58 Ancient and Modern Finger-rings. 



kings being engraved upon a cylinder, a kind of rolling seal of 

 cornelian or metal, from which they were impressed upon the 

 requisite number of pieces of prepared clay — thus the seal was, 

 in Assyria and Babylonia, a printing-press, which multiplied the 

 royal edicts to any required extent. Small seals were worn on 

 the royal finger, attached to a ring of metal, and such portable 

 signets were used to give authority to deeds of minor import- 

 ance. Even private individuals used both the large cylinder, 

 as well as the lesser ring-seal. 



The Greeks, so late as the time of Homer, did not use rings 

 or seals, but shortly afterwards, the custom appears to have 

 reached them from the East. In the time of Solon, seal-rings 

 (o-<£payts) appear to have become usual ; and with their use the 

 art of counterfeiting them. This was the case also with coined 

 money, as proved by the discovery of ancient counterfeits of some 

 of the earliest kinds of coins known, especially the far-famed 

 Tortoises of ^Egina, so called from the highly-wrought image of 

 a tortoise which was the device of the double drachmas of that 

 state. In Athens great precautions were taken with regard to 

 the forgeries of seal-rings ; insomuch so, that by a law of Solon 

 an engraver was forbidden to keep the form of the seal which 

 he had sold. These early seal-rings of the Greeks were pro- 

 bably entirely of metal, the custom of mounting engraved gems 

 in rings not having become usual at that period. But already 

 superstition, which in early stages of civilization attaches itself 

 to all things, had begun to attach itself to the seal-ring. The 

 ring of Gyges, king of Lydia, which he is said to have found 

 in a grave, was believed to convey to its possessor extraor- 

 dinary powers : as was that of Charicleia, mentioned by Helio- 

 dorus, and also the famous iron ring of Eucrates. 



Magic and rings became closely interwoven in the latter 

 times of Grecian independence ; and magic rings, made of wood, 

 bone, or some other cheap material, were manufactured in large 

 numbers at Athens ; and could be purchased, gifted with any 

 kind of charm required, for the small consideration of a single 

 drachma. 



The simple metal seal-ring was eventually superseded 

 by one composed of gems, richly mounted in chasings 

 of gold ; and as luxury increased, several were worn at once, 

 till at last the fingers of both hands were nearly covered 

 with these ornaments ; and that too at a comparatively early 

 period, as we find the custom alluded to both by Plato and 

 Aristophanes. 



Eventually luxury took the turn of introducing rings of 

 enormous size, and some exquisites went so far at a somewhat 

 later epoch, as we learn from Quintilian, that they had a series of 

 rings suited to the successive seasons of the year — as summer 



