An abolla was a cloak-like garment worn by ancient Greeks and Romans. Nonius Marcellus quotes a passage of Varro to show that it was a garment worn by soldiers (vestis militaris), and thus opposed to the toga.
The abolla was, however, not confined to military occasions, but was also worn in the city.[1] It was especially used by the Stoic philosophers at Rome as the pallium philosophicum, just as the Greek philosophers were accustomed to distinguish themselves by a particular dress.[2] Hence, the expression of Juvenal facinus majoris abollae merely signifies, "a crime committed by a very deep philosopher".[3][4][5]
The term abolla is actually a Latinization of the Greek ambolla (ἀμβόλλα) or anabole (ἀναβολή), for a loose woolen cloak.[6]
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