Chap. 4.] THE ORIGIN OF GOLD RINGS. 73 



it originally by the Greeks is derived from the finger ;"^ while 

 our ancestors styled it '* iingulus i"'^^ and in later times both 

 Greeks and Latins have given it the name of " symbolum."^^ 

 For a great length of time, it is quite clear, not even the 

 Roman senators wore rings of gold-: for rings were given, and 

 at the public expense, to those only who were about to proceed 

 on an embassy to foreign nations, the reason being, I suppose, 

 because men of highest rank among foreign nations were per- 

 ceived to be thus distinguished. Xor was it the practice for 

 any person to wear these rings, except those who for this reason 

 had received them at the public expense ; and in most in- 

 stances, it was without this distinction that the Eoman generals 

 celebrated their public triumphs.-^ For whereas an Etruscan 

 crown ^*^ of gold was supported from behind over the head of 

 the victor, he himself, equally with the slave probably, who 

 was so supporting the crown, had nothing but a ring of 

 iron upon his finger.^^ It was in this manner that C. Marius 

 celebrated his triumph over Jugurtha ; and he never as- 

 sumed^- the golden ring, it is said, until the period of his 

 third consulship. ^^ Those, too, who had received golden rings 

 on the occasion of an embassy, only wore them when in public, 

 resuming the ring of iron when in their houses. It is in pur- 

 suance of this custom that even at the present day, an iron 

 ring^* is sent by way of present to a woman when betrothed, 

 and that, too, without any stone in it. 



For my own part, I do not find that any rings were used in 

 the days of the Trojan "War ; at all events, Homer nowhere 



•^ AaKTvXiov, from SuKryXog, a "finger." 



27 Festus says that this was the Oscan name for a ring. It would 

 appear to be allied to the word " unguis," which means a nail of the 

 finger or toe, and would perhaps signify a " nail ornament." 



28 As meaning a seal or signet, lor which purpose, as we shall find ex- 

 plained in the sequel, the ring was used. 



*9 This seems to be the meaning of " Vulgoque sic triumphabant." 



^^ As to these crowns, see h. xxi. c. 4. 



31 As to some other particulars connected with this usage, see the end 

 of B. xxviii. c. 7. 



-*- And yet, as Hardou'n remarks, before his time, when Scipio was 

 besieging Carthage, the bodies of the Roman tribunes, when selected for 

 burial by Ilasdrubal, were distinguished by their rings of gold. The 

 object of Marius, no doubt, was to ingratiate himself with the upper classes. 



33 A.r.c. 651. 



3* Known as the "anulus pronubus," or "engaged ring," according to 

 Dalechamps. 



