Roman Emperor Clothing - The Color Purple and the 'Trabea' Toga
The most associated color with Roman Emperor Clothing is the color purple. Only a Roman Emperor was allowed to wear the 'trabea' which was a toga entirely colored in purple and worn on ceremonial occasions. Statues of gods were also dressed in the purple trabea toga, emphasising the importance of the color and of course associating the Emperor with the Roman gods. The purple toga was also referred to as the Toga purpurea. Lesser mortals such as kings, senators, young sons of senators, augurs and some other important priests were allowed to have purple stripes on their togas. The width of the stripe varied accordance to their status.Roman Emperor Clothing - Tyrian Purple Dye
Tyrian Purple Dye was an extremely expensive dye which originated in Tyre in Lebanon. The Phoenicians owned the monopoly on this purple dye which was was made by crushing thousands of sea shells called the Mediterranean Murex. It took ten thousand Murex mollusks to make dye just one toga worn as an time of Roman Emperor clothing. Tyrian purple dye was worth more than its weight in gold and therefore came to symbolise both the wealth and power and the Roman Emperors.Beginning in about 1500 BC, the citizens of Sidon and Tyre, the citizens of two cities on the coast of Ancient Phoenicia, (present day Lebanon), began to exploit a remarkable new source of purple; a sea snail called the spiny dye-murex. This deep, rich purple dye made from this snail became known as Tyrian purple, or imperial purple.The process of making the dye was long, difficult and expensive. Thousands of the tiny snails had to be found, their shells cracked, the snail removed. Mountains of empty shells have been found at the ancient sites of Sidon and Tyre. The snails were left to soak, then a tiny gland was removed and the juice extracted and put in a basin, which was placed in the sunlight. There a remarkable transformation took place. In the sunlight the juice turned white, then yellow-green, then green, then violet, then a red which turned darker and darker. The process had to be stopped at exactly the right time to obtain the desired color, which could range from a bright crimson to a dark purple, the color of dried blood. Then either wool, linen or silk would be dyed. The exact hue varied between crimson and violet, but it was always rich, bright and lasting.Rev. 16:19, "And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and the great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath."Rev. 17:3, "So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."