Loros

The loros (Greek: λῶρος lōros) was a long, narrow and embroidered scarf, embroidered with gold and heavily embellished with gems, 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. 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.

The first representations of the loros are on coins from the reign of Justinian II (r. 685–695 and 705–711). 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. By the Komnenian dynasty, the old loros was completely abandoned, after a period when both designs are seen. 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. 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.

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