vidistis quondam Argivam prodente figura), the Roman girls (vidistis nostras), girls dressed either in plebeian or sandyx clothing (illa que plebeio vel sit sandycis amictu) — and that they will all break his heart.97 In each line he addresses the boy with vidistis, suggesting that he knows each type of woman well. He laughs at the fact that the dark-skinned girl is just as attractive to a young man as a fair-skinned girl (ducit uterque color), and that the youth does not care what the girl is wearing; he mentions plebeian garments and also sandyx garments, using this color-term rather than a more upscale color-term such as poeniceus, murex, or coccinus. Ovid, however, tells his audience that the most desirable girls should be light-skinned, by suggesting that a girl’s dark skin reflects dark blood: Nominibis mollire licet mala: fusca vocetur, nigrior Illyrica cui pice sanguis erit. On the Carthaginians in Plautus, see Richlin (2005) 183–193. Lucr. 4.1160–1161. 97 Prop. 2.25.41–46. 95 96

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Certainly, his comparison of blood with tar emphasizes the prejudices of his day. In The Fasti, Ovid recounts how Ariadne, bemoaning her abandonment by Theseus, thinks that he has left her for a fair-skinned woman: At, puto, praeposita est fuscae mihi candida paelex: Eveniat nostris hostibus ille color! I think that a fair concubine has been preferred to dark me; May that color always be of our enemies!99

In the Roman imagination the fate of the darker-haired woman is marked by tragedy; a curious situation, since most Italian women were probably dark-haired, and perhaps explains their fashion preference for blonde wigs. Horace bitterly condemns the gross excess of jewelry worn by Roman women. Like other moralists, he thinks that women look better unadorned without white and green stones (niveos viridisque lapillos). In his mind a woman with extensive jewelry is like a prostitute (togatae).100 Along with jewelry, color-terms are used to describe makeup. Ovid tells us to what extent Roman women would go, including smearing Attic honey from yellow combs (adice de flavis Attica mella favis) with other ingredients to remove spots (maculas) on the face.101 In another passage, Ovid describes how pale women paint their skin with purple rouge, and how dark-skinned women might use the Pharian fish, that is, the dung and intestines of the Egyptian crocodile to lighten the skin: Pallida purpureis spargat sua corpora virgis, nigrior ad Pharii confuge piscis opem.

Ov. Ars am., 2.657. Ovid. Fast. 3.493. 100 Hor. Sat. 1.2.80–82. The toga muliebris was worn by adulteresses or prostitutes: Sebesta (1994a) 50; (1994) 247. 101 Ov. Medicamina Faciei, 81–82. 98 99

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Let a pale woman adorn her person with purple stripes, and one who is darker have recourse to the aid of the Pharian fish.102

Martial comments on the foul odor of a certain Roman woman who covers her face with a green depilatory called psilothrum: Virus ut hoc alio fallax permutet odore, deposita quotiens balnea veste petit, psilothro viret aut acida latet oblita creta aut tegitur pingui terque quaterque faba. In order craftily to exchange this stench for a different odor, whenever she takes off her clothes to get into the bath, she is green with depilatory, or hidden under a plaster of chalk and vinegar, or covered with three or four layers of sticky bean flour.103

Martial also criticizes the dental care of two Roman women, saying that Thaïs has black teeth (nigros), while Laecania has white teeth (niveos); he adds sarcastically that the woman with white teeth bought hers.104 The satirists use color-terms as a way of criticizing women, just as the elegiac poets discuss their beloved in terms of color, and the historians describe famous women in terms of color. For all these writers, color figures as an important element, or physiognomic trope, in descriptions of women as in descriptions of men. The physiognomic treatises never considered the description of women; but Roman writers invented their own tropes.

DESCRIPTIONS OF NON-ROMANS The ancient sources often present a negative view of non-Romans, and they very often include color-terms.105 For example, Pliny deOv. Ars am. 3.269–270. The ‘Pharian fish’ derives its name from Pharos in Egypt where crocodiles abounded. 103 Mart. 6.93.7–10. Martial also mentions this depilatory in 3.74.1; so does Pliny in HN, 24.47.79, calling it lacrima hederae, ‘tears of ivy,’ but he does not describe the color. 104 Mart. 5.43. On Roman dental care, see Jackson (1988) 118–121. 105 Balsdon (1979) 214–222. 102

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scribes a forest tribe, the Choromandae, with special attention to their horrible screams, hairy bodies, menacing gray eyes (oculis glaucis) and dog-like teeth.106 It is noteworthy that Pliny includes gray eyes among their negative characteristics; gray eyes were a trope for divine beings, including Augustus, but perhaps gray eyes were a mark reserved for special beings who were not part of ordinary humanity. Seneca, however, considers the variety of peoples that inhabit the Roman Empire, and concludes that each group considers its own coloring perfectly normal: the Ethiopians’ skin color is not notable to them (non est Aethiopis inter suos insignitus color); the Germans wear their long red hair tied up in a knot, which they do not consider unmanly (nec rufus crinis et coatus in nodum apud Germanos virum dedecet).107 At the time that Seneca was writing, the Roman Empire had reached critical mass. Seneca does not comment on these new peoples’ customs, habits, language or costume; but he notices their physical characteristics, as do the other authors cited below.

GAULS, GERMANS, AND BRITONS Roman authors tend to describe the Gauls with awe and a degree of admiration. In the Aeneid, Vergil describes the Gauls in an impressive manner, showing that their hair, their clothing, and their characteristic collars were the same golden color — aurea caesaries ollis atque aurea vesti / virgatis lucent sagulis, tum lactea colla / auro innectuntur.108 The use of the word caesaries for hair may be notable, given its placement in a text that glorifies Augustus. In the Aeneid, the sack of Rome is an event that will take place in the future, and while Aeneas does not fight the Gauls, they are described so as to make them appear as worthy foes, frightening to the Romans. The use of the color-term aurum three times emphasizes their importance in Roman history.

Plin. HN, 7.2.24. Sen. De Ira, 3.26.3. 108 Verg. Aen., 8.659–661. See Dalby (2000) 84. The famous Roman sculpture of the Dying Gaul wears a torque around his neck, which would have been gold. 106 107

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Several authors pay significant attention to the Gauls’ hair color. Tibullus notes that some were fair-haired, like the flavi Carnutes who live on the Loire River: Carnutis et flavi caerula lympha Liger — ‘the blue stream of the blond tribes of Chartres.’109 It is notable that Tibullus’ use of the color term flavi for the hair color is juxtaposed with caerula for the river, a striking instance where two very different nouns (Carnutis and Liger) are described with color-terms that are placed together, seeming to sum up the qualities of the people and their geographical location. Tacitus describes how the Batavian chief Civilis dyed his hair red (rutilatumque crinem) and let it grow long until he had defeated the Romans, when he cut it short again.110 Red hair was an important distinguishing characteristic for Gauls, suggesting that in order for Civilis to be successful in battle he needed to have the long red hair; it functioned in an apotropaic manner, similar to other ancient figures such as Nisus and Samson. Descriptions of the German tribes are far less positive. Tacitus’ description in Germania is the most complete: truces et caerulei oculi, rutilae comae, magna corpora et tantum ad impetum valida — ‘fierce blue eyes, red hair, tall frames, powerful only spasmodically.’111 The satirists also cast their jibe at this group, reinforcing a stereotyped image of an uncivilized people. Juvenal exclaims: caerula quis stupuit Germani lumina, flavam / caesariem et madido torquentem cornua cirro? — ‘who is amazed to see a German with blue eyes and yellow hair, twisting his greasy curls into a horn?’112 It is noticeable that both authors use caeruleus (not caesius) for descriptions of the eyes, once again reinforcing the idea these warring people are not Roman. Martial puts these words into the mouth of a German rebel against the imperial power of Rome: Sic leve flavorum valeat genus Usiporum, Quisquis et Ausonium non amat imperium.

Tib. 1.7.12. Tac. Hist., 4.61.1. 111 Tac. Germ., 4. 112 Juv. 13.164–165. 109 110

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT So may the fickle race of the yellow-haired Usipi flourish, and whoever doesn’t love Ausonia’s rule.113

The inference is that the Germans’ yellow hair and their hostility toward Rome are joined together.114 Elsewhere Suetonius describes Caligula’s plan for a mock triumph over Germany: he orders the tallest men of the Gauls to dye their hair red and let it grow long (rutilare et summittere comam), to learn the German language, and even to assume German names.115 Here Suetonius seems to associate red hair with Germans instead of Gauls; perhaps he assumed that all barbarians had red hair and the distinction between Gauls and Germans was of no importance to him. Lucan is the first to describe the attributes of the British conquered by Julius Caesar: Ut vincula Rhino Oceanoque daret, celsos ut Gallia currus Nobilis et flavis sequeretur mixta Britannis. So that the chains [Julius Caesar] laid upon the Rhine and the Ocean, So might his lofty chariot be followed by noble Gauls and blond Britons.116

He describes them strictly by their hair color, flavis, as opposed to other characteristics. Tacitus describes other physiognomic qualities of the British tribes: the Caledonians have red hair (rutilae comae) and they are tall (magni), so Tacitus suggests that they are related to the Germans; the Silures have dark faces (colorati vultus) and curly hair (torti plerumque crines) which suggests that they are related to the Spanish.117 Strabo, writing in Greek, also describes the traits of the Mart. 6.61.3–4. The names Flavus and Flava, ‘Blond,’ often appear on tomb inscriptions, and seem to have been common names for German-born Romans: CIL VI 10730, VI 8724, VI 24161, X 1807; Balsdon (1979) 283 n. 33. 115 Suet. Calig., 47. 116 Lucan 3.76–78. 117 Tac. Agr., 11. Tacitus, who does not use color-terms in great supply, uses one to describe the natural resources of Britannia, a province that Claudius conquered — Gignit et Oceanus margarita, sed subfusca ac liventia 113 114

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Britons: taller than the Celts (οἱ δὲ ἄνδρες εὐμηκέστεροι τῶν Κελτῶν εἰσι), but not as blond (ἧσσον ξανθότριχες), looser in body type (χαυνότεροι δὲ τοῖς σώμασι). He says that their boys are half a foot taller than the average Roman, but they are ‘bandy-legged’ (βλαισοὺς) and not very attractive.118 Most notable in descriptions of the Britons is the vividness of the people who decorate themselves with blue. Julius Caesar describes the Britons with their blue war-paint: Omnes vero se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod caeruleum efficit colorem, atque hoc horridiores sunt in pugna aspectu. All the Britons, indeed, dye themselves with woad, which produces a blue color, and makes their appearance in battle more terrible.119

Caesar uses caeruleus, sea-blue, to describe their blue paint. Besides being blue, the best-known anecdotes about the Britons were that they were fierce to their guests (Horace’s Britannos hospitibus feros) and wore old baggy pants (Martial’s veteres bracae Brittonis pauperis).120 Martial takes a slightly less negative angle in describing a former slave, Claudia Rufina: Claudia caeruleis cum sit Rufina Britannis edita, quam Latiae pectora gentis habet! quale decus forma! Romanam credere matres Italides possunt, Atthides esse suam. Claudia Rufina is a daughter of the blue Britons, And yet how Latin is her heart! — ‘Their sea also produces pearls but somewhat clouded and leadenhued.’ Tacitus suggests that the grey color of the pearls, which are not gleaming or purely white, is a punishment for the Romans’ greediness. Tac. Agr., 12.6. 118 Strabo, Geography, 4.5.2.200. 119 Caes. B Gall., 5.14.3. 120 Hor. Carm., 3.4.33; Mart. 11.21.9. Ovid, curiously, describes the Britons as ‘green:’ feros viridesque Britannos (Am. 2.16.39); quoted in Holford-Strevens (1971)318. Like Fronto, Ovid may have thought of caeruleus as belonging to the general category of ‘green’ colors.

130

COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT And what beautiful form she has! Italian mothers could take her to be Roman, Greek mothers to be one of their own?121

As Claudia’s cognomen is Rufina, which means ‘little red,’ Martial is keen to play on the juaxtapostion of red and blue, two contrasting colors. There is a parallelism here with the pairing of the colorterms and Martial’s account of her character, as she is described as British but could also pass for a Roman.122 Propertius also writes about the color of the Britons in poetic form, making a specific point of denouncing the new fashions that Roman women were adopting from this foreign culture: an si caeruleo quaedam sua tempora fuco / tinxerit, idcirco caerula forma bona est? — ‘Why do you insist on dyeing your forehead blue, is a blue face a good one?’123 The pigment, caeruleus fucus, generally understood as ‘woad,’ had by Propertius’ time become emblematic of outlandish cosmetics. It colored the whole body, skin and hair of Gauls and Britons, and was imported to Rome to be used by Roman women as a hair color and eyeliner.124

ASSYRIANS, EGYPTIANS, ETHIOPIANS, ETRUSCANS AND INDIANS Dark skin was portrayed by the physiognomic writers in a negative manner. A Pseudo-Aristotelian text says, ‘those whose skin is too dark are cowardly: witness the Egyptians and the Ethiopians.’125 Suffusculus or subfusculus, a color-term for dark skin, is always used negatively. Apuleius pointedly uses it in a description prior to giving a person’s name: Ad haec renidens Milo, ‘Qua’ inquit ‘Corporis habitudine praeditus quove nomine nuncupatus hic iste Chaldaeus est?’ ‘Procerus,’ in quam ‘et suffusculus, Diophanes nomine.’ Mart. 11.53.1–4. The name Rufina appears in an inscription, naming a slave or a freedwoman, CIL XV 5651. 123 Prop. 2.18B.31–32. 124 Olson (2008) 62. 125 [Aristot.] Physiogn. 812a12; Sassi (2001) 50. 121 122

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Here Milo asked with a smile, ‘What does this Chaldean friend of yours look like, and what is his name?’ ‘Tall,’ I said, ‘and rather dark-skinned, his name is Diophanes.’126

Milo and the narrator mock Diophanes because of his swarthy complexion. The ancient stereotypes portray these people from the East as deceitful and without character. In several of his epigrams, Martial refers to the people of fusca Syene.127 He lists the preferred attributes of a catamite imported from Egypt, which reveals much about the racial attitudes of Rome. The boy should be whiter than snow (nive candidior) because that complexion is rare in dark Mareotis (in Mareotide fusca), his hair should not be curly (tortas non amo… comas), he should have a small forehead (frons brevis), his nostrils should not be large (modus leviter sit naribus uncis) and his lips should be as red as the roses of Paestum (Paestanis rubeant aemula labra rosis).128 Once again this is a physiognomic description. The preferred attributes of a lover are always described in the same way, whether girls or boys are desired. Light skin was the desired trait; Martial says that it is more beautiful because it is so rare among the fusca people of Egypt. Petronius, by contrast, provides a rather attractive, if lascivious, image of Egyptian dancers: Memphitides, puellae, Sacris Deum paratae,

Tinctus colore noctis Manu puer loquaci. Young girls of Memphis, made ready for the rites of the gods,

Apul. Met., 2.13. Mart. 9.35.7; on the use of fuscus to describe blacks, see Snowden (1983) 8 and n.16; 77. There are a number of inscriptions that mention Fuscus and Fusca as names for slaves or freedmen. Fuscus: CIL VI 4276, VI 4716, VIII 12748, VIII 13911; Fusca: VIII 13042, VIII 13112. 128 Mart. 4.42.5–10. 126 127

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Even in the later Empire, Ammianus Marcellinus describes the Egyptians with the negative term subfusculus: Homines autem Aegyptii plerique subfusculi sunt et atrati, magisque maestiores gracilenti et aridi, ad singulos motus excandescentes, controversi et reposcones acerrimi. Now the men of Egypt are, as a rule, somewhat swarthy and dark of complexion, and rather gloomy-looking, slender and hardy, excitable in all their movements, quarrelsome, and most swift to demand their rights.130

This is a negative description, suggesting once again that because they are dark, the Egyptians must be people with designs of ill will, especially in their defiance of Rome. Complexion in the ancient world suggested much about a person’s inner working. Ovid contributes his thoughts on the Ethiopians in his Metamorphoses. Instead of focusing on sexuality or beauty, he talks about the scientific causes by which people in hot climates might have dark skin: Sanguine tum credunt in corpora summa vocato Aethiopum populos nigrum traxisse colorem It was then, as men think, that the peoples of Aethiopia became black-skinned, since the blood was drawn to the surface of their bodies by the heat.131

Roman descriptions of dark skin color commonly suggested they had been ‘colored’ by the sun: coloratus became a trope which offered pertinent information about the individual’s background. As noted above, Tacitus describes the colorati Silures of Britain as part of his argument that the Silures must have emigrated from Spain. Martial also uses this term to describe the darkened skins of the Petron. Frag., 19. Amm. Marc. 22.16.23. 131 Ov. Met., 2.235–236. 129 130

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Etruscans: deque coloratis numquam lita mater Etruscis — ‘your mother was one of the sunburnt Etruscans.’132 Etruscans were easily pictured as colorati Etrusci, their skins darker than the typical Italian, their bodies more rotund, their religion and its ritual (Etruscan disciplina) utterly distinct. Finally, from the outlying portions of the known world, Strabo the geographer records the many exotic colors (πολλοῖς εὐανθεστάτοις χρώμασι) that the men of India used to change the color of their beards; the Indians make amazing dyes (χρόας θαυμαστάς) for both their hair and their garments, and they are very fond of adornment.133 Arrian, writing considerably later, comments on this same behavior, utterly foreign to Rome. He quotes Nearchus as saying that they dye their beards various colors, including white (λευκοὺς φαίνεσθαι οἵους λευκοτάτους), blue (κυανέους), purple (φοινικέους and πορφυρέους), and green (πρασοειδέας).134 When the Romans began actively trading with India, they discovered many surprising and unexpected aspects to its exotic riches, which they could manipulate for their own purposes, without adopting such foreign customs.

SUMMARY Writers in Latin literature present diverse and rich descriptions of all parts of one’s appearance, which frequently involve color-terms as markers of distinction. The largest variety of color-terms is devoted to Roman emperors: their eye color, complexion and hair color receive the most attention, always correlated with character traits. The color-terms employed in these descriptions are directed by underlying physiognomic principles outlined by the Aristotelian schools and Polemo of Laodicea. The few women of royal status who are described in detail were seen as extraordinary in their accomplishments: Zenobia and Boudicca, though appearing brazen and wildly fierce, are portrayed as physiognomically impressive. In descriptions of ordinary people, color-terms had greater meaning when describing human temperament: Cicero, Martial, Seneca and Mart. 10.68.3. Strabo Geography, 15.1.30.699. 134 Arrian, Indica, 16.4. 132 133

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Plutarch connect color-terms directly with emotions, such as associating a red face with anger and mania; in the plays of Plautus, the red-haired slave was a foolish buffoon who did not receive respect; in Cicero’s Orations, red-haired men are not shown respect either. Writers also use color-terms as a way of showing their sexual fantasies: women with blonde hair are consistently the object of men’s desire. Foreign peoples are often given colorful descriptions, which are all too revealing of racial prejudices. With remarkable consistency, historians, orators, poets and biographers all follow certain physiognomic formulae. The Romans were a visually-oriented people, describing both their leaders and their opponents in a visual way. By employing color-terms, the Romans followed principles of ekphrasis that they had put in place for centuries.

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE MULTICOLORED WORLD OF THE ROMANS When describing a complex object or scene, Roman authors invented equally complex color-terms, which were able to express many possibilities in a single word. Romans used six different color-terms to convey the concept of many colors: versicolor, decolor, discolor, bicolor, multicolor, and omnicolor. Each expresses a different aspect of multi-coloredness, including a change in color, or to indicate contrast. Finally the terms concolor and unicolor are used to describe the opposite situation: a homogeneous quality of color.1 In Latin literature the use of these words filled a need in various situations, which are worth examining in detail.

VERSICOLOR In the surviving Latin literature there are about a dozen passages that incorporate the color-term versicolor, an ambiguous color-term employed by a wide group of authors, both in descriptions of nature, and of woven fabrics that were worn or used for decoration. This sample encompasses both poetry and prose, including Vergil, Propertius, Livy, Ovid, Pliny the Elder, Quintilian and Columella. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this term is pinning down its precise meaning, but that is the nature of the term itself: it can refer to many colors, or to the changing of colors. The term versicolor is also one of the few color-terms that were introduced into law, as early as 215 BCE in the Lex Oppia, which banned women from having more than one semuncia of gold, wearAndré (1949) 231 lists these terms, but only to remark that they do not refer to any one specific color. 1

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ing versicolor garments, and riding in carriages within one mile of the city of Rome except in the course of performing a public rite.2 The Digesta, a late compilation of Roman laws, includes regulations dealing with colored garments, as in this section in which Ulpian discusses different types of wool that can be bequeathed to an heir: Versicoloribus videndum est. Et constabat apud veteres lanae appellatione versicoloria non contineri, sed ea omnia videri legata, quae tincta sunt, et neta, quae neque detexta neque contexta sunt. Proinde quaeritur, an purpura appellatione versicolorum contineatur. Et ego arbitror ea, quae tincta non sunt, versicoloribus non adnumerari et ideo neque album neque naturaliter nigrum contineri nec alterius coloris naturalis: purpuram autem et coccum, quoniam nihil nativi coloris sunt, contineri arbitror, nisi aliud sensit testator. Where wool has changed its color, this should be taken into consideration. It was decided by the ancient authorities that wool which has changed its color should not be included under the term wool, but all which had been spun and not woven should be included. Hence the question arises whether the term ‘changed in color’ is applicable to purple. I think that what has not been dyed is not included under this term, and therefore that neither wool which is naturally white or black, or of any other natural hue, is meant. I hold, however, that purple and scarlet, as they are not natural colors, should be included under the term dyed wools, unless the testator intended otherwise.3

2 Culham (1982) 786. No actual text of the Lex Oppia survives, but it is mentioned in many ancient sources, especially Livy 34.1–8; according to Culham (1986) 236, ‘it is impossible to tell from Livy’s literary account what the actual wording of the law would have been.’ Olson (2008) 101 notes that it was a wartime emergency measure, not a sumptuary law in the strictest sense; after ten years, women demanded its repeal, which moralistic male writers later deplored. 3 Ulpian 22, in Dig. 32.70.12.

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This passage clearly shows that versicolor refers to a change in color, as Ulpian defines and establishes a hierarchy of the types of natural and dyed wool.4 Given its institution into law, this color-term has a documented past; it also appears in historical and scientific writing. In his account of the Samnite Wars in the fourth century BCE, Livy describes the military garments of the Samnites, in two separate groups. One group was outfitted with golden accoutrements and wore versicolor tunics (tunicae auratis militibus versicolores); the other group had silver battle attire and wore white linen.5 The term versicolor may have referred primarily to garments banded with a contrasting color, including purple.6 But it is also possible that this term referred to a garment finished and dyed in such a way that its surface presented a shimmering or chameleon-like appearance. Given the conditions in the dyeing and clothing industry, colorfast dyes were not in existence and generally the colors were presented in an inconsistent manner, which could account for the variegated shading and multi-colors.7 This might suggest that versicolor refers to garments of poor quality, but that does not apply to Livy’s passage; he portrays the Samnites as worthy foes, arrayed in an impressive manner. Ordinarily Livy as historian rarely employs color-terms, but here he uses the example of the Samnite tunics to point a moral: the Romans needed no such finery to win a victory. In his Historia Naturalis, Pliny the the Elder describes how the sails of ships were dyed or woven in many colors, an idea that began with Alexander the Great in India. His multicolored sails or flags (versicoloria insignia) aroused the astonishment of everyone who saw them.8 Pliny’s interest was in different cloth fibers and materi4 A number of modern scholars suggest that the versicolor in the Lex Oppia is related only to purple: see Olson (2008) 148 n. 25; Olson concludes that Livy used versicolor ‘to refer to garments dyed with a luxury dye, including but not limited to purple.’ 5 Livy, 9.40.3. 6 Culham (1986) 236–237. 7 Moeller (1976) 13–14. 8 Plin. HN, 19.5.22. Pliny also says that Cleopatra’s flagship had a purple sail, afterwards adopted by the Roman emperors; Reinhold (1970) 48.

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als, such as linen, an exotic material imported from Egypt. He describes the sudden appearance of Alexander’s colored sails as an amazing spectacle, suggesting that these varied sails were a way of showing one’s wealth in the navy. Elsewhere, in discussing animals, Pliny gives the most precise way to understand the color-term versicolor: a term to denote the changing of colors in nature. He describes the mullet, a small Italian fish whose scales would change color when it died — mullum expirantem versicolori quadam et numerosa varietate spectari procures gulae narrant; its scales would also change color when it was put in a glass bowl — rubentium squamarum multiplici mutatione.9 Pliny describes the chameleon in a similar fashion, claiming that it was a shy creature, and that is the reason for its many changes in color — ideo versicoloris esse mutationis.10 In observing these two animals, he applies the same color-term to indicate something more than the literal color: a quality of changeableness. When discussing flowers, however, Pliny uses the term versicolor in its simplest meaning: floret versicolori specie, sicut arcus caelestis, unde et nomen — ‘the flower is multi-colored, like the rainbow, hence the name Iris.’11 In a more moralistic vein, however, Pliny mentions womens’ multicolored headdresses appearing in Greek wall paintings of the fifth century BCE: Polygnotus Thasius, qui primus mulieres tralucida veste pinxit, capita earum mitris versicoloribus operuit plurimumque picturae primus contulit. Polygnotus of Thasos, who first painted women in transparent garments, and showed their heads covered with multicolored turbans.12

The implication is that these women were courtesans. Julius Pollux’s catalogue of theatrical characters includes a ‘mitered courtesan’ — ἡ δὲ διάμιτρος ἕταίρα μίτρᾳ ποικίλῃ τὴν κεφαλὴν Plin. HN, 9.30.66. Plin. HN, 28.29.113. 11 Plin. HN, 21.19.41. 12 Plin. HN, 35.35.58. 9

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κατείληπται — who wears a painted turban on her head.13 In his discussion of oratory, Quintilian denounces as unmanly an oratorical style that is too flowery, comparing it to the weaving of versicolor and lightweight garments: illa translucida et versicolor quorundam elocution res ipsas effeminate quae illo verborum habitu visitant — ‘the translucent and many-colored style of some speakers emasculates subjects which are clothed in this kind of verbal dress.’14 Later in the same work, Quintilian remarks on the foreignness of multi-colored garments, even when worn by well-known leaders: nec versicolorem illam, quae Demetrius Phalereus dicebatur uti, vestem bene ad forensem pulvere facere — ‘the cloak of many colors which Demetrius of Phalerum was said to wear is but little suited to the dust of the forum.’ 15 Demetrius was of course not a Roman, and his garments would not have been appropriate in the Roman forum. These authors use versicolor with rather negative associations, as indicating something exotic and impressive, but inappropriate or worthless. In poetry, Vergil also employs this color-term in his catalogue of Aeneas’ Etruscan allies, including the beautiful youth Astyr: Sequitur pulcherrimus Astyr, Astyr equo fidens et versicoloribus armis. Then follows the most handsome Astyr, Astyr relying on his horse and multicolored arms.16

Once again a foreign warrior is shown in brilliant colors. The character Astyr puts his faith into his horse and colorful armor, rather than relying on his own wits and strength; the implication is that he will meet a tragic fate. Latin poetry provides no instances of mortal 13 Poll. Onomast. 4.154. Juvenal also mentioned different colored turbans in 3.66: ite, quibus grata est picta lupa barbara mitra — ‘Go, if your taste is a foreign whore in her bright headdress.’ 14 Quint. Inst. 8.20. Quintilian’s contempt for anything versicolor might be compared to Plato’s sentiments from The Republic, in which he compares democracy to ‘a garment of many colors, embroidered with all kinds of hues’ which could easily deceive the populace ‘like boys and women when they see bright-colored things.’ Plato, Resp., 8.557c. 15 Quint. Inst. 10.1.33. 16 Verg. Aen., 10.180–181.

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women wearing versicolor garments, but Ovid describes the versicolor garment that the goddess Flora wears in the spring; when she moves, flowers drop from her hair.17 This sets her apart from the rest of the officiants of Ceres; Flora seems to stand out from amidst a white sea. She is the personification of the flowering fields, different from Ceres, goddess of the harvest; here versicolor simply connotes the changing colors of spring. Versicolor also describes the colored feathers that were always a sign of extreme luxury because they involved the killing of an exotic animal. Feathers and fans in literature are always considered a form of decadence that was not tolerated by traditional Romans. Propertius describes the feathered plumage of a bird in the form of a pillow: Non tulit haec Paetus, stridorem audire procellae et duro teneras laedere fune manus; sed Chio thalamo aut Oricia terebintho et fultum pluma versicolore caput. Paetus could not endure the shrieking gale, nor to wound his delicate hands with hard ropes; but he preferred to lie in a bedroom of Chian marble or on a couch of Orician terebinth wood, his head propped on multicolored down.18

The taste for luxury in this situation leads to the death of Paetus by drowning. Like the freedman Zoilus’ prasino flabello, the costly feathers from the bird evoke bitter sentiments about the lives of Romans. Propertius is employing versicolor in association with themes of corruption and the ultimate futility of wealth.19 In another elegy, however, Propertius praises the simplicity of a country harvest, featuring Cydonian apples, violets, lilies, grapes and a bird with various colored feathers — variam plumae versicoloris avem.20 Here he laments the end of this golden age for the Romans. The color-term versicolor is used again when Columella describes the Ov. Fast., 5.355–360. Prop. 3.7.47–50. 19 Clarke (2003) 143–144. 20 Prop. 3.13.32. 17 18

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complexities involved in growing grapes. He exclaims in frustration that grapes do not conform to any plan in nature, but he praises the abundance of autumn which shines with multicolored apples — undique versicoloribus pomis gravidus collucet Autumnus.21 No other color-term can hint at the different and variegated shades that the apples have. It is clear that authors of all types were familiar with the color-term versicolor, which allowed for a range of meanings, from many-colored to variable in color, with an equally wide range of cultural associations, from simply changeable in color to trivial or even suspect.

DECOLOR AND DECOLORARE A different way of showing change is suggested by the color-term decolor, meaning a degradation of color, or staining.22 It is not a color-term that has positive connotations, and often conjures up images of something befouled and dirty from unnatural means. Latin authors use decolor to show discoloration or change in an object, always for the worse. In his description of the woes of a poor schoolteacher, Juvenal uses decolor to show how the pages of a volume of Horace have aged and decayed with use: Dummodo no pereat tot idem olfecisse lucernas quot stabant pueri, cum totus decolor esset Flaccus et haereret nigro fuligo Maroni. Just make sure you get something for breathing the stink of as many lamps as there are boys, while your Horace gets totally discolored and the soot sticks to your blackened Vergil.23

After teaching so many students, the teacher’s books turn black with soot, but he cannot afford anything in better condition. Pliny

Columella, Rust. 3.21.3. The TLL 198–199 explores all ranges that decolor can describe including natural changes in composition, bodily functions, and complexion. 23 Juv., 7.225–227. 21 22

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describes how some natural resources, such as tar or pitch, change in color and quantity depending on the temperature: Pix optima ubique ex apricis aquilonis situ, ex opacis horridior virusque praeferens, frigida hieme deterior ac minus copiosa et decolor. Pitch is everywhere obtained from trees growing in sunny places with a northeast aspect, whereas that from shady places has a rougher appearance; pitch in a cold winter is inferior and less plentiful and discolored.24

Pitch turns gray and brittle when it becomes cold, and is unusable. Pliny uses decolor once again to show the change and oxidation in bronze and silver: Nec decolor species aeris argentive, ut multi existimaverunt, medicaminum argumentum est, quando nihil eorum in Patavinis fontibus. Nor is the discoloration of bronze and silver a proof, as many have thought, of medicinal properties, since there are none in the springs of Patavium.25

The implication for Pliny is that the metals have become degraded in some way, and are useless. Roman writers used the verb decolorare in the same manner as the adjective decolor, for an array of organic objects. In his treatise on agriculture Columella uses decolorare to mark a change in color, as a critical aspect in the harvesting of olives: Oliva Pausea vel orchita cum primum ex albo decoloratur, fitque luteola, sereno caelo manu destringitur, et in cannis uno die sub umbra expanditur: et siqui adhaerent pediculi foliaque aut surculi, leguntur. The Pausean or orchite olive, as soon as it loses its white color and becomes yellow, during a calm sky is picked by hand and spread out for one day on reeds in the shade; and if any twigs or leaves are clinging, they are removed.26

Plin. HN, 16.23.59. Plin. HN, 31.32.61. 26 Columella 12.49.9. 24 25

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A little later on, Columella describes the point at which olives for making ointment should be harvested: Oleum ad unguenta sic facito. Ante quam oliva nigrescat, cum primum decolorari coeperit, nec tamen adhuc varia fuerit… Oil for ointment should be made in the following way. Before the olive turns black, as soon as it begins to change color but when it is not yet mottled…27

In both cases, the verb decolorare refers to change, but there is an implication that something is lost in the process; the olives should be picked just as they lose their color, before they become too ripe to be unusable. In his Quaestiones Naturales, Seneca discusses the effects of lightning. He says that there is a type of lightning that has the capability of blackening objects (fuscantur); he observes that it either discolors objects or it colors them (hoc aut decolorat aut colorat). He defines something as ‘colored’ when it looks different than when it did before, for example, blue, black or pale (coloratur id cuius alia fit quam fuit facies, tamquam caerulea vel nigra vel pallida) and as ‘discolored’ when its color is spoiled but not changed (decoloratur id cuius color vitiatur, non mutatur).28 He explicitly equates decoloratur with spoiling, vitiatur. In De Medecina, Celsus also uses the verb decolorare to describe symptoms of diseases in which parts of the body have changed color in a significantly negative fashion, such as a skin condition in which eyelids become pale (palpebrae pallent) and the lips and nostrils become discolored (idem pallor labra et nares decolorat).29 He uses decolorare again when describing abscesses under the surface of the skin (cutem decolorent).30 In these clinical descriptions, this verb carries a significantly negative connotation. In a more metaphorical context, Suetonius reports an incident in the life of Augustus, when Cassius of Parma suggested that he was unfit to rule, charging that he was descended from a money-changer from Nerulum, with his hands Columella 12.54.1. Sen. Q. Nat. 2.40.6. 29 Celsus 2.6.4. 30 Celsus 2.8.23. 27 28

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discolored with filthy money — hanc finxit manibus collybo decoloratis Nerulonensis mensarius.31 Here Suetonius, like the others, applies the verb decolorare to describe a body part that has changed, and not for the better. Much later, Prudentius uses the same term, with its medical associations, in a poem commemorating Christian martyrs: Quid loquar purgata longis alba morbis corpora, Algidus cum decoloros horror artus concutit, Hic tumor vultum relinquit, hic color verus redit? What need I tell how bodies whitened by lasting diseases have been cleansed of them, cases in which a cold shivering shakes limbs that have lost their color, how in one a swelling leaves the face, or in another the natural hue returns?32

Using decolorare to describe how a sick person’s limbs have lost their color, Prudentius equates the salvation of the martyrs by God to a recovery from disease. Decolor takes on a potent usage when applied to the mythological realm. In the Tusculan Disputations, Cicero describes what happens when Deianira betrays her husband Hercules, receiving a shirt from a centaur. She was tricked into smearing poison on the garment, causing his death. Cicero, translating Sophocles, describes how Hercules’ flesh is burned as the garment sucks all of his ‘poisoned blood’ (iam decolorem sanguinem omnem exsorbuit).33 In this process his blood is changed in color, from red to black and brown, suggesting his imminent death. Blood in this situation has been ‘befouled’ and is no longer in its pure state. In a similar manner, decolor is often used to describe the horrific nature of war. Lucan describes how every aspect of the universe is affected, including the innocent blades of grass: quae seges infecta surget non decolor herba?/ Quo non Romanos violabis vomere manes? — ‘What crop of grass will not rise up discolored? / With what plow Suet. Aug., 4.2. Prudentius, Peristephanon Liber, 1.112–114. 33 Cic. Tusc., 2.8.20. 31 32

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will you not turn up a Roman spirit of the dead? ’34 He describes how the natural and fresh-colored crop will be destroyed; the crops that will arise may be drenched in blood and gore. Statius also comments on the nature of war and its effect on a river: Haud procul Ismeni monstrabant murmura ripas, qua turbatus adhuc et sanguine decolor ibat. Not far away a roar showed the banks of Ismenos where he was flowing, still roiled and discolored by blood.35

Silius Italicus portrays Hannibal asking a rhetorical question: if it were not for his achievements in battle, would the river of Phaethon never have stirred up the sea with its bloody waves — numquam Phaethontius amnis / sanguinea pontum turbasset decolor unda?’36 A body of water choked with blood and gore is a motif used by Roman poets to describe nature polluted by the waste of humankind in war. The poets lament this destruction with passionate and blood-filled descriptions. Another common usage of decolor occurs when applied to certain geographical regions or provinces of the Roman Empire. The poets apply it frequently as a trope, as when Ovid describes the characteristic features of India: Oriens tibi victus, adusque decolor extremo qua tinguitur India Gange. The East is conquered by you, as far as the far-off Ganges which washes the stained India.37

In describing India as ‘stained’ or ‘befouled,’ Ovid reflects his prejudices as a pure-bred Roman. His use of decolor suggests a negative quality to anything brought back from India: Vos quoque nec caris aures onerate lapillis Quos legit in viridi decolor Indus aqua, Nec prodite graves insuto vestibus auro. Luc. 7.851–852. Stat. Theb., 12.409–410. 36 Sil. Ital. 7.149–150. 37 Ov., Met. 4.20–21. 34 35

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Ovid juxtaposes the green water ‘viridi... aqua’ and the dark Indian divers, contrasting the color of the people with the bright materials mentioned in the passage. Propertius also employs decolor Indus as a synecdoche for the dark Indians: tunsus et Eoa decolor Indus aqua — ‘the stained Indians washed by the Eastern water.’39 In the fourth century CE, Prudentius follows the same trope: decolor Indus / Tempora pinnatis redimitus nigra sagittis — ‘swarthy Indian whose black brows are wreathed with feathered arrows.’40 With the abundance of color-terms for black, brown and dark, it is surprising that these authors choose the word decolor to describe dark-skinned people; this usage reveals the racial prejudices of the day. These attitudes are made more explicit when Juvenal warns a Roman what could happen if his wife sleeps with an Ethiopian slave: esses / Aethiopis fortasse pater, mox decolor heres / impleret tabulas numquam tibi mane videndus — ‘you’d perhaps turn out to be father of an Ethiopian; soon a discolored heir, whom you would rather not meet by daylight, would fill all the places in your will.’41 Racial distinctions were considered an immutable trait and the use of the color-term decolor reveals this negative quality.

DISCOLOR In his Amores, Ovid describes the scene of a horserace, which was a prime hunting ground for searching out women. He comments on the wide variety of horses and their colors, all too numerous to describe in detail: Iamque patent iterum reserato carcere postes; evolat admissis discolor agmen equis. nunc saltem supera spatioque insurge patenti! sint mea, sint dominae fac rata vota meae! Ov., Ars am., 3.129–131. Prop., 4.3.10. 40 Prudentius, Hamartigenia, 497–498. 41 Juv., 6.599–601. 38 39

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Already the cased in posts have been opened and The line of horses opened up in a multicolored group. Now occupy the lead and fly into the open space! Make my bet a sure one, may my wishes for this girl come true.42

Here the word discolor is used to describe an assortment of many colors, making it quite different from both the Latin word decolor and the English word ‘discolored.’ Pliny the Elder makes use of this color-term to describe the birds of Ethiopia and India: Aethiopiae atque Indis discolores maxime et inenarrabiles esse ferunt aves et ante omnes nobilem Arabiae phoenicem, haut scio an fabulose, unum in toto orbe nec visum magno opere. Ethiopia and India have birds extremely varied in color and indescribable, they say, and Arabia has one that is famous before all others, the phoenix (I hardly know if it is fabulous) which is unique in the whole world and hardly ever seen.43

Here he suggests the many shades of exotic birds, whose colors are all too numerous to mention. Pliny gives a positive expression of the abundance and luxury that these far-off places provided in their trade with Rome. Another possible reason that Pliny describes them with the term discolor is that he had not seen all these birds at first hand; the phrase esse ferunt aids in the distance. Pliny also uses discolor to describe a certain type of old wood which is marked with blotches of various colors (maculaeve discolores).44 Here he is trying to show how nature created the multiple colors in an old table; its faults were not created by man. The color-term discolor does not seem to carry the negative connotations associated with decolor. In a passage in the Thebaid, Statius describes a painted scene on Crenaeus’ shield, depicting Europa riding the bull through the waves of the sea, which look like the river Ismenos: adiuvat unda fidem, pelago nec discolor amnis — ‘the wave lends credence, the sea is

Ov. Am. 3.2.78–83. Plin. HN, 10.2.3. 44 Plin. HN, 13.30.98. 42 43

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not a different color than the river.’45 Discolor is used here in a poetic double negative, meaning that the sea and the river were not different in color; on the shield, the river looked like the sea and so looked more believable. Other passages use discolor more directly as an indication of difference or opposition, as when Martial shows the distinction between two players in a board game: Tabula Lusoria Hac mihi bis seno numeratur tessera puncto; Calculus hac gemino discolor hoste perit. Gaming Board On this side of me, the die are counted with double sixes. On this other a piece of a different color is killed by two opponents.46

As an account of how Romans spent their leisure time, it is interesting to show that there is evidence in literature of games similar to checkers or chess; the different colors on the board are not named, but by using the single word discolor Martial stresses the opposing forces of the colored pieces. Discolor is able to point out the differences between two opposite colors; the color-term could refer to any pair of colors, whether they are named or not. Cicero uses the same color-term in the case against Verres: Iam vero quo modo illam labem ignominiam calamitatemque totius ordinis conquerar, hoc factum esse in hac civitate, cum senatorius ordo iudicaret, ut discoloribus signis iuratorum hominum sententiae notarentur? And now, what words can I find to deplore that foul and disastrous blot upon the honor of our whole order, the fact that in this land or ours, with the law-courts in the senatorial order’s hands, such a thing happened as that the voting tablets, given to judges who were under oath, were marked with wax of different colors?47 Stat. Theb., 9.338. Mart. 14.17. 47 Cic., Verr., 1.13.40; on wax tablets, see also Small (1997) 145–147. 45 46

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Cicero was deeply concerned about the Senate voting procedures, especially when the anonymity of the voters was compromised; here the different colors of the marked wax tablets revealed who had voted which way. For Cicero this was an outrage; this passage suggests that normally voting tablets were of a uniform color, though he does not specify which. Petronius uses discolor for a description of clothing in The Satyricon. The word is associated with a wealthy, lascivious and extravagant character, Ascyltos, the rival of the protagonist, Encolpius: Ascyltos stabat amictus discoloria veste, atque in lance argentea indicium et fidem praeferebat.48 He wears discoloria veste while he offers a reward to search for Encolpius’ lover, Giton, who is hiding from him. Lucan describes the face of Erictho, a Thessalian witch, using the same term: Discolor et vario furialis cultus amictu induitur, voltusque aperitur crine remoto, et coma vipereis substringitur horrida sertis. She put on a cloak of many colors in the manner of a Fury, and she threw back her hair and revealed her horrid face and looped up her bristling locks with festoons of vipers.49

Here the word discolor emphasizes the surprise of the witch’s transformation. Lucan also employs the color-term discolor to describe Cleopatra’s slaves: Tum famulae numerus turbae populusque minister Discolor hos sanguis, alios distinxerat aetas. There was also a swarm of attendants, and a multitude to serve the banquters, Differing from one another, these by blood, others by age. 50

Here the number and variety of her slaves commands attention, not their supposed racial inferiority as the color-term decolor might

Petron. Sat. 97. Luc. 6.654–656. 50 Luc. 10.127–128. 48 49

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have suggested. Persius’ use of the word discolor also highlights the varied nature of humankind: Mille hominum species et rerum discolor usus; velle suum cuique est nec voto vivitur uno. There are a thousand types of humankind, and their experience of life is varied; they each have their own desires and no single prayer fits every life.51

Each person’s type and character is as different as their many colors. In one of Vergil’s most recognized passages is an extraordinary use of the color-term discolor. Aeneas must pluck a golden bough from a tree sacred to Persephone in order to gain entrance to the underworld: Inde ubi venere ad fauces grave olentis Averni, tollunt se celeres liquidumque per aera lapsae sedibus optatis gemina super arbore sidunt, discolor unde auri per ramos aura refulsit. Then, when they came to the jaws of Avernus, with their heavy stench, they swiftly rise and, dropping through the full air, settle on the site longed for, the two-fold tree, whence, with diverse hue, the breath of gold shone out amid the branches.52

Robert Brooks says that discolor as used here is ‘a curious and baffling expression.’53 Taken in context with other uses of this word, here it can be seen that discolor is used to set this special bough Pers. 5.53–54. Verg. Aen., 6.201–204. Austin (1977) 100 translates the last line as ‘from which a breathing of gold glinted in colour-contrast among the branches.’ Maclennan (2003) 101 comments on ‘the assonance of auri and aura — words which unite in sound two utterly contrasting substances. Discolor because the gold contrasts with the dark green of the branches through which it gleams.’ 53 Brooks (1953) 273. 51 52

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apart in opposition to the other boughs on the tree. In this passage the word discolor itself may even be a combination of the words Dis, god of the underworld, and color; the color-term is evocative of the mood, as Aeneas plunges into the underworld and an equally murky future.

BICOLOR The color-term bicolor could be applied to animals, which Vergil employs in his description of a Thracian horse with white spots — quem Thracius albis / portat equus bicolor maculis.54 Vergil also uses the color-term bicolor to describe the leaves of a poplar tree that is sacred to Hercules: Dixerat, Herculea bicolor cum populus umbra velavitque comas foliisque innexa pependit, et sacer implevit dextram scyphus. He spoke, and the two-toned poplar, dear to Hercules, veiled his hair, hanging down with woven leaves, and the sacred goblet was filled in his right hand.55

Vergil employs bicolor rather than describing the individual colors explicitly. Pliny also describes the poplar from a naturalist’s viewpoint, highlighting the different varieties of the tree. He describes the white poplar as having a leaf of two colors, white on the upper side and green on the underside — alba folio bicolor superne candicans inferiore parte viridi.56 Unlike other writers who use bicolor, Pliny tells us precisely which colors are implied by the single term: candicans and viridi, and their position on the leaf. In The Metamorphoses, Ovid makes use of bicolor as well, to describe a certain type of berry that is sacred to Minerva (bicolor sincerae baca Minervae).57 Later he uses this term to describe the myrtle bush, bicolor myrtus, considered desirable among Romans and ancient Mediterranean peoples for its

Verg. Aen., 5.565–566. Verg. Aen., 8.276–278. 56 Plin. HN, 16.35.86. 57 Ov. Met., 8.664. 54 55

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aromatic qualities as well as for its appearance. 58 In these passages, bicolor is used simply and explicitly to describe natural objects that have two colors. Sometimes this term is used for descriptions of books: Persius describes in detail the experience of writing with pen and ink on parchment — iam liber et positis bicolor membrana capillis / inque manus chartae nodosaque venit harundo.59 The parchment comes in two colors, although he does not describe precisely what that refers to.60 He bitterly complains about the supplies that poets and writers must use for their profession, that the act of writing and its technology are difficult. In an epigram, Martial gives a bittersweet recollection of his many years of friendship with Julius. He assesses the friendship with color-terms: et si calculus omnis huc et illuc / diversus bicolorque digeratur / vincet candida turba nigriorem — ‘and if all the pebbles were sorted into two separate colored piles, one here and one there, the white crowd would be victorious over the black crowd.’61 He compares their 34 years of friendship to two groups of pebbles representing their good and bad times; this type of comparison becomes a trope employed by Martial, setting up an opposition for both positive and negative situations. As in the passage cited above in which he uses discolor, Martial prefers to use the single color-term bicolor before listing the specific color-terms for black and white. This technique provides a clearer explanation for his readers and also emphasizes the dual nature of good and bad in friendship.

MULTICOLOR When Roman authors described many colors at one time, they had several options, of which versicolor has already been discussed. When they chose the rare color-term multicolor, it may suggest that the object was not changeable. For example, in describing the mithrax stone, which, Pliny says, derived its many colors from the reflection of the sun — Mithrax e Persis venit et Rubri maris montibus, Ov. Met., 10.98. Pers. 3.10–11. 60 On the colors of bicolor parchment, see Johnson (1973). 61 Mart. 12.34.5–7. 58 59

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multicolor ac contra solem varie refulgens.62 The name of the stone may be derived from the rites of Mithras in Persia and the Eastern provinces. Unlike versicolor, the term multicolor appears to have positive connotations. In The Golden Ass, the Egyptian goddess Isis, who is called upon by the protagonist Lucius at his time of need, wears a dress which is described as multicolor — now white and shining (nunc albo candore lucida), now yellow like a crocus-flower (nunc croceo flore lutea), now burning red like a rose (nunc roseo rubore flammida), covered with a very dark cloak that sparkled with black glitter (palla nigerrima splendescens atro nitore).63 Here Apuleius lists the individual color-terms that comprise the general color-term multicolor; her dress gives off the appearance of texture as if it were covered with sequins. Her costume, which includes a cape, is a distinctly Roman touch.64 Multicolor reappears in the works of Prudentius, showing the persistence of this color vocabulary. Perhaps he was looking back on the classical texts when these terms were more commonly used. In his Hymn Before Meat, he evokes the Garden of Eden: Tunc per amoena virecta iubet frondicomis habitare locis, ver ubi perpetuum redolet prataque multicolora latex quadrifluo celer amne rigat. Then He bade man dwell in a leafy place, Ranging over pleasant lawns, where The scent of spring was unending and A swift stream in fourfold channel Watered the many-colored meads.65

As in Apuleius’ description of Isis, the color-term multicolor is again applied to something divine – in this case, a place where the scent

Plin. HN, 37.63.173. Apul. Met., 11.3. 64 On the cult of Isis in the Roman world, see Heyob (1975). 65 Prudentius, Liber Cathemerinon, 3.101–105 62 63

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of spring is eternal, and the individual colors of the fields are imagined as too numerous to describe individually.

OMNICOLOR There is only one instance in the surviving classical Latin literature of the color-term omnicolor, in a fragment in which Lucilius describes a poultice made from the first milk derived from a cow — permulsam fomento, omnicolore, colustra.66 The color-term omnicolor, which should mean ‘having every color’ or ‘all colors’ suggests that the object is infused with special properties, or with qualities that mark it as unusual. Since it is defining milk, which is normally associated with albus or candidus, it is possible that the author created this word on his own. The same word, however, survives in a work of Prudentius, describing the first church of St. Peter in Rome: Omnicolor vitreas pictura superne tinguit undas, Musci relucent et virescit aurum Cyaneusque latex umbram trahit inminentis ostri: Credas moveri fluctibus lacunar. Painting in diverse hues colors the glassy waves from above, so that mosses seem to glisten and the gold is tinged with green, while the water turns dark blue where it takes on the semblance of the overhanging purple, and one would think the ceiling was dancing on the waves.67

Here he describes a spectacular ceiling decorated with many colors, which he lists in profusion — gold which is ‘greening’ (virescit), blue (cyaneus, from Greek), and purple (ostri); but the overall impression is so powerful for him that he seems to embrace the painting in all its beauty, saying that it is omnicolor.

66 67

Lucil. 8.339. Prudentius, Peristephanon Liber, 12.39–42.

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UNICOLOR AND CONCOLOR In order to describe a uniformly colored object, Roman scientific writers would use unicolor. In his treatise on agriculture, Varro considers color an important criterion in selection of the best herd animals: Ergo qui suum gregem vult habere idoneum, elegere oportet primum bona aetate, secundo bona forma (ea est cum amplitudine membrorum, praeterquam pedibus capite), unicoloris potius quam varias. Therefore a man who wants to keep the herd pleasantly, should select, first animals of a good age, secondly in good shape (that is with good body parts, except for their feet and head), of only one uniform color throughout rather than mottled.68

Pliny also uses this term when describing human eyes: oculus unicolor nulli; communi candore omnibus medius colos differens — ‘nobody has eyes of only one color; with everyone the general surface is white but there is a different color in the middle.’69 He uses it again when comparing the qualities of female versus male cuttlefish: urinam mares movent; dulciores feminae sunt et unicolores — ‘the males are diuretic; the females are sweeter and of a uniform color.’70 Concolor is used frequently by a wide range of authors. Pliny uses concolor when he discusses gemstones and crystals, asserting that Ethiopian emeralds are not ‘pure,’ not the same color throughout — sed non facile puri aut concolores. 71 Here he notes the flaws of these gems, which are not as consistent in color as the very best stones. Another example is Vergil’s description of a bright white sow and her brood, which were the same shade throughout, suggesting their purity and magical nature: Ecce autem subitum atque oculis mirabile monstrum, candida per silvam cum fetu concolor albo procubuit viridique in litore conspicitur sus; Varro, Rust., 2.4.3. Plin. HN, 11.54.145. 70 Plin. HN, 32.32.103. 71 Plin. HN, 37.18.69. 68 69

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COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT But lo! A portent, sudden and wondrous to see, gleaming white amid the wood, of one color with her milkwhite brood, lay outstretched on the green bank before their eyes, a sow.72

The striking presence of this white creature is accentuated by the background of the scene, a green bank. Columella also uses the term in his discussion of raising sheep, commenting that the palate and tongue of a white sheep must be the same color as its wool — sed etiam si palatum atque lingua concolor lanae est.73 Silius Italicus describes an Iberian horse used in the games of victory against the Carthaginians as patrium frons alba nitebat / insigne et patrio per omnis concolor albo — ‘notable for its shining white forehead and feet of the same quality and colors as those of his sires.’74 Again, the best animal is the one that has the same color in its body and its coat. In another passage in the Punica, however, Silius uses concolor to describe a ferocious Moor, an enemy of Rome, whose skin is black (nigra viro membra), as is his clothing; his chariot is the same color as his horses, which Silius describes as a new device to inspire terror — totusque novae formidinis arte / concolor aequabat liventia currus equorum terga.75 In a similar vein, Lucan describes a poisonous snake, which blends in with a sandy background: concolor exustis atque indiscretus harenis / hammodytes — ‘the ammodytes [is] of the same color as the burnt sand and indistinguishable from it.’76 The snake, like the Moorish enemy, is a dangerous and untrustworthy creature. Concolor can be either positive or negative, depending on the context. Ovid applies concolor in the Metamorphoses to describe the anemone flower that springs up when Adonis is killed by a boar. He says that it is the same color as the hero’s blood (cum flos de sanguine concolor ortus) which he compares to the red of pomegranate Verg. Aen., 8.81–83. Columella , Rust., 7.3.1. 74 Sil. Ital. 16.348–349. 75 Sil. Ital. 7.684–686. 76 Lucan 9.715–716. Compare Pliny’s description of Nero in his chariot, wearing the same color (concolori) as the green powder on the arena floor: Plin. HN, 33.27.90. 72 73

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seeds (punica ferre solent).77 The color-term concolor can be applied to any color, in this case a pure red. Ovid considers how this flower is fleeting, like time and love and the relationship of Venus and Adonis; he links the color-term concolor with blood, sanguine, suggesting an association with the death of Adonis, and also with the pomegranate, punica, which carries an association with fertility and rebirth. Ovid also applies to the color-term concolor to the clean garments of worn by the people for a religious procession in honor of Janus: Vestibus intactis Tarpeias itur in arces, et populus festo concolor ipse suo est, iamque novi praeeunt fasces, nova purpura fulget, et nova conspicuum pondera sentit ebur. In spotless garments the procession goes to the Tarpeian towers, And the people wear the same color of the festival day, and now new rods of office lead the way, new purple gleams, and a new weight is felt by the far-seen ivory chair.78

The color of the ‘festival day’ is not specified but it is interesting to note that the people were required to appear in identical garments for a religious festival. Ovid recognizes that their uniformity on this occasion made a striking visual impression.79 In another description, this time of a violent storm at sea, Ovid employs the colorterm concolor when describing the gushing waves capturing the yellow sand as they churn away: Et modo, cum fulvas ex imo vertit harenas concolor est illis, Stygia modo nigrior unda, sternitur interdum spumis que sonantibus albet.

Ov. Met. 10.734–736. Ov. Fast., 1.79–82. 79 Sil. Ital. 3.23–24 echoes this idea; in the Punica, describing Hannibal’s temple, he says that clothing worn before the altars is never of different colors (nec discolor ulli / ante aras cultus). 77 78

158

COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT Now the water is tainted yellow, with sand churned from the depths, now blacker than the Styx, while the waves break white with hissing foam.80

Once again the visual impression is a powerful one. Here one element, earth, takes over the water, and then the water becomes blacker than the river of Hades. Statius adheres to this poetic trope, again using concolor to describe a similar storm: Inde horror aquis, et raptus ab omni sole dies miscet tenebras, quis protinus unda

concolor… The waters roughen, and snatched from all its sun, the day mingles darkness, which immediately is the same color as the wave…81

Once again, there is a dramatic image of one element overpowering another, as the sand and the waves become one color. Less dramatically, concolor was also used by poets to draw ironic connections. In the Punica, Silius describes the mineral riches possessed by Hannibal’s allies in Spain, and recounts how the ‘greedy Asturian’ miner plunges deep into the bowels of the earth, only to return with a face as yellow as the gold that he has dug — redit infelix effosso concolor auro.82 In his Ode to Maximus, Statius describes a Dalmatian gold miner who has just returned from the underworld of the mines, so pale and sallow that he is the same color as the gold he has mined, using the same phrase — ubi Dite viso / pallidus fossor redit erutoque / concolor auro.83 In an epigram Martial describes the dinner served by a host who owns more than his share of exotic goods — mullet fishes which were difficult to obtain and luxuriously served, compared to the common red crab which the poet eats at home: Immodici tibi flava tegunt chrysendeta mulli: concolor in nostra, cammare, lance rubes. Ov. Met., 11.499–501. Stat. Theb., 5.364–366. 82 Sil. Ital. 1.233. 83 Stat. Sil. 4.7.14–16. 80 81

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Mullets of huge size cover your yellow gold-inlaid dishes; Crab, you blush upon my plate, matching its color.84

Martial contrasts his friend’s extravagant taste with his own condition. His host has yellow dishes covered with gold, replete with large fish, but the blushing crab (rubes) echoes Martial’s own embarrassment at his poverty. Concolor was also used to talk about race. In the Punica, Silius Italicus describes a sacred bird who founded a temple to Venus in Libya, which is described as the same color as its dark wings — in Libyen piceis tranavit concolor alis.85 Here the poet employs the literary device of synecdoche, using the name of the country to mean its people. Lucan also uses the term when describing the various tribes that made up the army of Juba, an ally of Rome: Autololes, Numidians, Gaetulians, Moors who are the same color as Indians (tum concolor Indo Maurus) Nasamonians, and Garamantes.86 Lucan emphasizes the ethnic differences of these troops from Romans. His remark about the Moors being as black as Indians may imply an insult; here he uses the color-term concolor to suggest their uniform strangeness. Finally, in an epitaph from a columbarium, the title Concolor is given to a freedman: Concolor Victor Suavis Fidus (‘Victor was uniformly gentle and faithful’).87 Here the virtues of a person are considered as a shade of color for the owner of this tomb; concolor is used as a metaphor for his character. In a dream, Scipio Africanus is visited by the spirit of Virtue, who announces herself to Scipio: Mecum Honor ac Laudes et laeto Gloria a vultu / et Decus ac niveis Victoria concolor alis — ‘My attendants are Honor and Praise, Renown and Glory with joyful face, and Victory with snow-white wings like mine’.88 Concolor here equates Scipio’s victory with virtue.

Mart. 2.43.11–12. Sil. Ital. 3.682. 86 Luc. 4.677–679. 87 CIL VI 33953. 88 Sil. Ital. 15.98–99. 84 85

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SUMMARY Romans knew how to express the variegation of color in nature as well as in man-made materials, demonstrating how they observed change in objects, whether from life to death, sickness to health, beauty to ugliness. Color-terms such as versicolor, decolor and discolor could be applied scientifically to natural objects and landscape, and more abstractly to human relationships and emotions; these colorterms had the capacity to express multiple meanings in a single word, which could acquire positive, negative or neutral connotations: always negative with decolor, and almost never negative with discolor. Discolor was used to show the concept of difference or opposition, just as concolor showed the concept of uniformity or identity. Roman writers expanded their vocabulary by adding a prefix to the root word color, thereby allowing for a wider dimension of expression.

CONCLUSIONS: DID COLOR-TERMS HAVE AN ANCIENT HISTORY? Despite the best efforts of their moralistic writers, it is clear that ancient Romans loved to use and show themselves off in color. They employed a wide array of color-terms which made their way into literary expression and equally into every aspect of daily life. From the things that they wore, traded, and decorated with, we can see that the Romans viewed color as a valuable commodity. The attitude of the Romans towards color and descriptions is unlike that of the Greeks, which carried no strong connotations of positive, negative and neutral opinions. The Greeks also did not employ multiple color-terms in the same sentence, while the Romans frequently did. The sparring between Fronto and Favorinus in Aulus Gellius’ Attic Nights raises the issue of the differences between Greek and Latin color-terms, and shows how complex and frustrating the interpretation of color-terms could be, even for educated upper-class Romans. Although Favorinus makes a case for the Greeks, Fronto asserts that Roman vocabulary is richer and more inclusive, and has multiple terms for the same color. The Romans, he might suggest, have come a long way since their Greek predecessors. The dialogue begins with a discussion of two contrasting colors, red and green, or rufus and viridis, with their many variants — colors which were also frequently used in Roman interior decoration. What was seen in Roman material culture is reflected in the literature of the day. Romans manufactured dye colors from both natural and unnatural substances, and had strong ideas about which colors were preferred and appropriate. The process of dyeing, and the names of occupations connected with it, further enriched and expanded their vocabulary. The most valuable sources of information reveal the best dyes and paints available, as well as the best shades within each color. Colors in the Roman mind were infused with sensory experi161

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ence: smelly dyes like that of murex purple were also the most valuable. How the colors were obtained is reflected in their terminology: the names of armenium (ultramarine) and indicum (indigo), Tyrian and Sidonian purple, and cerasinus (cherry) describe their various origins. The brighter the color, in comparison with other dyes and natural stones, the more expensive it was to obtain, as noted in Vitruvius’ book De Architectura: the more pure and essential the color the more it was prized; for the practical Romans, however, mixed or imitation colors were also readily available. Certain colors were associated with specific types of clothing, used during the Roman cycle of life, for men and women, various occupations and religious functions. Though it is difficult to say what colors were in vogue and fashionable at exactly what period, it is possible to show gender-specific garments, and attitudes toward what was suitable for each social group. The concept of appropriateness — what is proper to wear at every age and on every occasion — is a necessary guide to the Roman psyche; in the Roman mind, when you are wearing color, you are on display and performing, whether it is in the public or private realm. Color-terms also create visual testimony for what made social hierarchy and class distinction so powerful. Freedmen who were social climbers were mocked for wearing bright colors that did not fit the image of Roman virtue. In the case of Trimalchio and Zoilus, they are literary examples of what Romans should not aspire to. The satires cited in Chapter Four concerning the social class of freedmen are laden with negativity, and may not be the most reliable sources of information, but what is consistent is that the freedmen are always marked with a type of hue that is not of the aristocratic order. In addition, sources such as Petronius’ Cena tell us that Romans were as passionate about their sports and the winning of their teams as they were dedicated on the battlefield. The use of color-terms shows the Romans’ strong attachment and loyalty to specific chariot teams, running from the poor man all the way up the ladder to the aristocratic order and even to the Emperor himself. The color-terms illustrate how these four teams penetrated into the social arena; color-terms related to clothing often show an allegiance to a particular team, both in inscriptions and literature as well. Color-terms play a large role in physiognomy — that is, in the description of specific parts of the body — hair, eyes, and com-

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plexion. Historians, biographers and poets all describe men and women with desirable and undesirable traits, creating literary tropes linking people and color-terms. The choice of color-terms was often directed by underlying physiognomic principles outlined by the Aristotelean schools and Polemo of Laodicea. Color-terms are used to create a flattering image for good emperors and a less attractive image for bad ones; cognomina based upon color-terms are often used in oratory to attack political opponents. By contrast, love poems are usually directed at blondes, although brunettes are described in more lascivious terms. In describing foreign people or non-Romans, color-terms such as rufus, flavus or fuscus show that the Romans labeled their fellow men in shades, just as many modern people see race. Comedies often feature a red-haired slave who is personified as a provincial country bumpkin unaware of his social faux pas. Referring to color is perhaps the only way some Latin writers, such as Martial, Juvenal, Persius and even Julius Caesar, could describe foreigners. Rarely examined in scholarship is a select group of colorterms based on the root word ‘color’ — versicolor, decolor, discolor, bicolor, multicolor, omnicolor, unicolor and concolor — which provide a glimpse into the Roman understanding of the concept of many- or single-coloredness. Each of these color-terms could be used in particular contexts with specific meanings: decolor is used to describe the horrors of war and to insult other races, whereas discolor describes the opposing colors of a game board, or wax tablets in the Senate. Unicolor and concolor can describe the perfection of something that is only one color throughout, or the unexpected reversal of the natural order, as in the case of storms at sea, when sand and water become the same color. Studying these terms gives a better sense of how the Roman gaze can be understood. These thematic chapters suggest certain general conclusions about the way to interpret Latin color-terms based upon their context. For example, many color-terms are employed in stock tropes or phrases that appear consistently in all kinds of literature, especially when applied to clothing and physiognomic descriptions; such phrases include Tyrios amictus, murice vestes, oculis caesiis and decolor Indus. Writers employ them regardless of genre, including poets, historians, orators and naturalists. Along with the category of color-terms built from the root word color, including versicolor, decolor, and the like, there is another group of color-terms composed of

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prefixes, such as perniger, subfusculus and incanus, which mute or intensify the root word; these prefixed terms may have been invented by such authors as Plautus, Pliny and Celsus. Finally there are color-terms that we need to guess from their context, such as Gellius’ observation about Bassus’ ‘purple’ horse, which could refer to its shiny coat as well as to its reddish hue. Aulus Gellius’ dialogue certainly shows how Romans valued precision in their own interpretation of color-terms. For the modern scholar, misunderstanding can arise from the translation of texts without considering their context. A study of Roman color-terms covers a great deal of territory, from the occupations that created the colors to the people who used them in public and private life. Color-terms evoked associations with social attitudes, sensory perception, and cultural values which enhanced their literal meaning. If we can understand colorterms in this capacity, we can gain greater insight into the Roman mind.

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Smith, M.S. (1975) Petronii Arbitri Cena Trimalchionis. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Snowden, F.M. (1983) Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Stewart, P. (2008) The Social History of Roman Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Swain, S. (2007) ‘Polemon’s Physiognomy,’ in S. Swain (ed.) Seeing the Face, Seeing the Soul: Polemon’s Physiognomy from Classical Antiquity to Medieval Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 125– 202. Swift, E. (2009) Style and Function in Roman Decoration. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. Thompson, D.W. (1966) A Glossary of Greek Birds. Hildesheim: Olms. Toynbee, J.M.C. (1973) Animals in Roman Life and Art. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Treggiari, S. (1969) Roman Freedmen During the Late Republic. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ——. (1979) ‘Lower Class Women in the Roman Economy,’ Florilegium 1: 65–86. ——. (1991) Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Varner, E. (ed.) (2000) From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture. Atlanta, GA: Carlos Museum. Vogt, S. (1999) ‘Aristoteles: Physiognomonica,’ in Aristoteles, Werke in Deutscher Übersetzung. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. Wallace-Hadrill, A. (1994) Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Watson, L. and P. (eds.) (2003) Martial: Select Epigrams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wild, J.P. (1964) ‘The Textile Term Scutulatus,’ CQ N.S.14: 263– 266. Wiles, D. (1991) The Masks of Menander: Sign and Meaning in Greek and Roman Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

173

Wöhrle, G. (2002) ‘Ps-Aristoteles De Coloribus — A Theophrastean Opusculum?’ In W.W. Fortenbaugh and G. Wöhrle (eds.). On the Opuscula of Theophrastus: Akten der 3. Tagung der Karl-undGertrud-Abel-Stiftung vom 19.–23. Juli 1999 in Trier. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 91–97.

INDEX OF LATIN COLOR-TERMS albatus 89–90 albens 25–26 albicans 101 albus 12, 15, 20, 49, 62, 95, 99, 113, 142, 144, 151, 153–156 amarantus/amaranthus 30–31 amethystinus/amethystos 25–26, 50–51 aquilus 101, 109, 122 armenium 21, 34, 162 ater 64, 99 atramentarius 32 atramentum 20–21, 36, 64 atricolor 65 atrior 15 auratus 82, 96, 137 aureus 12, 41, 74–75, 77, 79, 87, 92, 96, 121 aurum 11, 13, 21, 41, 44, 126, 154 bicolor 135, 151–152 caeruleus/caerulus 15–17, 34, 56, 60, 89, 105, 127, 129, 130, 143 caesius 16, 89, 104–105, 110, 119, 123, 127, 163 callaina 56 candicans 151 candidior 131 candidus 42, 63, 76, 87, 95, 100– 102, 109–110, 124, 152, 154–155 candor 63, 104, 118, 123, 153, 155 canus 89, 90, 115, 117

carinarius 27 cerasinus 75, 77, 111, 162 cera 25 cerussa 21, 34 chrysendeta 158 chrysocolla 21, 34, 87 cinnabaris 21, 80 cocceus/coccus 31–32, 40, 46, 51– 52, 55, 60, 66, 73–74, 81, 90, 98, 119, 136 coccinatus 83 coccineus/coccinus 32, 37, 52–54, 61, 74, 80, 82, 89, 111, 123 color 6, 11–18, 21, 25, 28–29, 32, 34–36, 40, 42, 48, 86, 99– 103, 109, 114, 129, 131–132 colorare 143 colorator 28, 30 coloratus 128, 132–133 conchylius 35, 49 conchyliatus 31, 37, 80 concolor 87, 135, 155–160, 163 corcotarius 27 croceus/crocus 11–12, 19, 25–26, 28, 41, 59–62, 79, 87, 96, 153 crocotus 49, 62 decolor 135, 141–147, 149, 159– 160, 163 decolorare 141–144 dibaphos 27 discolor 1, 4, 135, 146–152, 157, 159–160, 163 eretria 21 exanguis 99

175

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expallidus 103 ferrugineus/ferruginus 61, 86–87, 117 flammarius/flammearus 27 flammeum 4, 27, 57–59 flammeus 2, 12, 27, 57 flavens 13, 107, 120–121 flavescere 107, 121 flavus 4, 12–17, 77, 96, 108, 110–111, 119–121, 124, 127–128, 158, 163 fulvus 12–14, 17, 61, 96, 119, 157 fuscare 143 fuscus 109, 118, 121, 123–124, 131, 163 galbinatus 80 galbinus 56, 60, 77, 81 gilvus 15, 17 glaucus 15, 17, 63–64, 87, 101 hysginum 28, 32, 37 ianthinus 31 igneus 12 inauratus 77 incanus 115–116, 164 indicum 21, 34, 162 livens 128, 156 lividus 3, 35 luteolus 142 luteus 4, 12–13, 15, 17, 28, 49, 57–58, 61–62, 86, 96, 153 melinum 20–21 minium 21, 34, 37, 79, 87 molocinarius 27, 31 multicolor 135, 152–153, 163 murex 2, 25, 28–31, 35, 41, 43, 46–48, 50, 163 myrteus/myrtus 25, 65, 80–81, 151 niger 12–13, 20, 28, 64, 76, 100, 108, 112–113, 117–118, 121, 123, 125, 132, 136, 141, 143, 146, 156 nigerrimus 153

nigrescere 143 nigricans 29 nigrior /nigror 15, 123, 152, 157 niveus 58, 62, 68, 89–90, 124– 125, 159 ochra/ochre 21, 33 omnicolor 135, 154, 163 ostrinus 31, 37 ostrum 11, 31, 35, 42, 61, 80–81, 154 pallere 3, 143 pallidus 3, 124, 143, 158 pallor 3, 5, 103, 106, 143 paraetonium 21 perniger 122–123, 164 poeniceus /puniceus 3, 12–13, 17, 123 prasinatus 75 prasinus 56, 73, 75–77, 80, 89– 92, 95, 140 pullus 52, 65–68 purpura 5, 22, 27–31, 35, 39–42, 45, 48–51, 73, 136, 157 purpurarius 27–28 purpureus 3, 25–26, 35–37, 40– 46, 51, 56, 60, 83, 87, 96, 124 purpurissum 21, 28 roseus 42, 82, 87, 153 ruber 11–12, 20, 34–35, 79, 83, 109, 113, 152 rubere 11, 25, 42, 131, 158–159 rubens 28, 43, 78, 80–81, 111, 138 rubicundus 113 rubidus 12–13, 15, 111, 114 rubor 5, 11–12, 42, 77, 78, 95, 106, 110–111, 153 rufus 11–13, 15, 111–115, 119, 126, 161 rufinus 129–130 rufio/rufreius 112, 114–115 rubrica 21, 33 rubricatus 80

INDEX russatus 95, 111 russeus 54–55, 73, 75, 77, 88–89, 95, 111 russus 12, 86 rutilare 120–121, 128 rutilatus 127 rutilus 12–13, 111, 127–128 sandaraca/sandraca 21, 33–34, 37 sandyx 21, 28, 123 sanguineus 12, 104, 145 saturatus 43, 47 silacius 20 sinopis 20–21 spadix 3, 12–13, 15, 17 subaquilus 118, 122 subauratus 74 subflavus 101, 104 subfuscus 128 subfusculus/suffusculus 130, 132, 164 subniger 113

177 subrufus 34, 113 sucinus 119 syricum 21 tyrianthinus 31 tyrius 25, 29–30, 41, 43–44, 48, 50–51, 163 unicolor 20, 135, 154–155, 163 venetus/venetianus 55–56, 89, 92, 94 versicapillus 116–117 versicolor 4, 20, 42, 135–141, 152–153, 159, 163 violacius 27, 35 violarius 27 virens 12 virere 115, 125 virescere 154 viridis 1, 11–13, 15, 56, 89–90, 92–93, 115, 117, 124, 129, 145–146, 151, 155, 161

INDEX OF CLASSICAL WORKS CITED Ammianus Marcellinus 22.16.23 132 25.10.14 105 28.4.18 82 30.9.6 105

Arrian Indica 16.4 133 Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 2.26 2, 9–18, 24, 105, 129, 161 3.9.8–9 17

Apuleius Metamorphoses 2.2 110 2.7 54 2.13 131 8.27 50, 62 10.20 50 11.3 153 11.9–10 63

Caesar De Bello Gallico 5.14.3 129 Catullus 36.11–13 105–106 39.1–2 110 45.6–7 104–105 61.5–10 59 66.62 120 67.45–46 113 93 99

Aristophanes Aves 2.72 18 Equites 1406 18 Aristotle Historia Animalium 1.10/492a4 102

Celsus 2.6.4 143 2.8.23 143

[Aristotle] Physiognomica 806b10 117 807b 103, 105, 111 808a 105 809b14–35 102–103 811a25 117 811b 103 812a 102, 106, 111, 130

Cicero Ad Atticum 14.9.1 35 14.12.3 35 Brutus 18.70 20 De Haruspicum Responsis 21.44 60

179

180

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De Legibus 2.23.59 49 De Natura Deorum 1.83 105 De Officiis 1.24.104 In Verrem 1.13.40 148 Pro Caelio passim 114 Pro Milone 60 115 Pro Sestio 33.72 114 Tusculan Disputations 2.8.20 144 Claudian In Eutropium 1.109 82 Columella De Re Rustica 3.21.3 140–141 7.3.1 156 12.49.9 142 12.54.1 143 Dio Cassius 62.2.3–4 118 63.6.3 85 67.4.4 85 77.7.2 91 78.1.2 91 Dio Chrysostom [Favorinus] Orations 37 23 Diodorus Siculus 31.15.2 73

Ennius Annales 372–373 16, 105 440 13–14 Festus 79.23L/89M 58 79.19L/89M 27 Florus Epitome of Roman History 2.13.45 67 Fronto Correspondence II, 48–49 20 Herodian 1.7.5 107 Herodotus 1.98 19 Homer Iliad 8.1 19 23.382 16 Horace Carmina 1.5.4 119 2.4.14 120 2.16.35–36 29 3.4.33 129 3.9.19 120 4.4.4 119 Epodes 12.21 29 Satirae 1.2.80–82 124

INDEX Juvenal 2.97 56, 60 3.66 3.168–170 56 3.283–284 52 5.141–145 93 6.120–122 121 6.599–601 146 7.134–136 48, 51 7.191–192 64 7.225–227 141 11.198 92 11.200 85 13.164–165 127 Livy

9.40.3 137 34.1–8 136 39.39.2 63 45.7.4 66–67

Lucan 3.76–78 128 4.677–679 159 6.654–656 149 7.851–852 144–145 9.715–716 156 10.127–128 149 Lucian Eunuch 7 23 Lucilius 8.339 154 Lucretius De Rerum Natura 2.50–52 40 2.416 79 2.500–501 40 4.75–83 86 4.1160–1161 123

181 Martial 1.96 51 1.104 45 1.49.31–32 29 1.117 46 2.16 82 2.43.7–12 53, 158 3.74.1 125 3.82.5–12 80–81, 91 4.42.5–10 131 5.2.6 111 5.8.5 83 5.23.5–7 32, 47 5.35.2 83 5.37.7–8 121 5.43 125 5.68 121 6.11.7–8 46 6.46 94 6.58.7–8 66 6.61.3–4 128 6.93.7–10 125 7.4 89 8.48.5–8 47 9.35.7 131 9.62 30, 48 10.10.12 46 10.30.15 82 10.48.23–24 89 10.50 52 10.68.3 133 10.76.7–9 52, 66, 89– 90 11.1 52 11.21.9 129 11.33 90 11.39.11–12 48 11.53.1–4 130 12.34.5–7 152 13.71 81 14.17 148 14.26 121 14.131 53, 89

182

COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

Nonius 498L/318M 60 880L/548–549M 60 Ovid Amores 1.1.7–8 120 1.14.45 121 3.2.78–83 147 Ars Amatoria 1.331 43 2.657 124 3.129–131 146 3.169–184 25–26 3.189 68 3.269–270 125 Ex Ponto 3.2.74 119 3.8.7–8 30 Fasti 1.79–82 157 3.493 124 5.355–360 140 6.652 120 Ibis 243–244 66 Medicamina Faciei Femineae 81–82 124 Metamorphoses 2.22–24 42 2.235–236 132 2.749 120 3.482–485 43 4.20–21 145 6.61–62 30 6.130 120 6.221 43 8.93 43 8.275 120 8.664 151 9.31–33 56 10.1 59 10.98 152 10.734–736 156

11.48 66 11.166 43 11.499–501 157 11.609–611 65 12.273 119 Tristia 1.10.1 120 Pacuvius Niptra 266–268 14 Persius 3.10–11 152 5.53–54 150 6.45–47 61 Petronius Satyricon 21 65 25–28 53, 58, 71–75 32–33 54, 74, 81 38 76, 80 43 117 46 80 60 76, 79 64 76 67–68 34, 77–79 70 85 83 117 97 149 Fragmenta 19 132 Philostratus Vitae Sophistarum 1.489 23 Plato Republic 8.557c 139

INDEX Plautus Aulularia 505–522 26–27, 31 Captives 646–648 113 Epidicus 231 60 Menaechmi 828–829 115 Persa 229–230 116–117 Poenulus 1111–1113 122 Pseudolus 1217–1220 113–114 Rudens 124–127 116 421–423 121–123 Pliny the Elder Historia Naturalis 7.2.24 126 7.34.120 63 7.53.186 88 8.73.193 28 9.30.66 138 9.56.114 78 9.62.135 29 9.65.139–141 31–32 10.2.3 147 10.74.148 57 11.26.76 44 11.54.143–145 102–104, 155 13.30.98 147 16.12.32 32 16.23.59 142 16.35.86 151 19.6.24 86 19.5.22 137 21.19.41 138 21.22.46 31, 57 22.3.3 32 24.47.79 125

183 28.29.113 138 28.51.191 121 30.28.94 77 31.32.61 142 32.32.103 155 33.27.90 87, 156 33.40.122 80 33.57.162 34 35.1.3 22 35.12.30 21 35.26.44–45 28 35.32.50 21 35.35.58 138 35.62.150 33 37.18.69 155 37.33.110 56 37.34.50 119 37.63.173 152 Pliny the Younger Epistulae 1.10 116 9.6 88 Panegyricus 48.4 107 Plutarch Cato Maior 1.3 112 Coriolanus 11.4 112 Sulla 2.1 112 Polemo Scriptores Physiognomonici I, 160 23 I, 172 103 Pollux Onomasticon 4.149 114 4.154 139

184

COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

Propertius 2.2.5–6 119 2.18B.31–32 130 2.25.41–46 123 3.7.47–50 140 3.13.32 140 4.1.15–16 87 4.3.10 146 Prudentius Peristephanon Liber 1.112–114 144 12.39–42 154 Liber Cathemerinon 3.101–105 153 Hamartigenia 497–498 146 Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 5.10.71 68 8.20 139 10.1.33 139 11.1.31–32 73 Sallust Bellum Catilinae 15.5 99 Scriptores Historiae Augustae Alexander Severus 41.1 78 Commodus 17.3 107 Diadumenos Antoninus 2.8 55 3.2–3 51, 108 Gallieni Duo 16.4 108 21.3 108 Gordiani Tres 6.1–2 109 Septimius Severus 19.9 108

Tyranni Triginta 30.15 118 Verus 4.8–9 91 6.2–6 92 10.7 107 Seneca the Younger De Constantia 18.1 103–104 De Ira 1.1.4 111 2.19.5 111 3.26.3 126 Epistulae 86.6 22 Quaestiones Naturales 2.40.6 143 Silius Italicus Punica 1.233 158 3.23–24 157 3.682 159 7.149–150 145 7.684–686 156 15.98–99 159 16.348–349 156 Statius Silvae 3.4.55–56 44 4.7.14–16 158 5.2.29–30 44 5.3.119–120 44 Thebaid 5.364–366 158 9.338 148 12.409–410 145 Strabo Geography 4.5.2.200 128–129 15.1.30.699 133

INDEX 16.2.23.757 30 17.3.18.835 30 Suetonius Augustus 4.2 144 79–80 101 82.1 93 Caligula 17.2 49 18.3 87 35.1 49 47 128 50.1 103 55.2 90 Claudius 30 104 Domitian 7.1 85, 96 18.1 106 Galba 21 105 Iulius 45.1 100 Nero 22.1 91 32.3 39, 51 51 104 Terence 4 109 Tiberius 68.2 102 Vergil 8 109 Vitellius 7.1 94 14.3 94 Tacitus Agricola 11 128 12.6 129 45 106

185 Germania 4 127 Historiae 3.67 67 4.61.1 127 Terence Heauton Timorumenos 1061–1062 119 Eunuchus 595 82 Tertullian De Spectaculis 9 95–96 Tibullus 1.2.25a–26 47 1.4.63 43 1.5.44 120 1.7.12 127 Ulpian Digesta 32.70.12 136 Valerius Maximus Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium 4.4 78 Varro De Lingua Latina 7.53 60 De Re Rustica 2.4.3 154–155 Velleius Paterculus 2.80.4 67 Vergil Aeneid 1.648–649 59 1.711 59

186

COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT 2.722 14 4.138–139 41 4.261–263 14, 41 4.590 120 4.698 120 5.374 14 5.565–566 151 6.201–204 150–151 6.302–304 117 6.809–812 115 7.279 14 7.448–449 57 7.688 14 8.31–33 63 8.81–83 155–156 8.276–278 151 8.659–661 126 9.614–616 42 10.180–181 42, 139 10.562 119 10.721–722 42 11.642 119 11.751 14 11.772–777 42, 62

12.605 120 12.885–886 64 Eclogues 4.42–43 28 Georgics 3.82 15 Vitruvius De Architectura 7.7.1–2 33 7.7.5 33 7.8.1 34 7.9.6 34 7.10.1–4 36 7.11.1–2 34, 36 7.12.2 34 7.13.1–3 35 7.14.1–2 36 Xenophon Cyropaedia 8.3.3 19

GENERAL INDEX Note: for references to Latin color-terms, see the Index of Latin Color-terms; for references to particular Latin authors, see the Index of Classical Works Cited. Achelous (river god) 56 Adonis 156–157 Aeneas 41–42, 126, 139, 150– 151 age-appropriate colors 73 agriculture 142–143, 154–155 amictus (garment) 30, 44, 46, 60, 64, 149, 163 amphitheaters 39, 49, 67, 86 anger, in physiognomic theory 106, 111, 115 animals, color descriptions and uses of: birds 18, 25–26, 77, 81, 140, 147, 159 cattle 18, 154 chameleons 138 crocodiles 124–125 dogs 76 frogs 19 goats 103, 120 horses 13, 15, 17–18, 43, 52, 55, 87–88, 91–92, 94–97, 102, 139, 146– 147, 151, 156, 164 lions 14, 42, 102, 104–105, 118 mice, rats 114

mollusks 2, 28–30, 35–36, 155 mullet (fish) 138, 158–159 panthers 103 pigs 155–156 sheep 28, 156 snakes 156 appropriateness, of colors in clothing 39, 60, 71, 73–75, 83, 93, 139, 161–162 architecture and interiors 19, 21, 33–36, 161 Aristotle, physiognomic theories of 102 armor 42, 93, 139 Assyrians or Chaldeans 130– 131 Aulus Gellius 2–3, 9–18, 24, 105, 129, 161 baldness 73, 103, 105–106, 117 Bassus (Gavius), rhetorician 17–18, 164 Bassus (Junius), consul 96 beards 18, 101, 107, 108, 112, 115–116, 133 birdcage 75

187

188

COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

blood 11–12, 18, 29, 58, 104, 111–112, 123–124, 132, 144–145, 149, 156–157 blushing 5, 25, 42–43, 78, 81, 111, 158–159 books and parchment 80, 100, 111, 141, 152 Boudicca 118, 133 Briseis 68 Britain and Britons 128–129, 132 Carthage and Carthaginians 30, 41, 59, 109, 122–123, 156 Catiline 99, 103 Cato the Elder 48, 112 chariot teams and chariot factions 55, 73, 75, 85–97, 156, 162 charioteers 52, 66, 85, 104, 156 Charon (god) 117–118 chemical processes, in dye manufacture 32, 34–36 Choromandae (barbarians) 126 Christians, attitudes of 95–97, 144, 146, 153–154 Civilis (Batavian chief) 127 Cleopatra 137, 149 clothing, checkered 56, 60 clothing, colors of 29, 39–69, 71–84, 93, 95, 123, 126, 149, 156–157, 162–163 cognomina 112, 163 color-terms, modern approaches to 3–7 coloratores see dyers colors (see Index of Latin Color–Terms for Latin equivalents): black 12–13, 15, 17–18, 20–21, 28–29, 32, 35–

36, 64–65, 76, 99–100, 108, 110, 112–113, 117– 118, 122–125, 131–132, 136, 141, 143–144, 146, 152–153, 156–159 blue 3, 15–18, 22, 32, 34– 36, 55–56, 60, 85–87, 89, 92, 94, 96, 104–106, 110, 119, 123, 127, 129– 130, 133, 143, 154 brown 3, 13–14, 17–18, 25–26, 28, 65, 101, 123, 144, 146 gold, golden 5, 11–14, 16– 17, 40–44, 50, 59–61, 74–75, 77–79, 85, 92, 96, 101, 107–108, 110, 118–121, 126, 135, 137, 146, 150–151, 154, 158– 159 gray 15–16, 18, 26, 52, 63– 68, 101–102, 104–105, 112, 115, 117, 126, 142 green 11–19, 22, 27, 32, 36, 52, 55–56, 65, 72– 73, 75–76, 80–81, 85, 87, 89–93, 95–97, 102, 115, 117–118, 124–125, 129, 133, 145–146, 150– 151, 154–156, 161 ochre 20–21, 33, 36 purple 2–3, 5, 11–13, 17– 18, 21–22, 25–32, 35– 37, 39–53, 56, 60–61, 68, 73, 80–83, 85, 87, 96, 124–125, 133, 136–137, 154, 157, 162, 164

INDEX red 3–5, 11–13, 17–18, 22, 27, 31–34, 37, 42, 52– 55, 75–78, 89, 95–96, 106, 110–115, 126–128, 153, 161–162 white 3, 13–17, 20–21, 25–26, 34, 42–43, 49– 50, 58–59, 62–63, 68, 73, 76, 85, 90, 95, 97, 99–104, 108–110, 112, 115–118, 124–125, 129, 131, 133, 136–137, 140, 142, 144, 151–157, 159 yellow 3–4, 11–15, 17, 20– 21, 25–28, 33, 36, 41, 49–50, 56–62, 77, 79– 81, 86, 96, 101, 107–108, 119–121, 124, 127–128, 142, 153, 157 colors, pairing of: purple and gold 40–44 red and green 17–18, 22, 87, 161 columbaria inscriptions 26, 28, 159 comedy, stock characters in 114, 117, 163 complexion, color of 6, 15, 83, 99–104, 106, 109–110, 112– 114, 122, 131–133 Cornelia 78 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) see inscriptions cosmetics 107, 120–121, 124– 125, 130 see also hair dyes, gold dust cucullus (garment) 52, 55, 66 curse tablets 95, 97 Cybele (goddess) 62 Dido 41, 59, 120

189 diseases see medicine dyers, and collegia of 26–28, 30–32, 36, 62 dyes and dyeing 1–2, 4–5, 19, 25–37, 40, 42–53, 56, 58, 61–62, 64, 86, 133, 136– 137, 161–162 economy, Roman 26–27, 46, 55, 62, 161 Eden, Garden of 153 Egnatius 110 Egypt and Egyptians 124–125, 130–132, 138, 153 Egyptian fabric manufacture 32–33, 62 Emperors: Alexander Severus 78 Antoninus Diadumenianus 51, 54–55, 108 Augustus 6, 22, 101–102, 126, 143–144 Caligula 22, 49, 51–52, 61, 85, 87, 90–91, 103–104, 128 Caracalla 85, 91 Claudius 22, 104, 112, 121, 128 Commodus 85, 107–108, 114 Domitian 83, 85, 96, 106– 107 Elagabalus 85 Galba 105–106 Gallienus 108 Gordian I 108–109 Hadrian 19, 23 Jovian 105 Julius Caesar 67, 99–100, 108, 128–129, 163

190

COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

Lucius Verus 20, 85, 91– 92, 107–108 Macrinus 54–55 Nero 22, 39, 51, 72, 79, 85–87, 90–91, 104–106, 119, 156 Septimius Severus 108 Tiberius 44, 102 Valentinian 105 Vitellius 67, 85, 94 Ethiopia and Ethiopians 126, 130, 132, 146–147, 155 Etruria and Etruscans 65, 132–133, 139 eyes, descriptions and colors of 6, 16, 22–23, 76, 99–106, 108, 110, 112–115, 118– 119, 122–123, 126–127, 133, 143, 155, 162 fans 80–82 Fates, the 66 Favorinus of Arles 9–12, 15– 19, 23–24, 105, 161 feathers 65, 80–82, 140, 146 Flaminica Dialis 58 Flora (goddess) 140 flowers 19, 58, 60, 138, 140, 153, 156–157 foreigners and barbarians, Roman attitudes toward 40– 41, 46, 59, 61–63, 91, 93, 108, 113–114, 118, 126, 128, 130, 133–134, 163 Fortunata 76–78, 81 freedmen 53, 71–83, 131, 140, 159, 162 Fronto, Marcus Cornelius 9– 18, 19–20, 24, 105, 129, 161 fruit 42–43, 140–143

games 73, 85–97, 146, 148, 156, 163 Gaul and Gauls 23, 35, 46, 61, 126–130 gausapa (garment) 53, 61, 65, 74 gemstones see minerals and gems gender, colors appropriate for 50–51, 56–62, 77, 80–81, 92–93 Germanicus 111 Germany and Germans 96, 120–121, 126–128 gold dust (sprinkled in hair) 107–108 Golden Bough (Aeneid) 150– 151 Greek color-terms 1–2, 5, 16– 19, 31, 73, 85, 90, 102, 112, 114, 118–119, 129, 133, 138–139, 154 Greek color-terms, comparison with Latin 9–11, 13–18, 161 Greek culture, admired by Romans 20, 23–24, 31 hair color: blond or fair 15, 101, 104, 107–108, 110–111, 118–121, 126–128 brown or black 101, 117, 121–124 red 112–114, 119, 126– 128, 134, 163 white or gray 90, 101, 104, 108, 115–117 hair dyes 107–108, 120–121, 127–128, 133 hairnets 78 Helen 59

INDEX Helios (god) 104, 107 Hercules (god) 9, 144, 151 Hymen (god) 58–59 Incitatus (charioteer) 52, 66, 89 India and Indians 34, 104–105, 133, 137, 145–147, 159 inscriptions 26, 28, 31–32, 90, 94, 112–113, 128, 130–131, 159 Isis (goddess) 50, 56, 62–63, 153 jewelry 41, 74, 77–78, 124 laws, color-terms in 48–49, 135–137 Lex Oppia 5, 135–137 lighting, influence on color 1– 2, 86 lightning 143 linen 49, 54, 61–63, 137–138 Lucius (in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses) 110, 153 luminosity see shining luxuria, and moralistic attitudes against 5, 39, 41, 45–48, 50, 53–56, 68, 72–83, 137, 140, 147, 158–159 marble 6, 16, 22, 51, 140 medicine 32, 142–144 Messalina 121 minerals and gems 14, 21–22, 33–36, 42, 50, 56, 79–80, 87, 124, 145–146, 152–153, 155, 158, 162 Minerva (goddess) 105, 120, 151 Moors 156, 159 mosaics 21–22, 65, 96, 104 Murex Brandaris 2, 28–30, 35– 36 Naiads and dryads 66

191 Neptune (god) 105 nicknames see cognomina Nisus, King 43, 127 old age, descriptions of 63, 73, 116–117 oratory see rhetoric and rhetoricians Paetus 140 painters, Greek 20–21, 138 paintings 21, 34, 50, 57, 75, 104, 138, 154 palla (garment) 43, 58–59, 153 pallium (garment) 53, 64, 67 Phoebus (god) 42–43, 65 physiognomy 23–24, 99–134, 162–163 Piazza Armerina mosaics (Sicily) 96 pigments, sources of 21, 28, 33–36, 50, 79–80, 130 pitch 124, 142 Polemo, physiognomic theories of 5–6, 23–24, 99–100, 103, 106, 111, 133, 163 polychromy, sculptural 6, 22, 101 Pompeii 26, 57, 75 Pompey the Great 67 Poppaea 119 Pseudo-Aristotle, physiognomic theories of 5–6, 102–103, 105–106, 111, 117 Ptolemy, King of Mauretania 49 Puteoli 28, 34–35 race see foreigners and barbarians rainbow 6, 138 religious cults, foreign 49–50, 56, 61–63, 153

192

COLOR-TERMS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

religious garments, colors of 4, 49–50, 58, 61–63, 157, 162 rhetoric and rhetoricians 11, 17, 20, 23–24, 68, 109, 111, 114, 139, 145 rivers 56, 63–64, 127, 145, 147–148, 158 sculpture, Greek and Roman 6, 21–24, 71, 101, 126 sea, color of 16–18, 55, 96–97, 105–106, 129, 145, 147– 148, 157, 163 shining, quality of 5, 29–30, 40–41, 49, 62–63, 101, 117, 153, 156 shoes, socks (garments) 29, 50, 53, 58–60, 62, 64–65, 77 silk, Coan 44, 49, 56, 80–81 silver 74, 81, 137, 142 sky, color of 16–18, 25, 55, 86–87, 96, 105, 129 slaves 53–54, 71, 73, 76–79, 82–83, 85, 112–114, 116, 121–122, 129–131, 134, 146, 149, 163 smell, of dye process 29–30, 47–48, 82, 162 soap and cleaning industry 68 social classes, colors appropriate for 71–83, 162 see also sumptuary laws sprinkling, of colored materials 34, 79–80, 87 Sulla 112 sumptuary laws 48–49, 135– 137 teeth 76, 101, 110, 112, 118, 125–126 Terence, description of 109

textiles see dyes and dyeing, linen, silk, wool theft, of clothing 47 thorax (garment) 92–93 Tiber (river god) 63–64 toga (garment) 29–30, 44, 46– 47, 50, 56, 62–63, 65, 68, 76, 124 trees 13–14, 17, 19, 75–77, 142, 150–151 Trier, Imperial Baths, mosaics 96 Trimalchio 53–54, 61, 65, 71– 80, 83, 85, 95, 117, 162 triumph 128 Troy and Trojans 41, 61 Turbans (garments) 41–42, 49, 60, 138–139 undergarments 60, 73 uniformity of color 154–159 urbanitas 24, 114 variegation in color 135–141, 151–154 vela (awnings) 85–87 Venus (goddess) 44, 47, 105, 122, 157, 159 Verecundus, Workshop of (Pompeii) 26 Vergil, description of 109 Vestorius (dye maker) 34–35 Virro 92–93 wall paintings see paintings wax tablets 148–149, 163 weddings 2, 27, 57–59 wigs 121, 124 women, attitudes toward 78, 119, 135–136, 139 women, colors appropriate for 25–26, 50, 56–60, 81–82, 135–136, 162–163

INDEX women, descriptions of 76–78, 100, 118–125, 129–130, 133–134

193 wool 25–26, 28–30, 43, 52– 53, 62, 64, 66, 73, 76, 136– 137, 156 Zenobia 118, 133 Zoilus 71, 80–83, 91, 140