G-string Clad Gladiator Found

[Andrew Dalby]

(I'm replying to myself here) I first noted the words, I might add, when researching for a paper that I wrote a few years ago on the dress of entertainers and prostitutes. I noted that, whenever there happens to be evidence on the subject, the evidence is that entertainers didn't appear nude on a public stage (with the sole exception, once a year, of the Roman festival Floralia). For example, in Procopius's /Secret History/ (ch. 9), we read about all the exciting things that Theodora did before she married Justinian, and about the one thing she didn't quite do, which was to strip naked on stage.

 

Andrew,

 

What about during the Cordax one might encounter in Gades? Or if one where around the Empire to witness the d

[Pantagathus]

At private parties, no doubt, anything went including clothes, but I think not generally on stage or in public. You could crissare in a g-string I would imagine (I won't try it). That was all that Theodora wore; thinking about it in later years, Justinian was probably very pleased she did ... The fact that total nudity was normally beyond the limit (if my conclusions were correct) helps to explain why exactly the Floralia were different.

 

Thank you

 

Do you think that this was always this way or only later during the more Christian era?