Those who were asking votes for a public office wore it white (_candidus_), and therefore were called candidates.

The consuls had it on great days entirely purple and embroidered, and all senators and ex-magistrates had broader borders of purple.

The ladies wore a long graceful wrapping-gown; the boys a short tunic, and round their necks was hung a hollow golden ball called a _bulla_, or bubble.

When a boy was seventeen, there was a great family sacrifice to the Lares and the forefathers, his bulla was taken off, the toga was put on, and he was enrolled by his own praenomen, Caius or Lucius, or whatever it might be, for there was only a choice of fifteen.

After this he was liable to be called out to fight.