The term laticlave designates, in ancient Rome, an honorific insignia (ornamentum) reserved for the members of the senatorial order.
It consists of wide purple bands that cover vertically the Roman togas, the tunica laticlavia. By extension the laticlave designates the own tunic. The term laticlavii thus designated the young people who went to the senatorial order.
Under the Republic, its use is more widespread and its hierarchical attribution seems to date from Sila. Previously, it was only an element of prestige, certainly hereditary, consubstantial to the patrician class and to the aristocracy. It is likely that its origin is Etruscan, although Strabo refers that the Baleáricos presumed to have been the first men who dressed this tunic.
The use of the laiclave robe seems to have continued, deprived of its original value, in the epoch of early Christianity, as some representations of Christ impel.
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