The tunica, corresponding to the Greek chiton, was of woolen material, usually natural-colored or white; it consisted of two pieces seamed together at the sides and sewed also at the top, leaving a space for the head at the top and spaces for the arms at the sides.
This sleeveless tunica was the usual one for manual laborers, and was frequently worn slipped off the right shoulder, in the Greek manner. Sleeves to mid-arm were also common. The tunica was worn girded, except for informal privacy. Its usual length, when girded, was to the knee in front and possibly three inches shorter in back.
In the course of time the tunica sleeves became more definitely shaped and, gradually, somewhat longer; in the later Republican period these variations already existed. A tunica with sleeves to the wrist was called the manicata, that which had skirts to the ankle as well as long sleeves, the talaris.
Julius Caesar is said to have worn a long-sleeved tunica and he was considered eccentric in his dress, but by Nero's time long sleeves were common. The tunica with shaped, wide sleeves developed wider and somewhat longer sleeves and in the second and third centuries AD became known as the dalmatica.
Till the end of the third century the decorations of the tunica were a matter of class distinction, and were generally no more than the clavi.
The augustus clavus was a stripe about one and a half inches wide, of purple like the praetexta band; it extended down each side of the tunica, front and back. This was the mark of the upper classes, strictly speaking only those of the rank of knight or above, though members of other selected groups, such as the Camilli (youths in the temple service), wore it also.
After about 300 AD it lost its class significance and became purely decorative, appearing on feminine as well as masculine dress. The latus clavus, about which much controversy has raged, is concluded by the most careful investigators to have been only a wide version of the augustus clavus -- probably measuring three inches or more -- applied in the same way. In its original significance it was the mark of a senator, who, by the way, wore his tunica somewhat longer than the ordinary, and ungirded.
The tunica palmata was, originally, reserved for use with the toga picta. It was purple embroidered with gold, at first in a palm design; by Imperial times, however, no restriction was placed on the decorative motifs chosen. This tunica, originally worn only in a triumph, became the usual dress of the emperors from Nero onward, and was after a while adopted by others of the court. As a sleeved garment, with increasingly elaborate embroidery, it developed into the magnificent dress of the Byzantine court.
