Tell me the title of the book you saw that claim in and I'll read it. Peach is one color I have not seen attributed to prostitutes so far.
Super late, about four years late lol, but it's a common theme in most art of prostitutes wearing shortened tunics often very brightly colored and little to no patterns and a brightly colored togas paired with it. Long flowing hair or low ponytails and very exaggerated makeup to highlight the features. Other than the toga and makeup, they didn't wear too much jewelry as that seemed to be a pirvilage only free women could enjoy depending on which time during the empire you look at.
Actually no, I've been distracted and haven't thought much about this topic in a while. Can you identify any particular images that support your statement? Or any articles that discuss them? Wall painting from the Villa San Marco, Stabiae. Is she a prostitute? How could we tell? More than two years ago , I did some reading in an attempt to learn what kinds of clothing were likely worn by prostitutes in ancient Rome. The short answer to that question appeared to be that scholars don't really know what the prostitutes wore, because the written evidence on the subject is, at best, lacking in context and difficult to interpret.
Thus, I've had the opportunity to review not only Olsen's article about the clothing distinctions between matrons and whores, but also to read the other articles in that book about prostitution in antiquity. When I first wrote about this topic, a Roman-era reenactor commented to chide me for apparently accepting the idea that there was such a thing as sacred prostitution in ancient Rome.
Having read Prostitutes and Courtesans, it's clear that, if anything, he understated the case. The weight of modern scholarship maintains that there is no evidence for sacred prostitution anywhere in the ancient world, period. The belief that there was such a thing appears to have arisen from a variety of translation errors and perhaps some overheated scholarly imaginations during the Victorian period and afterward.
