“Ordinary Romans recognized, and usually respected, the distinctive dress of the elite. . . .
    At the very top of the cursus honorum, the censors wore all-purple togas to mark them out from the curule magistrates who wore the toga praetexta, while military commanders who qualified for a triumph, the Roman state’s highest award, were granted the most striking form of public dress available: the vestis triumphalis, which comprised the tunica palmata (a purple tunic with gold palm branches embroidered into it) covered by a toga picta (a purple toga emblazones with gold stars). Public dress thus contributed significantly towards dividing the Roman citizen body into its various status hierarchies. Rome was a culture of spectacle, and the spectacle of dress helped to emphasize some of its most important values.”

—Jonathan Edmondson, ‘Public Dress and Social Control in Rome’, from Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture, edited by Jonathan Edmondson and Allison Keith, 2008.