Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

COLUS.

103

COMA.

similar tax. [Ostiarivm.] The columnariiim
levied by Metellus Scipio in Syria in b.c.
49-48, was a tax of a similar kind, but was
simply an illegal means of extorting money
from the provincials.

COLUS, a distaff. [Fusus.]

COMA (kO|U.ij, icovpd), the hair. (1) Greek.
In the earliest times the Greeks wore their
hair long, and thus thej' are constantly called
in Homer /cap-rjKop.oWTe? 'Ax<xiot. The Spartan
boys always had their hair cut quite short (ei>
Xpw KiipovTes) ; but as soon as they reached
the age of puberty (etprj/Soi), they let it grow
long. Before going to battle they combed
and dressed it with especial care. It seems that
both Spartan men and women tied their hair
in a knot over the crown of the head. The
custom of the Athenians was different. They
wore their hair long in childhood, and cut it
off when they reached the age of puberty.
The cutting off of the hair, which was always
done when a boy became an eoirnSos, was a
solemn act, attended with religious cere-
monies. A libation was first offered to Her-
cules, which was called oivio-rqpia or olviaa-
njpta, and the hair after being cut off was
dedicated to some deity, usually a river-god.
But when the Athenians passed into the age
of manhood, they again let their hair grow.
In ancient times at Athens the hair was
rolled up into a kind of knot on the crown of
the head, and fastened with golden clasps in
the shape of grasshoppers. This fashion of
wearing the hair was called Kpw/3i!A.09, and in
the case of females Kopvp-fios. The heads of
females were frequently covered with a kind
of band or a coif of net-work. Of these coif-
fures one was called a-<pevS6vri, which was a
broad band across the forehead, sometimes
made of metal, and sometimes of leather,
adorned with gold. But the most common
kind of head-dress for females was called by
the general name of /ce/cpi^aXo?, and this was
divided into the three species of (ceKpucpaAos,
o-a/c/cos, and p-trpa. The /ce/cpu^aXos, in its
narrower sense, was a caul or coif of net-
work, corresponding to the Latin reticulum.
These hair-nets were frequently made of gold
threads, sometimes of silk, or the Elean
byssus, and probably of other materials. The
cra/cxo? and the p-Crpa were, on the contrary,
made of close materials. The o-olkkos covered
the head entirely like a sack or bag ; it was
made of various materials, such as silk, byssus,
and wool. The p-Crpa. was a broad band of
cloth of different colours, which was wound
round the hair, and was worn in various
ways. It was originally an Eastern head-
dress, and may, therefore, be compared to the
modern turban. The Roman calautica or
calvatica is said by Servius to have been the

same as the mitra, but in a passage in the
Digest they are mentioned as if they were
distinct.—With respect to the colour of the
hair, black was the most frequent, but blonde
(faffJrj Ko/xrj) was the most prized. In Homer,

Greek Head-dresses. (From Ancient Y;iscs.)

The left-hand figure on the top wears a KSKpvtpakos
proper (retirulum). Of the two bottom figures, the ono
on the left-hand wears a p.LTpa, and the one on the
right a o6.kk.os.

Achilles, Ulysses, and other heroes are repre-
sented with blonde hair. At a later time it
seems to have been not unfrequent to dye
hair, so as to make it either black or blonde,
and this was done by men as well as by
women, especially when the hair was growing
gray.—(2) Roman. Besides the generic coma
we also find the following words signifying the
hair : capillus, caesaries, crines, cincinnus,
and cirrus, the two last words being used to
signify curled hair. In early times the Ro-
mans wore their hair long, and hence the
Romans of the Augustan age designated their
ancestors intonsi and capillati. But after the
introduction of barbers into Italy about b. c.
300, it became the practice to wear the hair
short. The women, too, originally dressed
their hair with great simplicity, but in the
Augustan period a variety of different head-
dresses came into fashion. Sometimes these
head-dresses were raised to a great height by
rows of false curls. So much attention did
the Roman ladies devote to the dressing of
the hair, that they kept slaves especially for
this purpose, called ornatrices, and had them
instructed by a master in the art. Most of
the Greek head-dresses mentioned above were
also worn by the Roman ladies; but the