abolla

plural abollae · plural abollas

1. A cloak made of a piece of cloth folded double, worn by Ancient Greeks and Romans draped over one shoulder and fastened with a brooch.

   The best abollas were dyed with the Tyrian purple.

   1805, David MacPherson, Annals of Commerce, Manufactures, Fisheries, and Navigation, with Brief Notices of the Arts and Sciences Connected with Them, Volume 1, page 159

   3 more examples

   Ceispinus did not heed to whom he gave his Tyrian abolla (cloak used at suppers) when he changed his dress, and resumed his toga. Whoever has got it, we pray thee, restore it to its proper shoulders. It is not Crispinus, but his abolla requires this of thee; for it is not every one to whom a dress dyed with purple is suitable; that colour is excluseively appropriated to luxury. If thou art addicted to theft, and feelest a craving thirst for gain, take a toga, not an abolla; there will be less danger of detection.

   1858, Andrew Amos, Martial and the Moderns, page 285

   The woollen abolla also dated back to republican days and was fastened in the same way.

   1987, David J. Symone, Costume of Ancient Rome, page 20

   "They say she disapproves of the Vestal Virgins," Vulpius added, lowering his voice as a group of young men came down the street, their abollae pulled up to help them keep dry or to conceal their faces.

   2008, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Roman Dusk: A Novel of the Count Saint-Germain, →ISBN, page 115