• Median Period (675-550 BC)
• Achaemenid Period (550  – 356 BC)

According to the Encylopedia Iranica (EI), the clothing did not change significantly from 675 to 356 BC, so I will discuss them at the same time. EI divides male costuming into 4 categories:

• Court dress
• Cavalry dress of the Persians and related groups
• “Greek” style which includes a short tunic and a loose mantle open in front
• “Indian” style which includes a kilt with or without a mantle

Colors: The warriors wore red, the priests white, the land-owners blue. The king wore combinations of all three colors to symbolize his authority over the three estates.

Male Court Dress:

Court dress consisted of some form of headwear, a shirt or tunic, and foot gear. In some cases, they also wore some form of overgarment and pants.

Court headwear:

There were three main types of headwear worn at court:

• Crowns (including fillets, diadems and headbands)
• Scarves (perhaps early turbans?)
• Hats

The most common form of crown was a tall crenellated cylinder worn by the King, Prince and other noble courtiers. The King’s crown was usually pictured as the tallest. It is possible that the King’s crown was made of a different material than the others. The wall murals at Persopolis showing Darius the Great are a good example of this crown.

Another form of “crown” was described by the Greeks as some type of soft fillet with ear flaps. There were multiple forms (one was named the “Phrygian cap” by the Greeks). One extent cap was found in the Pazryk burial mounds.

Court Over Garments

All court garments appear to be made of long, flowing fabric, finely pleated. They were probably made of silk.

• Vest with no sleeves worn by Darius the Great.
• The most common garment was the long over-robe with wide sleeves. According to EI, "it was probably constructed by a simple rectangular piece of soft material, reaching in front and back from neck to ankle, and in width from wrist to wrist, arms outstretched, with a slit for the head." On the murals traces of paint can be seen indicating the robe was originally painted with concentric circles of red or purple. See the detail view on the views of Darius the Great.
• A sleeveless robe reaching to the knees, worn slung over the shoulder and fastened in front by an elaborate fibula just below the right shoulder is also a type of garment worn for court.
• There is also "...a tight-fitting, sleeved coat, cut obliquely at the side to allow ease of movement while riding. It was either made of leather with fur-lined edges or was entirely of fur or skin (similar to the modern pustin) and could vary in ornamentation and color. The name of this eastern Iranian coat may have been gaunaka. Widengren derived the word from Avestan gaona- which means either “color” or “hair.” As he pointed out, however, other evidence suggests that the garment “got its name because it was an extremely hairy coat.” It was worn by the Soghdians,Choresmians and the Amyrgian Saka on the walls of Persepolis.
• "Finally there was a short, sleeved coat made of sable fur or of a “double thickness of very thin white felt” decorated with leather appliques covered with gold disks."

Court Under Garments

Greek writings state that the wore a chiton or shirt underneath the court robe. According to EI "Xenophon (Cyropaedia 8.3.13) emphasized that the wearing of a purple chiton “shot with white” was a prerogative of the great king, and Quintus Curtius (3.3.17) confirmed the fact and described the item as “a purple-edged tunic woven about a white center.” The Greeks called this garment a "chiton" but they said the Persian word for it sarapiÞ. An extent shirt was found in the Pazryk burial mounds that is contemporary with this area.

Male "Cavalry" Dress

Candys (Cavalry Coat)

This coat, also known as the "Median Robe" had long, false sleeves and probably developed into the Sassanid riding coat. The coat was worn slung over the shoulders.

This garment is primarily known from Greek writings. According to EI "Xenophon, Anabasis (the oldest source in which the term occurs) describes the candys as a purple outer garment worn by high-ranking Persians in the entourage of Cyrus the Younger; under the candys they wore costly tunics (khitônes), colored trousers (anaxyrides), and jewelry, such as necklaces and bracelets." In Cyropaedia , "Cyrus is said to wear a solid purple (holopo rphyros) candys over a purple tunic shot with white (the typically royal dress) and scarlet trousers"

"Xenophon also states, however, that horsemen put their arms through the candys only when the king was inspecting them. Pollux (Onomasticon 7.58), who lists the candys among typi­cally Persian clothing, distinguishes between the royal candys dyed with true purple (halipo rphyros) and the ordinary purple type (porphyroûs), adding that there is also a variety made of skins." There is an extent coat from the Pazryk burials which appears to be a candys made of fur.

Under the candys, they also wore a shirt or tunic. The Greeks called this garment a "chiton" but they said the Persian word for it sarapiÞ. An extent shirt was found in the Pazryk burial mounds that is contemporary with this area.

Pants completed the ensemble. According to EI, several types of pants were worn with the cavalry dress:

• "One variety, represented among the gifts presented by the Medes, Sagartians, and Pointed-Hat Scythians, consisted of tight-fitting leather breeches terminating in shoes, which obviated the horseman's need for additional footgear.
• Another type, more common in eastern Iran and worn on the Apadana reliefs by Delegations IV , was shorter and wider, producing a “baggy” effect when tucked into boot tops The Persians on the Alexander sarcophagus wear trousers of fine cloth tightly covering their legs and feet; they are painted in blue, yellow, violet, and red, sometimes patterned or ornamented with floral motifs.
• A variant, worn by members of Delegation XV (perhaps Parthians; on the Apadana stairway facade, by Persians on some Greco-Persian gems by a silver figure in Berlin and by a Persian magnate represented on an ivory plaque from Demetrias in Macedonia fell in horizontal folds, indicating that they were of very soft materials, per­haps silk."