Salvete Quirites!
In March when I took up the question about a Citizen's Ring I wrote
the text below. My idea rose many thoughts then, but in the end the
discussion died. I had hoped that I would be able to propose a
Senatus Consultum about this issue. Maybe we will get closer to that
this time. I am leaving for the Rally and will have to come back to
You all in the end of August about this.
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At 23.18 +0100 03-03-12, Caeso Fabius Quintilianus wrote:
>Salvete Quirites et Salve Illustrus Caius Tarquitius Saturninus!
>
>I would like to propose that we discuss if we in Nova Roma should
>have ab official Citizen's Ring. Such a ring seem to have been in
>existance during the Republic, but mostly done in Iron. There where
>also rings of gold. What do you the citizens of Nova Roma think?
>
>The article below has been edited by me to suit my purpose. ;-)
>
>The following article is by Leonhard Schmitz, Ph.D., F.R.S.E., Rector
>of the High School of Edinburgh on pp 95-97 of William Smith, D.C.L.,
>"A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities", John Murray, London,
>1875. LL.D. It was found at RomanSites at :
>http://www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Annulus.html
>
>
>
>ANNULUS (daktuvlioV), a ring.
>
>RINGS IN GREECE
>Every freeman in Greece appears to have used a ring; and, at least in
>the earliest times, not as an ornament, but as an article for use, as
>the ring always served as a seal. Rings were mostly worn on the
>fourth finger (paravmesoV, Plut. Sympos. Fragm. lib.iv; Gellius,
>x.10). The Lacedaemonians are said to have used iron rings at all
>times (Plin. H.N. xxxiii.4). With the exception perhaps of Sparta,
>the law does not appear to have ever attempted in any Greek state to
>counteract the great partiality for this luxury; and nowhere in
>Greece does the right of wearing a gold ring appear to have been
>confined to a particular order or class of citizens.
>
>RINGS IN ROME
>The custom of wearing rings was believed to have been introduced into
>Rome by the Sabines, who are described in the early legends as
>wearing gold rings with precious stones (gemmati annuli) of great
>beauty (Liv. i.11; Dionys. ii.38). Florus (i.5) states that it was
>introduced from Etruria in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, and Pliny
>(l.c.) derives it from Greece. The fact that among the statues of the
>Roman kings in the capitol, two, Numa and Servius Tullius, were
>represented with rings, can scarcely be adduced as an argument for
>their early use, as later artists would naturally represent the kings
>with such insignia as characterized the highest magistrates in later
>times.
>
>IRON RINGS - CITIZEN'S RINGS
>But at whatever time rings may have become customary at Rome, thus
>much is certain, that at first they were always of iron, that they
>were destined for the same purpose as in Greece, namely, to be used
>as seals, and that every free Roman had a right to use such a ring.
>This iron ring was used down to the last period of the republic by
>such men as loved the simplicity of the good old times. Marius wore
>an iron ring in his triumph over Jugurtha, and several noble families
>adhered to the ancient custom, and never wore gold ones (Plin. H.N.
>xxxiii.6).
>
>GOLDEN RINGS AND SENATORIAL AMBASSADORS
>When senators in the early times of the republic were sent as
>ambassadors to a foreign state, they wore during the time of their
>mission gold rings, which they received from the state, and which
>were perhaps adorned with some symbolic representation of the
>republic, and might serve as a state-seal. But ambassadors used gold
>rings only in public; in private they wore their iron ones (Plin.
>H.N. xxxiii.4).
>
>IUS ANNULI AUREI - THE RIGHT TO WEAR A GOLDEN SEAL RING
>In the course of time it became customary for all the senators, chief
>magistrates, and at last for the equites also, to wear a gold
>seal-ring (Liv. ix.7, 46, xxvi.36; Cic. c. Verr. iv.25; Liv.
>xxiii.12; Flor. ii.6). This right of wearing a gold ring, which was
>subsequently called the jus annuli aurei, or the jus annulorum,
>remained for several centuries at Rome the exclusive privilege of
>senators, magistrates, and equites, while all other persons continued
>to use iron ones (Appian, de Reb. Pun. 104).
>
>CONFERRING THE RIGHT TO WEAR RINGS
>Magistrates and governors of provinces seem to have had the right of
>conferring upon inferior officers, or such
>persons as had distinguished themselves, the privilege of wearing a
>gold ring. Verres thus presented his secretary with a gold ring in
>the assembly at Syracuse (Cic. c. Verr. iii.76, 80, ad Fam. x.32;
>Suet. Caes. 39). During the empire the right of granting the annulus
>aureus belonged to the emperors, and some of them were not very
>scrupulous in conferring this privilege.
>
>THE STATUS OF THE RING-WEARER
>The status of a person who had received the jus annuli appears to
>have differed at different times. During the republic and the early
>part of the empire the jus annuli seems to have made a person
>ingenuus (if he was a libertus), and to have raised him to the rank
>of eques, provided he had the requisite equestrian census (Suet.
>Galb. 10, 14; Tacit. Hist. i.13 ii.57), and it was probably never
>granted to any one who did not possess this census (Juv. Sat. xi.42;
>Mart. viii.5, ii.57).
>
>THE PRACTICAL PURPOSES
>The practical purposes, for which rings, or rather the figures
>engraved upon them, were used at all times, were the same as those
>for which we use our seals. Besides this, however, persons, when they
>left their houses, used to seal up such parts as contained stores or
>valuable things, in order to secure them from thieves, especially
>slaves (Plat. de Leg. xii. p954; Aristop. Thesmoph. 414, &c.; Plaut.
>Cas. ii.1.1; Cic. ad Fam. xvi.26, de Orat. ii.61; Mart. ix.88). ...
>The signs engraved upon rings were very various, as we may judge from
>the specimens still extant: they were portraits of ancestors, or
>friends, or subjects connected with the mythology, or the worship of
>the gods; and in many cases a person had engraved upon his seal
>symbolical allusions to the real or mythical history of his family
>(Cic. in Catil. iii.5; Val. Max. iii.5.1; Cic. de Finib. v.1; Suet.
>Tib. 58, 63; Plin. H.N. ii.7, &c.). Sulla thus wore a ring with a
>gem, on which Jugurtha was represented at the moment he was made
>prisoner (Plin. H.N. xxxvii.4; Plut. Mar. 10). Pompey used a ring on
>which three trophies were represented (Dion Cass. xlii.18), and
>Augustus at first sealed with a sphinx afterwards with a portrait of
>Alexander the Great, and at last with his own portrait, which was
>subsequently done by several emperors (Plin. H.N. xxxvii.4; Suet.
>Aug. 50; Dion Cass. li.3; Spartian. Hadr. 26).
>
>THE VALUE OF A RING
>The principal value of a ring consisted in the gem framed in it, or
>rather in the workmanship of the engraver. The stone most frequently
>used was the onyx (sardw'noV, sardovnux), on account of its various
>colours, of which the artists made the most skillful use. In the art
>of engraving figures upon gems, the ancients in point of beauty and
>execution far surpass every thing in this department that modern
>times can boast of. The ring itself (sfendovnh), in which the gem was
>set, was likewise in many cases of beautiful workmanship. The part of
>the ring which contained the gem was called pala. ...
--
Vale
Caeso Fabius Quintilianus
Senior Consul et Senator
Propraetor Thules
Sodalitas Egressus Beneficarius et Praefectus Provincia Thules
Civis Romanus sum
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