trabea

English[edit]

trabea (plural trabeae)

(historical, Ancient Rome) A toga of purple, or ornamented with purple horizontal stripes, worn by kings, consuls, and augurs.
- 1767, Basil Kennett, Romae Antiquae Notitia:
  When the emperors were themselves consuls, they wore a Trabea adorned with gems, which were allowed to none else.

FWOTD – 14 August 2017

Perhaps from trabs (“rafter, beam”) +‎ -eus, in reference to the horizontal stripes of red or purple that adorned the garment.

trabea f (genitive trabeae); first declension

A white or purple toga, or possibly mantle, ornamented with red or purple stripes, associated with the equestrian class.
The purple-bordered toga praetexta worn by augurs, other priests, and certain Republican officials.
A red or purple garment said to have been worn by Romulus and other early Roman kings and consuls, also used to decorate divine images.
(Late Latin, Medieval Latin) The elaborate ornamental dress of late Imperial consuls.

“trabea”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“trabea”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
trabea in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
trabea in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
“trabea”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
“trabea”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin