82 pliny's natural EISTORT. [Book XXXIIl. 



thrown in the sea, was recovered from a fish that was caught ; 

 and this Poly crates, we know, was put to death ^* about the 

 year of our City, 230. The use of the ring must, of necessity, 

 have become greatly extended with the increase of usuiy ; 

 one proof of which is, the usage still prevalent among the 

 lower classes, of whipping off the ring ^^ the moment a simple 

 COD tract is made ; a practice which takes its date, no doubt, 

 from a period when there was no more expeditious method of 

 giving an earnest on closing a bargain. We may therefore 

 very safely conclude, that though money was first introduced 

 among us, the use of rings was introduced very shortly after. 

 Of money, I shall shortly have occasion to speak further.^^ 



CHAP. 7. THE DECUKIES OF THE JUDGES. 



Eings, as soon as they began to be commonly worn, distin- 

 guished the second order from the plebeians, in the same 

 manner as the use of the tunic^^ distinguished the senate from 

 those who only wore the ring. Still, however, this last dis- 

 tinction was introduced at a later period only, and we find it 

 stated by writers that the public heralds^^ even were formerly 

 in the habit of wearing the tunic with the purple laticlave ; 

 the father of Lucius ^lius Stilo,*^ for instance, from whom 

 his son received the cognomen of "Pra^coninus," in conse- 

 quence of his father's occupation as a herald. But the use of 

 rings, no doubt, was the distinguishing mark of a third and 

 intermediate order, between the plebeians and the senators ; 

 and the title of ''eques," originally derived from the posses- 

 sion of a war-horse,^ is given at the present day as an indica- 

 tion of a certain amount of income. This, however, is of 

 comparatively recent introduction; for when the late Emperor 

 Augustus made his regulations for the decuries,^ tlie greater 

 part of the members thereof were persons who wore iron rings, 

 and these bore the name, not of "equites," but of ''judices," 



9* He was crucified by Oroetes, the Persian satrap of Sardis. 



9^ " Anulo exsiliente." ''"^' lu Chapter 13 of this Book. 



^^ The laticlave tunic. See B. viii. c. 73, and B. ix. c. 63. 



S3 " PriBcones." ^^ See the list of writers at the end of B, ix. 



^ "Equus niilitaris." 



2 See B. xxix. c. 8. The " Decurice" of " jiidices/' or "judges," were 

 so called, probably, from ton (dtcem) havint,^ been originally cliosen from 

 each tribe. As to the Decuriai of the judices, see Smith's Diet. Antiq, 

 pp. 631—2. The account given by Phny is confused in the extreme. 



