Why Did Ancient Greeks Wear Togas?

When we think of the clothing style of ancient Greeks and Romans, flowing robes, tunics and togas—not pants—usually come to mind. And for good reason: the Greeks and Romans deliberately avoided wearing trousers, largely due to xenophobia and sexism.

To the Greeks, trousers were barbaric, or the garb of non-Greek barbarians. And they saw wearing trousers as effeminate and a sign of weakness.

Greek clothing was typically made from simple linen or wool cloth squares, cylinders or rectangles that were draped on the body and fastened in place. Some types of garments were exclusively for men or women, while some were unisex, but worn differently by each genders. For instance, both men and women wore a plain, sleeveless white tunic called a chiton, which was ankle-length for women and knee-length for men.

The Greeks may have thought the Amazons—fierce female warriors who were often antagonists of Greek heroes and long believed to be mere myths by historians—created trousers. Often paired with a long-sleeve top, trousers were also associated with numerous nomadic, horse-riding peoples ranging from the Black Sea to the western border of China, and thus considered too foreign for the Greeks to adopt.

Additionally, in ancient Greece’s male-centered, male-dominated society, “real” Greek men did not wear trousers invented by women or purposely cover their lower bodies. They may have also been uncomfortable with the equalizing quality of trousers—in other cultures, women wore trousers and engaged in the same physical activities as men did.

As with many other aspects of life, the Romans inherited their fashion from the Greeks. They dressed much the same, and the distinctive Roman toga was based on the Greek himation, a large outer garment worn as a long cape or cloak. Romans also inherited their cultural biases from the Greeks—they saw nomadic, trouser-wearing tribes as barbaric and did not like pants simply because of their association with non-Romans.

As the Roman Empire expanded, however, Roman troops began fighting side by side with newly conquered tribes like the Germans and Gauls. They began wearing military trousers instead of flappy tunics on the battlefield, and this innovation slowly spread to civilians.

In AD 397, the Roman brother-emperors Honorius and Arcadius banned civilians from wearing trousers, a mark of the military. The ban became moot when the western Roman Empire fell in 476.

By the 6th century, trousers, paired with a sleeved top, became the official Roman uniform in the Constantinople court, the last remaining Roman court.