Hairstyles
Hair was clipped all over the head, but fell in
short locks on the forehead and at the nape of
the neck.
From the second or third century B. C. to the middle of the
first century AD men were smooth-shaven (always excepting some
uncouth country-folk like the one whom Martial, in a neat
epigram (XII, 59) calls a "shaggy farmer with a kiss like a
he-goat's").
Occasionally during that time, to be sure, the short
clipped beard would have a brief vogue; ordinarily, to let the
beard grow was a sign of mourning. From the time of Hadrian
(58-138 AD) it was fashionable to wear a clipped beard and
moustache, like that familiar to us in the portraits of King
Edward VII.
Hats were not a necessary part of costume, but they
existed, in the same styles and used for the same purposes as
among the Greeks
Wreaths were awarded as prizes, very much
as they were in Greece; the laurel was the usual leaf. The
special wreath or "corona triumphalis" worn by a
victorious general during his triumph was originally made of
real laurel and bay leaves, but was later imitated in
gold.
The "corona radiata" was the mark of divinity
(gold, and as its name implies, made to suggest the sun's
rays) and Nero and subsequent emperors actually wore it during
their lifetime, by virtue of the assumed divinity of the
Caesars.
Sources: History of
Costume, Historic Costume for the Stage by Lucy
Barton
Updated
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