Paenula

For a genus of spiders, see Paenula paupercula.

The paenula or casula was a cloak worn by the Romans, akin to the poncho (i.e., a large piece of material with a hole for the head to go through, hanging in ample folds round the body).[1] The paenula was usually closed in the front but, occasionally, could be left with an open front; it could be also made with shorter sides to increase mobility for the arms.[2] This was originally worn only by slaves, soldiers and people of low degree; in the 3rd century, however, it was adopted by fashionable people as a convenient riding or travelling cloak, and finally, by the sumptuary law of 382 (Codex Theodosianus xiv. 10, 1, de habitu . . . intra urbem) it was prescribed as the proper everyday dress of senators, instead of the military chlamys. Thereafter, the toga was reserved for state occasions.[3]

According to early Christian leader Tertullian, pagans customarily took off their paenula when praying to their gods, and he criticised any Christian who also took off their paenula when praying, calling it "superstition."[4][5]

  1. ^ Radicke, Jan (2022). 7 paenula – 'poncho'. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 375–378. doi:10.1515/9783110711554-023. ISBN 978-3-11-071155-4.
  2. ^ Carl Köhler (2012). A History of Costume. Courier Corporation. p. 115. ISBN 9780486136059.
  3. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Phillips, Walter Alison (1911). "Vestments". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 1057.
  4. ^ René Krüger, Thomas H. Tobin SJ, Timathy J. Lang, Douglas A. Campbell, Benjamin Schliesser, Jeremy Punt, Péter Balla, Matthias Konradt, François Tolmie, J. Paul Sampley, Korinna Zamfir, Friedrich Wilhelm Horn, Robert E. Moses, Jorg Christian Salzmann, Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, David Hellholm, Michael Labahn, William Tabbernee, Daniele Tripaldi, Silke Petersen, Tobias Nicklas, Werner Kahl, Roland Bergmeier, Helmut Schwier, Predrag Dragutnovic, Lung-Kwong Lo, Michael Welker · (2021). Talking God in Society Multidisciplinary (Re)constructions of Ancient (Con)texts. Festschrift for Peter Lampe. Vol. 2: Hermeneuein in Global Contexts: Past and Present. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 250. ISBN 9783647573182.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Robert Sinker (1900). Essays and Studies. Deighton, Bell and Company. p. 93.