BOOK XXXIII. I 



V. 11-12 



c!car, not even members of the Roman senate liad and in th< 

 gold rings, inasmuch as rings were bestowed officially p^^yjj^"" 

 on men about to go as envoys to foreign nations, 

 and on them only, the reason no doubt being that 

 the most highly honoured foreigners were recognized 

 in this way. Nor was it the custom for any others 

 to wear a gold ring than those on whom one had been 

 officially bestowed for the reason stated ; and 

 customarily Roman generals went in triumph with- 

 out one, and although a Tuscan crown of gold was 

 held over the victor's head from behind, nevertheless 

 he wore an iron ring on his finger when going in 

 triumph, just the same as the slave holding the 

 crown in front of himself. This was the way in 

 which Gaius Marius celebrated his triumph over 

 Jugurtha, and it is recorded that he did not assume J=^°- ^» 

 a gold ring till his third tenure of the consulship. io3 b!c:. 

 Those moreover who had been given gold rings 

 because they were going on an embassy only wore 

 them in pubUc, but in their homes wore iron rings ; 

 this is the reason why even now an iron ring and 

 what is more a ring without any stone in it is sent « 

 as a gift to a woman when betrothed. Indeed I Rms in 

 do not find that any rings were worn in the Trojan ^^'""^'■- 

 period ; at all events Homer nowhere mentions 

 them, although he shows that tablets ^ used to be 

 sent to and fro in place of letters, and that clothes 

 and gold and silver vessels were stored away in 

 chests ^ and were tied up with signet-knots, not 

 sealed with signet-rings. Also he records the chiefs 

 as casting lots about meeting a challenge from the 

 enemy without using signet-rings ^ ; and he also says 

 that the god ^ of handicraft in the original period 

 frequently made brooches and other articles of 



II 



