FASCIA (tainia), dim. FASCIOLA, a band or fillet of cloth, worn,

1. round the head as an ensign of royalty (Sueton. Jul. 79) [DIADEMA; woodcut to FALX]
2. by women over the breast (Ovid, De Art. Amat. iii.622; Propert. iv.10.49; Fascia Pectoralis, Mart. xiv.134) [STROPHIUM]
3. round the legs and feet, especially by women (see the woodcut under the article LIBRA).

Cicero reproached Clodius for wearing fasciae upon his feet, and the Calantica, a female ornament, upon his head (ap. Non. Marc. xiv.2). Afterwards, when the toga had fallen into disuse, and the shorter pallium was worn in its stead, so that the legs were naked and exposed, fasciae crurales became common even with the male sex (Hor. Sat. ii.3.255; Val. Max. vi.2 §7; Grat. Cyneg. 338). The emperor Alexander Severus (Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 40) always used them, even although, when in town, he wore the toga. Quintilian, nevertheless, asserts that the adoption of them could only be excused on the plea of infirm health (Inst. Or. xi.3). White fasciae, worn by men (Val. Max. l.c.; Phaed. v.7.37) were a sign of extraordinary refinement in dress: the mode of cleaning them was by rubbing them with a white tenacious earth, resembling our pipe-clay (fasciae cretatae, Cic. ad Att. ii.3). The finer fasciae, worn by ladies, were purple (Cic. de Harusp. Resp. 21). The bandages wound above the legs, as shown in the illuminations of ancient MSS. prove that the Roman usage was generally adopted in Europe during the middle ages.

On the use of fasciae in the nursing of children (Plaut. Truc. v.13) see INCUNABULA.

William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875. p 521.