A Girl's Dress.

Freeborn girls, that is, girls whose parents were not slaves, wore the same costume as free-born boys: a toga worn over a tunic. The toga was the toga praetexta with a purple border that had to be made of wool. The purple border was, at least in origin, apotropaic—that is, it protected the wearer against the Evil Eye or other unseen dangers that might attack a child. She would wear her hair carefully combed, braided and tied with a single band of wool cloth called in Latin a vitta, or in English, a "fillet." The fillet was probably white and it signified purity. A boy would also wear a bulla or a locket, which contained an amulet—that is a charm which was worn to ward off evil spirits or miasmas that might infect him—but...