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 p2  Abolla

Article by James Yates, M.A., F.R.S.,
on p2 of

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.

ABOLLA, the Latin form of ἀμβόλλα, i.e. ἀναβολή, a loose woollen cloak. Nonius quotes a passage of Varro to show that it was a garment worn by soldiers (vestis militaris), and thus opposed to the toga. Its form and the mode of wearing it are seen in the figures annexed, taken from the bas-reliefs on the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus at Rome.

It was, however, not confined to military occasions, but was also worn in the city (Suet. Cal. 35). It was especially used by the Stoic philosophers at Rome as the pallium philosophicum, just as the Greek philosophers were accustomed to distinguish themselves by a particular dress (Juv. IV.75; Mart. IV.53, VIII.48). Hence the expression of Juvenal (IV.75) facinus majoris abollae merely signifies, "a crime committed by a very deep philosopher" (Heinrich, ad Juv. l.c.; Becker, Gallus, vol. II p99).

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