Chap. 12.] OTHER USES MADE OF GOLD BY FEMALES. 87 



also, when consul,^" presented one to Servius Cornelius Merencia, 

 on taking a town of the Samnites ; but in his case it was five 

 pounds in weight. Piso Frugi, too, presented his son with a 

 golden crown, at his own private expense, making^^ it a specific 

 legacy in his will. 



CHAP. 12. (3.) — OTHER USES MADE OF GOLD, BT FEMALES. 



To honour the gods at their sacrifices, no greater mark of 

 honour has been thought of than to gild the horns of the animals 

 sacrificed — that is, of the larger victims ^^ only. But in warfare, 

 this species of luxury made such rapid advances, that in the 

 Epistles of M. Brutus from the Plains of Philippi, we find ex- 

 pressions of indignation at the fibulae ^^ of gold that were worn 

 by the tribunes. Yes, so it is, by Hercules ! and yet you, the 

 same Brutus, have not said a word about women wearing gold 

 upon their feet ; while we, on the other hand, charge him with 

 criminality^^ who was the first to confer dignity upon gold by 

 wearing the ring. Let men even, at the present day, wear gold 

 upon the arms in form of bracelets — known as " dardania," 

 because the practice first originated in Dardania, and called 

 "viriolse" in the language of the Celts, " virias"^^ in that of 

 Celtiberia, let women wear gold upon their arms ^^ and 

 all their fingers, their necks, their ears, the tresses of their 

 hair ; let chains of gold run meandering along their sides ; 

 and in the still hours of the night let sachets filled with pearls 

 hang suspended from the necks of their mistresses, all bedizened 

 with gold, so that in their very sleep even they may still 

 retain the consciousness that they are the possessors of such 



^^ A.u.c. 479, and b.c. 275. In tbe following year Merenda himself 

 was consul, with Manius Curius Dentatus. 



21 " Testamento praelegavit." Properly speaking, " praelegare" wns 

 " to bequeath a thing to be given before the inheritance was divided." 

 The crown thus left by Piso was to be three pounds in weight. 



32 Oxen, namely. The smaller victims had the head encircled with 

 chaplets. 



3>» The clasps by which tbe "sagum" or military cloak was fastened on 

 the shoulders. 



3* See the beginning of Chapter 4 of the present Book. 



35 Isidorus Hispalensis, Orig. B. xix. c. 30, says that bracelets were for- 

 merly so called from the circumstance of being conferred on warriors as 

 the reward of bravery — " ob virtutem." Scsevola, Ulpian, and others speak 

 of " viriolse " as ornaments worn by females. 



^ See B. xxxviL c. 6. 



