Abolla

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Abolla (Latin form of ἀμβόλλα, i.e. ἀναβολή) was a garment worn by Ancient Greeks and Romans. Nonius Marcellus quotes a passage of Varro to show that it was a garment worn by soldiers (vestis militaris), and thus opposed to the toga. Its form and the mode of wearing can be seen in a bas-reliefs on the Arch of Septimius Severus at Rome.

It was, however, not confined to military occasions, but was also worn in the city. It was especially used by the Stoic philosophers at Rome as the pallium philosophicum, just as the Greek philosophers were accustomed to distinguish themselves by a particular dress. Hence the expression of Juvenal (iv.76) and Martialis (iv.53.8.48) facinus majoris abollae merely signifies, "a crime committed by a very deep stoic" (iii, 115-116).

Source

  • Abolla (article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities)