2010/09/01 by Melissa Rothfus · 33 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Classical Antiquity Studies #Classical Studies and Legal History #Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History #Elite #Legitimacy #Politics #Adornment #Political science #Order (exchange) #Sociology #Gender studies #Political economy #Humanities #Art #Aesthetics #Law #Economics
paper · doi:10.1353/ajp.2010.0009
published in The American Journal of Philology 131(3), 425-452 (Johns Hopkins University Press)
openalex publication_date 2010/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/13
The end of the Republic and the early Augustan period witnessed several changes in the size and drape of the "elite" toga. The implementation of the toga, with its capacity to change, demonstrates elite anxiety over their rank and status and the ways in which elements of adornment could be used to assert, defend, and manipulate identities in response to changing political and social circumstances. As a tool for maintaining order by demonstrating legitimacy, the changeable toga was adopted by Augustus as he and members of Rome's elite each negotiated his own place in the Roman world.