Capitium
Capitium a portion of a woman's dress, said by Varro to be so called because it covers (capit) the breast (Varr. L. L. 5.131, and de Vita P. R. iv. ap. Nonium, p. 542, s. v. capitia: cf. Gel. 16.7.9; Dig. 34, 2, 24). The word itself might lead us to suppose that it was originally, like capital, a covering for the head; but there is express testimony that it was worn over the tunic (Laber. ap. Aul. Gell. l.c.) and covered the breast, not the head (Müller, ad Fest. p. 57). Rich, and after him Saglio, have identified it as a corset, not unlike those still worn by the present women of Italy, and have figured it from a sepulchral marble published by Gori (Inscript. Antiq. Florent. p. 344).
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.