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 p639  Instita

Article by James Yates, M.A., F.R.S.,
on p639 of

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

INSTITA, (περιπόδιον), a flounce; a fillet. The Roman matrons sometimes wore a broad fillet with ample folds, sewed to the bottom of the tunic and reaching to the instep. The use of it indicated a superior regard to decency and propriety of manners (Hor. Sat. 1.2.29; Ovid, Ars Amat. I.32). It must have resembled a modern flounce. By the addition of gold and jewellery it took the form of the more splendid and expensive Cyclas.

When this term denoted a fillet, which was used by itself, as in the decoration of a Thyrsus (Stat. Theb. VII.654), it was equivalent to Vitta or Fascia. [Tunica.]


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