praetexta

plural praetextas · plural praetextae · alternative prætexta

1. Ancient RomehistoricalA white robe with a purple border, worn by a Roman boy before he was entitled to wear the toga virilis, or until about the completion of his fourteenth year, and by girls until their marriage. It was also worn by magistrates and priests.

   It gave to Pompey the Great the privilege of appearing in triumphal robes, and with a golden crown at Circensian games, and with a praetexta and golden crown at theatrical plays.

   1886 October 30, Claverley, “The Origin of the Drama, and Old Dramatic Writers of Tragedy”, in Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, volume 62, number 9,350, Supplement, page 2

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   The officers who had attended the proceſſion, ſtripped off the robes in which they were dreſſed, and caſt them in the flames. Women crowded to the pile, and threw upon it, as a ſacrifice to the manes of the dead, the ornaments of their own perſons, the gorgets and the prætextas of their children.

   1783, Adam Ferguson, chapter II, in The History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic, volume III, Dublin: Printed for Meſſrs. Price, Whitestone, Colles, […], book V, page 73

   In ancient Rome, after a boy celebrated his sixteenth birthday he was considered a man. He threw aside the praetexta worn in his youth, and donned the toga of a full-fledged Roman citizen.

   1896 May 17, “A Chicago Boys First Vote”, in The Sunday Inter Ocean, volume 25, number 54, Chicago, Ill., page 23