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p1075 Subligaculum

Article by James Yates, M.A., F.R.S.,
on p1075 of

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

SUBLIGACULUM (διάζωμα, περίζωμα), drawers (Joseph. Ant. III.7 § 1). This article of dress, or a bandage wound about the loins so as to answer the same purpose, was worn by athletes at the public games of Greece in the earliest ages [Athletae]: but the use of it was soon discontinued, and they went entirely naked (Schol. in Hom. Il. XIII.683; Isid. Orig. XVIII.17). The Romans, on the contrary, and all other nations except the Greeks, always adhered to the use of it in their gymnastic exercises (Thucyd. I.6; Schol. in loc.; Clem. Alex. Paedag. III.9; Isid. Orig. XIX.22). It was also worn by actors on the stage (Cic. de Off. I.35), by those who were employed in treading grapes [Torcular] (Geopon. VI.11), and by the Roman popa at the sacrifices, and it then received the denomination limus (Virg. Aen. XII.120; Servius, in loc.), which name was also applied to it as worn by Roman slaves (Gell. XII.3). The circumstance of the slaves in India wearing this as their only covering (Strabo, XV.1 § 73, p156, ed. Sieb.) is agreeable to the practice of modern slavery in the West Indies and of tropical countries.

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