Part 4 (2/2)

The enormous sums expended by the wealthy on rings may be best understood by an allusion to the recorded value of two belonging to empresses of Rome. Thus, the ring of Faustina, we are told, cost 40,000, and that of Domitia 60,000, reckoning the Roman sestertia at its modern value.

Sometimes the decoration of a ring was not confined to a single gem, though such rings were comparatively rare. Valerian speaks of the _annulus bigemmis_, and Gorleus furnishes us with the specimen engraved in Fig. 96; the larger gem has cut upon it a figure of Mars, holding spear and helmet, but wearing only the chlamys; the smaller gem is incised with a dove and myrtle branch. Beside it are placed two examples of the emblematic devices and inscriptions adopted for cla.s.sic rings, when used as memorial gifts. The first is inscribed, ”You have a love pledge;” the second, ”Proteros (to) Ugiae,” between conjoined hands--a type of concord still familiar to us.

Though the ancients seem scarcely to have thought of decorating the circlet of the ring, they occasionally varied its form, producing novelty at the expense of convenience. Fig. 98 is a whimsical example; it may, however, have been princ.i.p.ally used as a signet. The same may be said of Fig. 99, which has a very broad face, set with an incised stone bearing a figure of Hygeia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 98.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 99.]

The ancients tell us of charmed rings; such was the ring of Gyges, which was reported to have rendered him invisible when he turned the stone inwardly, and closed it in his palm. Execetus, tyrant of the Phocians, carried two rings, which he was accustomed to strike together, to divine by the sound emitted what he had to do, or what was to happen to him.

The most curious adaptation of the finger-ring to a double use was made by the Romans. It was a combination of a ring and a key, as represented in Figs. 100 and 101, from originals engraved by Montfaucon in his great work on Roman antiquities. He has published many varieties, for they are very commonly discovered in all places where the Romans located themselves. Many have been found in London, York, Lincoln, and other old cities, as well as in the neighbourhood of Roman camps. The use of these rings is apparent: they opened the small cabinets or boxes in which the most precious articles were preserved, and they were less likely to be lost, mislaid, or improperly used by others, when thus worn night and day on the finger.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 100.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 101.]

It is recorded of the poisoning Pope Alexander VI. (Borgia), that he caused a somewhat similar key to be used in opening a cabinet; but the Pope's key was poisoned in the handle, and provided with a small sharp pin, which gave a slight puncture sufficient to allow the poison to pa.s.s below the skin. When the Holy Father wished to rid himself of an objectionable friend, he would request him to unlock his cabinet; as the lock turned rather stiffly, a little pressure was necessary on the key-handle, sufficient to give the trifling wound that ultimately proved mortal. Poisoned rings were known to the ancients; when Hannibal, the Carthaginian general, was overcome by Scipio Africa.n.u.s, it is recorded that he fled to Bithynia, and ended his life by poison, which for that purpose he had reserved in a ring.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 102.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 103.]

Rings formed of bone, amber, and gla.s.s, were provided for the poorer cla.s.ses, as was the case in ancient Egypt. They were also used as mortuary rings, and are found on the hands of the dead in Italian sepulchres. The Waterton collection supplies us with two specimens. Fig.

102 is of amber, cut to appear as if set with a stone. Fig. 103 is of gla.s.s, also made as if set with a jewel. The body of this ring is dark brown with bands of white crossing it; the jewel is yellow.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 104.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 105.]

In the later days of the Roman empire the simplicity and purity in decorative design that the Romans obtained from the Greeks, gave way to the ostentatious love of gaudy decoration taught at Byzantium. Jewellery became complicated in design; enrichment was considered before elegance.

The old simple form of finger-ring varied much. Fig. 104 is given by Montfaucon. Fig. 105 is in the Londesborough collection, and was found upon the hand of a lady's skeleton, buried with her child in a sarcophagus discovered in 1846, in a field near Amiens, called ”Le Camp de Caesar;” on two of her fingers were rings, one of which was set with ten round pearls, the other (here engraved) is of gold, in which is set a red carnelian, engraved with a rude representation of Jupiter riding on the goat Amalthea. The child also wore a ring with an engraved stone.

The whole of the decorations for the person found in this tomb proclaim themselves late Roman work, probably of the time of Diocletian.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 106.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 107.]

In 1841 a curious discovery was made at Lyons of the jewel case of a Roman lady, containing a complete _trousseau_, including the rings here engraved. Fig. 106 is of gold; the hoop is slightly ovular, and curves upward to a double leaf, supporting three cup-shaped settings, one still retaining its stone, an African emerald. Fig. 107 is also remarkable for its general form, and still more so for its inscription, VENERI ET TVTELE VOTVM, explained by M. Comarmond as a dedication to Venus and the local Tutela, the guardian of the navigators of the Rhine; hence he infers these jewels to have belonged to the wife of one of these rich traders in the reign of Severus.

Carrying back our researches to the pre-historic era of our own island, and searching in the tumuli of the early British chieftain and his family, we shall discover the utmost simplicity of adornment; not probably the result of indifference to personal decoration, but simply to the rudeness of his position. The wild Gaelic hunter, located in the gloomy fastnesses of wood and mora.s.s, had little or no communication with the southern sea-margin of our isle: and when we find the south Cymry of Britain much advanced in civilisation, owing to connection with Belgic Gaul, and Phnician colonists of Spain, and the Greek colonists of the Mediterranean, we find the tribes inhabiting the midland and northern counties still barbaric, and little advanced in the arts that make life pleasant. Such decoration as they adopted seems to have originated in the basket-weaving, for which the British Islands were famous even at Rome, where n.o.ble dames coveted these works from the far-off and mysterious _Ca.s.siteridae_. Plaited or interlaced-work, resembling the convolutions of wicker and rush, was imitated in threads of metal; thus circlets for the neck, bracelets for the arms, or rings for the fingers, were but twisted strands of gold.

The simplest form of finger-ring worn by these Gaelic ancestors consisted of a band of metal, merely twisted round to embrace the finger, and open at either end. Fig. 108 shows one of these rings, found in excavating at Harnham Hill, near Salisbury, a locality celebrated from the very earliest recorded time as the true centre of ancient Britain. This ring was found on the middle finger of the right hand of a person of advanced age. Sometimes several rings were found on one hand.

”Among the bones of the fingers of the left hand of an adult skeleton was found a silver ring of solid form, another of spiral form, and a plain gold ring.”[96-*] Mr. Akerman, who superintended these researches, says, ”Similar rings have been found at Little Wilbraham, at Linton Heath, at Fairford, and other localities. They are for the most part of an uniform construction, being so contrived that they could be expanded or contracted, and adapted to the size of the finger of the wearer.”[96-]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 108.]

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