Male dress in Rômania
Aristocratic casual
An affluent man’s casual wear
This style of tunic with its long front opening was called makhlamion in the eleventh and twelfth century. It is the precursor to the deep V-neck line of the courtier’s long sleeved tunic. The loops of gold cord and large pearl buttons are based upon a popular novel of the period, Digenis Akritas. In the early tenth century Emperor Leo ‘the Wise’ legalised the sale of offcuts of purple dyed silk for use as trimmings. Scattered along these edgings are clusters of pearls, a motif echoing one recorded on imperial garments mentioned in the Book of Ceremonies.
Turbans wrapped over pointed padded caps are a notable fashion amongst Egyptians and Moors, but are also shown in pictorial sources in Rômania.
For a wide-ranging discussion of clothing and regalia in Constantinople and its pictorial and literary sources may be found in the author’s book, By the Emperor’s Hand: court regalia and military dress in the Eastern Roman Empire, Frontline Books, Barnsley 2015.