80 PLINT's NAiUEAL HISTORY. [Be )k XXXITT. 



It was the custom at first to wear rings on a single finger*- 

 onh^, the one, namely, that is next to the little finger; and this 

 we see the case in the statues of Numa and Servius Tullius 

 In later times, it became the practice to put rings on the finger 

 next to the thumb, even in the case of the statues of the gods ; 

 and more recently, again, it has been the fashion to wear them 

 upon the little finger^'^ as well. Among the peoples of Gallia 

 and Britannia, the middle finger, it is said, is used for this pur- 

 pose. At the present day, however, among us, this is the only 

 finger that is excepted, all the others being loaded with rings, 

 smaller rings even being separately adapted for the smaller 

 joints of the fingers. Some there are who heap several rings 

 upon the little finger alone ; while others, again, wear but one 

 ring upon this finger, the ring that sets a seal upon the signet- 

 ring itself, this last being kept carefully shut up as an object 

 of rarity, too precious to be worn in common use, and only to 

 be taken from the cabinet^* as from a sanctuary. And thus is 

 the wearing of a single ring upon the little finger no more 

 than an ostentatious advertisement that the owner has property 

 of a more precious nature under seal at home ! 



Some, too, make a parade of the weight of their rings, while 

 to others it is quite a labour^* to wear more than one at a time: 

 some, in their solicitude for the safety of their gems, make the 

 hoop of gold tinsel, and fill it with a lighter material than gold, 

 thinking thereby to diminish the risks of a ftill.^^ Others, again, 

 are in the habit of inclosing poisons beneath the stones of 

 their jings, and so wear them as instruments of death ; De- 

 mosthenes, for instance, that greatest of the orators of Greece.^" 

 And then, besides, how many of the crimes that are stimulated 

 by cupidity, are committed through the instrumentality of 



allusion to the luxurious habits of the slaves, in B. xiii. c. 4 ; and B. 

 xviii. c. 2 ; a subject upon which Juvenal enlarges in his Third Satire. 



82 The reasons are mentioned by Ateius Capito, as quoted by Macrobius, 

 Saturnal. B. vii. c. 13 : also by Apion the Grammarian, as quoted by 

 Aulus Gellius, B. x, c. 10. 



^^3 The ring of each finger bad its own appropriate name. 



^* The '' dactyliotheca," or "riug-box." 



^5 Juvenal, Sat. i. 1. 26, et. seq., speaks of the summer rings of the 

 Roman fops, and their fingers sweating beneath the weight. 



*'S Martial, Epigr. B. xiv., speaks of the numerous accidents to which a 

 weighty ring was liable. 



" Hannibal, too, for instance, as mentioned in Note 51 to the preceding 

 Chapter. 



