Ancient Greek/Roman Customs, Culture, Clothing, Historical Events

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During the Archaic period, Greek men wore a long chiton; thereafter, except for charioteers, priests, and the elderly, they wore a knee-length version. Sleeved chitons were worn by actors and priests. Patterns and colours varied with the times and with the status of the wearer.

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himation, mantle or wrap worn by Greek men and women from the Archaic through the Hellenistic periods (c. 750–30 bce). A very large rectangle of fabric, the himation was draped in different ways—e.g., as a shawl, a cloak, or a head covering—during various periods.

Usually made of white wool, the version worn by women could be of coloured silk or cotton. A somewhat shorter Greek wrap was known as a chlamys.

From my reading...It seems that women sometimes wore three layers and men wore one or two layers of fabric.

source

I am still mulling over what Epicurus might have worn. Would Epicurus have worn something that conveyed the image of status and wealth? I personally would think that he would have worn something more plain (but perhaps there were festival days in which a finer weave of cloth was worn).

I found an article "What Did Jesus Wear" which also talks about ancient Greek clothing, and you can see a picture of a sculpture of Demosthenes, which gives some insight into possible clothing of Epicurus.

And so of course this would have been a little later than Epicurus:

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Much is now known about clothing in 1st and 2nd century Judaea, because

many fragments of the tunics worn by people then have been found in caves

and tombs bordering the Dead Sea, where the dry climate has allowed their

preservation. For example, picture 6 shows a tunic recovered from the Cave

of Letters, a burial site near the Dead Sea. From the archaeological remains,

and from comparable art from Egyptian mummy portraits, Pompeii and

elsewhere, we can visualise what people wore. It is clear that Judaeans were

part of the Mediterranean world and dressed much like everyone else.

An ordinary man in Jesus’ world would wear a short tunic, called a chiton,

in Greek (in Latin a tunica) and a woman would wear an ankle-length one.

The long version, the stole, in Greek (or stola in Latin), was understood to

be women’s clothing, when not worn by high-status men. A higher hemline

indicated masculine wear.

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The long, rough mantle of some philosophers (worn without a tunic

underneath) could be called a tribon – literally a ‘worn thing’, or even a ‘rag’

– or a peribolaion, a ‘wrap’. Their garment, if a long diploida, a ‘double’ piece

of cloth, was distinguished by quality from the expensive type of wrap the

gods would wear. These were generally worn wrapped around the middle

of the body under the armpits and then slung over the left shoulder, as we

see in the sculpture of Demosthenes.

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Regarding the Mediterranean (but not specifically Athens):

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Colourful clothes, like long garments, were associated with women’s attire.

...However, one cannot be too absolute in an association between colour

and women’s wear. In Pompeian frescoes, both men and women are shown

with coloured tunics and mantles, even though the men are also dressed in

white or undyed tunics. Tough guys might choose to eschew colour, but

it was always a choice, and not a rule. One factor that could easily offset a

manly preference for undyed or white clothing was the concern to show

riches and status.

Clothing found in Masada and the caves by the Dead Sea is often highly

coloured: bright shades of red, yellow, orange, blue, green, and types of

purple, including bold, striped cloth for blankets and rugs. In visualising

clothes in Jesus’ time, these remains ask us to imagine people wearing a

kaleidoscope of hues. The question then is whether dyed clothes mainly

belonged to women? Or did these clothes sometimes belong to wealthy

men who wished to show they could afford expensive dyes,...

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https://christianevidence.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/What-Did-Jesus-Wear.pdf

An interesting article: "Ancient Greek and Roman statues often smelled like roses, a new study says":

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Cecilie Brøns, a senior researcher and curator of the Glyptoteket museum's collection of ancient Greek and Roman art in Copenhagen, Denmark, says ancient texts provide evidence that statues were often scented with perfumes, oils and waxes.

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/25/nx-s1-5332367/ancient-greece-rome-statues-smell-study-research