74 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXXIII. 



makes mention of them ; for although he speaks of the practice 

 of sending tablets 34 byway of letter, 36 of clothes and gold and 

 silver plate being kept laid up in chests, 37 still he gives us to 

 understand that they were kept secure by the aid of a knot- 

 tied fast, and not under a seal impressed by a ring. He does 

 not inform us too, that when the chiefs drew lots to ascertain 

 which one of them should reply to the challenge 1 "* of the 

 enemy, they made any use of rings 3 * for the purpose ; and when 

 he enumerates the articles that were manufactured at the 

 forge 40 of the gods, he speaks of this us being the origin 41 of 

 iibulae' 2 and other articles of female ornament, such as ear- 

 rings for example, but does not make any mention of rings. 



"Whoever it was that first introduced the use of rings, he 

 did so not without hesitation ; for he placed this ornament on 

 the left hand, the hand which is generally concealed,* 4 whereas, 

 if he had been sure of its being an honourable distinction, it 

 would have been made more conspicuous upon the right. And if 

 any one should raise the objection that this would have acted 

 as an impediment to the right hand, I can only say that the 

 usage in more recent times fortifies my opinion, and that the 

 inconvenience of wearing rings on the left hand would have 

 been still greater, seeing that it is with the left hand that the 



35 "Codicill.*." II. B. vi. 1. 168. 36 See I*, xiii. c. 21. 



37 Od. B. viii. II. 424.443, 447. 



* So" the Iliad. I*, iii. and B. vii. 1. 175, et scq. 



29 His meaning is, that although K\tjpoi were used, lots or balls made of. 

 earth, we do nut read that the impressions on them were made by the aid 

 of linnet-rings. 



4v< " Fabric-re Houm." He alludes to the forge of Vulcan, described in 

 the Eighteenth Book of the Iliad, 1. 400, et seq. 



41 This seems to be the meaning of *' In prirnordio factitasse." 



42 The ' fibulae" were the brooches of the ancients, consisting of a pin, 

 and of a curved portion furnished with a hook. See Dr. Smith's L>iet. 

 Antiq. p. 417. 



As the meaning of this passage has been the subject of much discus- 

 sion with commentators, we give it in full, as found in the Edition of 

 Sillig. "Et qui.-qtiis primus instituit, cum-tauter id fecit, la i vis manibufl 

 latentibosque induit, cum, si honos securus fuisset, dextrft fuerit ostentan- 

 dus. Quodsi impedinientum p'jluit in eo alujuod intelligi, etiam serior is 

 u>us argumentum est, et rnajus in lacva fuisset, quzi scutum capitur." 

 Siilig is of opinion that Pliny is here alluding to the reason given by Ateius 

 Capito (quoted in Macrobius, Saturn. B. vii. c. 13), for wearing the ring 

 on the left hand. It was so worn, lie stvs, from an apprehension that 

 the precious btone with which it was set, might receive injury from tho 

 continual use made of the right baud. 



44 Under the folds of the togiu 



