tribon

• a threadbare cloak, Aus. Epigr. 53.

TRIBONThe τρίβων was a variety of ἱμάτιον, belonging to the class of the χλαῖναι διπληγίδες [see PALLIUMp. 321], and was the national garb of Sparta, worn by every male over twelve years of age. Its use spread to Athens, having been introduced by such imitators of Spartan life (λακωνίζοντες) as Cimon. It is best known in history as the dress of Socrates (Plato, Symp. p. 219 B), adopted afterwards by the Cynics, with whom it became a professional costume. The chief merit of the τρίβων was that it was worn alone, without a shirt. The references to the shirtless condition of the Cynics are countless, from the sneer of Kerkidas at Diogenes as being διπλοείματος (cf. Hor. Ep. 1.17, 25, quem duplici panno patientia velat) down to the time of Juvenal, who describes the only difference between the Stoic and the Cynic as being a shirt ( tunica distantia, Sat. 13.122). The Cynic women followed the same fashion, as did also the wife of Phocion, who on occasion wore her husband's mantle. The τρίβων was of a dark colour (φαιὸς) and of coarse but thick material. The manner of wearing it seems to have varied according to the length at which the owner wished to have it. It was of coarse woollen cloth, worn with a brooch, but the pinning does not seem to have been invariable, for on many of the statues of philosophers on which it appears there is no brooch or pin shown. [PALLIUM]

(τρίβων). A garment worn in Doric States by men and ephebi, generally in a double fold over the chiton. It was considerably shorter than the himation (q. v.). At Athens also there was a tendency to imitate Spartan simplicity, especially on the part of the philosophers, among whom this garment was worn chiefly by the Cynics (Auson. Epist. 53). Cf. abolla.