DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0553
chap, xxiii.] ETRUSCAN PASSION FOR JEWELLERY.
445
The Etruscans, indeed, seem to have had quite an oriental
passion for jewellery—a passion which was shared by the
Romans,5 and has been transmitted to their modern repre-
sentatives, as a Sunday's walk on the Corso will abundantly
testify. These figures all rest on their left elbow, supported
by cushions, and the sarcophagi beneath them are often
hewn to imitate couches. Thus, as in the painted tombs,
they are represented in the height of social enjoyment, to
symbolise the bliss on which their spirits had entered;6
greatly marvels. It is probable that
the custom was introduced into either
Greece or Etruria from the East. We
learn from these sepulchral statues that
rings were usually worn by the Etrus-
cans, as by the Greeks and Romans,
on the fourth finger of the left hand
(A. Gell. X. 10 ; Macrob. Saturn.
VII. 13; Isidor. Orig. XIX. 32);
the reason of which is said to be,
that the Egyptians had discovered by
dissection, that a certain nerve—Isidore
says a vein—led from that finger to the
heart; and that digit was singled out
for distinction accordingly. Ateius
Capita (ap. Macrob. loc. cit.) gives a
more plausible reason.
6 In early times the Romans emulated
Spartan severity, and wore iron rings
for signets. It was long ere the senators
circled their fingers with gold. Iron
was emphatically the metal of the stern
Romans of old, and it was a sense of the
degeneracy induced by luxury that made
Pliny (loc. cit.) exclaim :—" His was
the greatest crime in life, who first
arrayed his fingers in gold." Even
Marius in his triumph over Jugurtha,
though an Etruscan crown of gold was
held over his head from behind, wore a
ring of mere iron ; and a similar ring,
as Pliny remarks, was probably on the
hand of the conqueror, and of the slave
who held the crown. At first it was
disgraceful for a man to wear more than
one ring, and women wore none, except
what a virgin received from her be-
trothed, and she might wear two gold
ones. Isid. Orig. loc. cit. But, in after
times, with the exeess of luxury, the
Romans used not only to wear a ring on
every finger (Mart. V. epig. 6, 5), but
many on each joint (Mart. V. epig. 11);
and to cover their hands with them, so
that Quintilian (XI. 3) was obliged to
caution would-be orators on this subject.
Martial (XI. epig. 59), speaks of a man
who wore six on every finger! and
recommends another, who had one of a
monstrous size, to'wear it on his leg
instead of his hand (XI. epig. 37). To
such extravagant effeminacy was this
habit carried, that even slaves, like
Crispinus, had a different set of rings
for summer and for winter, those for
the latter season being too heavy for hot
weather. Juven. Sat. I. 28 :—
Ventilet sestivum digitis sudantibus
aurum,
Nee sufferre queat majoris pondera
gemmae.
Well might Juvenal add—
Difficile est satiram non scribere.
6 This is probably the conventional
mode of expressing apotheosis. Thus,
Horace (Od. III. 3, 11) represents
Augustus, though living, as a demigod,
reclining with Pollux and Hercules :—
Quos inter Augustus reenmbens
Purpureo bibit ore nectar.
445
The Etruscans, indeed, seem to have had quite an oriental
passion for jewellery—a passion which was shared by the
Romans,5 and has been transmitted to their modern repre-
sentatives, as a Sunday's walk on the Corso will abundantly
testify. These figures all rest on their left elbow, supported
by cushions, and the sarcophagi beneath them are often
hewn to imitate couches. Thus, as in the painted tombs,
they are represented in the height of social enjoyment, to
symbolise the bliss on which their spirits had entered;6
greatly marvels. It is probable that
the custom was introduced into either
Greece or Etruria from the East. We
learn from these sepulchral statues that
rings were usually worn by the Etrus-
cans, as by the Greeks and Romans,
on the fourth finger of the left hand
(A. Gell. X. 10 ; Macrob. Saturn.
VII. 13; Isidor. Orig. XIX. 32);
the reason of which is said to be,
that the Egyptians had discovered by
dissection, that a certain nerve—Isidore
says a vein—led from that finger to the
heart; and that digit was singled out
for distinction accordingly. Ateius
Capita (ap. Macrob. loc. cit.) gives a
more plausible reason.
6 In early times the Romans emulated
Spartan severity, and wore iron rings
for signets. It was long ere the senators
circled their fingers with gold. Iron
was emphatically the metal of the stern
Romans of old, and it was a sense of the
degeneracy induced by luxury that made
Pliny (loc. cit.) exclaim :—" His was
the greatest crime in life, who first
arrayed his fingers in gold." Even
Marius in his triumph over Jugurtha,
though an Etruscan crown of gold was
held over his head from behind, wore a
ring of mere iron ; and a similar ring,
as Pliny remarks, was probably on the
hand of the conqueror, and of the slave
who held the crown. At first it was
disgraceful for a man to wear more than
one ring, and women wore none, except
what a virgin received from her be-
trothed, and she might wear two gold
ones. Isid. Orig. loc. cit. But, in after
times, with the exeess of luxury, the
Romans used not only to wear a ring on
every finger (Mart. V. epig. 6, 5), but
many on each joint (Mart. V. epig. 11);
and to cover their hands with them, so
that Quintilian (XI. 3) was obliged to
caution would-be orators on this subject.
Martial (XI. epig. 59), speaks of a man
who wore six on every finger! and
recommends another, who had one of a
monstrous size, to'wear it on his leg
instead of his hand (XI. epig. 37). To
such extravagant effeminacy was this
habit carried, that even slaves, like
Crispinus, had a different set of rings
for summer and for winter, those for
the latter season being too heavy for hot
weather. Juven. Sat. I. 28 :—
Ventilet sestivum digitis sudantibus
aurum,
Nee sufferre queat majoris pondera
gemmae.
Well might Juvenal add—
Difficile est satiram non scribere.
6 This is probably the conventional
mode of expressing apotheosis. Thus,
Horace (Od. III. 3, 11) represents
Augustus, though living, as a demigod,
reclining with Pollux and Hercules :—
Quos inter Augustus reenmbens
Purpureo bibit ore nectar.