{{Short description|Ceremonial type of imperial Byzantine costume}} {{Distinguish|Louros}} {{Italic title}} [[File:Nicephorus III and Maria of Alania BnF Coislin79 fol2bis.jpg|thumb|Emperor Nicephorus III and Empress Maria with the old male and new female styles]] The '''''loros''''' ({{langx|el|λῶρος|lôros}}) was a long, narrow and embroidered cloth, which was wrapped around the torso and dropped over the left hand. It was one of the most important and distinctive parts of the most formal and ceremonial type of imperial Byzantine costume, worn only by the Imperial family and a few of the most senior officials. It developed out of the ''trabea triumphalis'' of the Roman consuls. There were different male and female versions.<ref>Parani, 25-27 on the female version</ref> Byzantine sources speak of the "''loros'' costume" as the ''loros'' dictated the rest of the imperial outfit. The slightly less formal, and more secular, imperial costume, which was also that normally worn by high officials on official occasions, was the ''chlamys'' costume.<ref>Parani, 11-18</ref> Underneath either the ''loros'' or the ''chlamys'' were worn the ''divetesion'' ({{lang|el|διβητήσιον}}), a long silk robe, and a tunic.<ref>Grierson, 119</ref>
==Male== [[File:Solidus-Tiberius II-Sear 421x422.jpg|thumb|left|Obverse: A bust of Emperor Tiberius II Constantine facing, wearing a crown and consular robes with a ''loros'', holding a ''mappa'' in his right hand and a cross on an eagle on sceptre in his left hand]] thumb|left|A mid-10th century ivory relief showing a Byzantine emperor wearing the traditional ''loros'' in a very accurate carving
The first representations of the ''loros'' are on coins from the reign of Tiberius II Constantine (r. 578 - 582 AD).
Other examples can be seen on coins minted by emperors like Justinian II (r. 685–695 and 705–711).<ref>Parani, 18</ref> Until the 10th century, the male ''loros'' was wrapped around the torso in a specific way, following the ancient ''trabea''. However, increasingly from the 11th century, the ''loros'' acquired a new design. The new ''loros'' had a loop that went round the neck and was pulled on over the head.<ref>Parani, 19</ref> By the Komnenian dynasty, the old ''loros'' was completely abandoned, after a period when both designs are seen.<ref>Parani, 20</ref> By the 14th century the strip down the front may have been sewn onto the tunic beneath, and the ''loros'' may have been called a ''diadema'' instead.<ref>Parani, 22-23</ref> Despite the modifications, the ''loros'' was the most important part of the imperial costume up until the end of the empire in the 15th century.
Although in practice it was, according to the ''De Ceremoniis'' by Constantine VII, worn only in exceptional occasions such as on Easter Sunday, Pentecost, sometimes other feasts, and to receive important foreign visitors, the ''loros'' was an integral part of imperial portraiture. In earlier periods it was worn in triumphal processions.<ref>Parani, 23-24</ref>
The ''loros'' was also worn at Easter by the "twelve dignitaries", holders of the ranks of ''magistros'' and ''anthypatos'', as well as by the Eparch of Constantinople and the ''zoste patrikia'' during the ceremonies of their promotion.<ref>Parani, 35</ref> It was said to symbolize the winding-sheet of Christ, with the officials as the Twelve Apostles.<ref>Parani, 23-24</ref> It is also worn by archangels in Byzantine art,<ref>Parani, 20, notes</ref> which spread to medieval art in the West, as they were regarded as the high officials of God. It seems the ''loros''-costume was not worn at the coronation of the Emperor, although he was given it in the course of the ceremony, and when crowned by Christ in art always wears it.<ref>Parani, 14, 24; the point is somewhat unclear</ref>
From the 13th century the ''loros'' began to be shown worn in imperial portraits of other Orthodox rulers, such those of Serbia, Georgia and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. In the Bulgarian Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, the tsar and his son both wear it.<ref>Evans, Helen C. (ed.), ''Byzantium, Faith and Power (1261–1557)'', 8, 2004, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, {{ISBN|1588391140}}, [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/58371/rec/1 Fully online from the Metropolitan Museum of Art]</ref> Westwards, a mosaic in the Church of Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio shows King Roger II of Sicily wearing "the raiment of a Byzantine emperor", including a ''loros''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Greek Art: Byzantine Mosaics |last=Chatzidakis |first=Nano |publisher=Ekdotike Athenon S.A. |year=1994 |isbn=960-213-314-7 |location=Athens |pages=247}}</ref> The ''Stola'', a 14th-century garment in the Imperial Regalia of the Holy Roman Empire, was made to be worn like a ''loros''; misinterpretation caused later generations to wear it in the manner of a priest's stole, although it was too long for the purpose.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Masterpieces of the Secular Treasury (A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum 2) |publisher=Skira editore and Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna |year=2008 |isbn=978-3-85497-123-8 |location=Milan and Vienna |pages=70 |editor-last=Seipel |editor-first=Wilfried}}</ref>
==Female== [[File:Byzanz- Irene - Münzkabinett, Berlin - 5505281.jpg|thumb|250x250px|Crowned empress Irene wearing a ''loros'', holding a globe with a cross (''sphaira'') in her right and a cross scepter in her left hand]] At first empresses wore essentially the same form as emperors, but from around the 9th century a new style appears. The hanging end was longer and much broader, and after reaching down to the ankles turned upwards to be folded over the left forearm, or fastened or tucked into the belt. The wide end has the appearance in paintings of a round-topped shield tapering to a point, at an oblique angle.<ref>Parani, 25</ref> In the 13th century this shield shape is no longer seen, and the female form returns to being that of the now modified male one for the last phase of the empire.<ref>Parani, 25-26</ref> Empresses also wore a wide jewelled "superhumeral" collar in matching styles to the ''loros'', and perhaps attached to it. This was the distinctive garment of empresses and also worn on other occasions, and copied by other upper-class women; the modified male ''loros'' created much the same effect.
==Gallery== {{Gallery | width=140 | height=150 | align=center | File:Flavius Anastasius Probus 01b.JPG | A Roman consul wearing the ''trabea triumphalis'', 517 AD | File:Porphyrogenetus.jpg | Constantine VII wearing the traditional ''loros'' though not accurately wrapped, 945 AD | File:Romanos et Eudoxie.JPG | The Romanos Ivory showing emperor Romanos wearing an accurate modified ''loros'', probably 945–949 AD | File:Император Иоанн II Комнин.jpg|John II Komnenos. Although the relief is anachronistic and the emperor wears simultaneously both the ''loros'' and the ''chlamys'' (the coat on top), something which was never the practice, the wrapping of the loros beneath is carved accurately, 1143 AD. | File:Manuel1 Marie.jpg | Manuel I Komnenos wearing the modified ''loros'', 12th century | File:Andronikos II Palaiologos.jpg|Andronikos II Palaiologos, r. 1272–1328 | File:Ivan ALexander and his family Tetraevangelia.jpg|Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, 1355–56, portrait of the Bulgarian tsar and his family | File:Davit Agmashenebeli.jpg| A fresco of Georgian King David IV (r. 1089–1125) from Gelati Monastery | File:Georgian Icon of the Archangel Gabriel.jpg|A Georgian icon of the Archangel Gabriel | File:Stola Wien Schatzkammer 1.jpg| Detail of the ''Stola'' of the Holy Roman Empire, a Western adaptation of the ''loros''; preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna }}
==Notes== {{Reflist|2}}
==References== {{Commons category}} *{{cite book|last=Grierson|first=Philip|title=Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, Volume 3, Part I|location=Washington, DC|publisher=Dumbarton Oaks|year=1973|isbn=9780884020455|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dDH8GM4xrysC}} *{{cite book|last=Maguire|first=Henry|title=Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204|location=Washington, DC|publisher=Dumbarton Oaks|year=2004|orig-date=1997|isbn=978-0-88402-308-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qjy2d8ExpTAC}} *{{cite book|last=Parani|first=Maria G.|title=Reconstructing the Reality of Images: Byzantine Material Culture and Religious Iconography (11th–15th Centuries|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden|year=2003|isbn=9004124624}}
Category:Byzantine regalia