The exomis was a Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 tunic

Tunic

A tunic is any of several types of clothing for the body, of various lengths reaching from the shoulders to somewhere between the hips and the ankles...

 used by workers and light infantry. The tunic largely replaced the older chitoniskos as the main tunic of the hoplites during the later 5th century BC. It was made of two rectangles of linen

Linen

Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....

 (other materials were also used), which were stitched together from the sides to form a cylinder, leaving enough space at the top for the arms. An opening at the top was also left for the head. The cylinder was gathered up at the waist with a cloth belt using a reef knot

Reef knot

The reef knot or square knot is an ancient and simple binding knot used to secure a rope or line around an object. Although the reef knot is often seen used for tying two ropes together, it is not recommended for this purpose due to potential instability of the knot.A reef knot is formed by tying...

, which made the cloth fall down over the belt, hiding it from view. To allow freedom of movement to the right arm, the seam at the right shoulder was taken apart, and the right hand was passed through the head opening.

The color of the tunic varied, but red (especially crimson) was increasingly the standard color preferred by hoplites during and after the Peloponnesian War

Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...

.

The exomis could be worn in conjunction with the chlamys

Chlamys

The chlamys was an ancient Greek piece of clothing, a type of cloak....

(also known as ephaptis) cape.