Anulus: Of all forms of human adornment rings are undoubtedly among the oldest. We have them, both plain and gemmed, from many a prehistoric grave. The first reference in literature Herod. III.41, is to the gemmed ring of Polycrates (v. also Plin. N. H. XXXVII.3 ff.). From earliest times, too, were gemmed rings engraved and used as seals. Diog. Laert. I.57 mentions a law of Solon forbidding engravers of seals from keeping an impression of what they had cut on order; Liv. XXVII.28 and Frontin. Strat. IV.7.38 both relate the story of Hannibal's gaining possession of the seal-ring of Marcellus and the use he made of it to forge letters. Plin. N. H. XXXVII.85 is our authority for the statement that Scipio Africanus was the first Roman to wear a sardonyx ring. He also tells us that Antony proscribed the senator Nonius that he might gain possession of an especially fine opal ring, the property of this senator, who treasured it so highly that it was the only object of value he carried with him in his flight (N. H. XXXVII.81). Often the pjt of an ancestor, relative, or friend was cut upon the stone, e.g. Lentulus Sura displayed that of Scipio upon his ring (Cic. Cat. III.5); cf. Ov. Trist. I.7.5 ff. The Epicureans often displayed the image of their revered master upon their rings (Cic. Fin. V.1). Sulla used as his seal the image of captive Jugurtha (Plin. N. H. XXXVII.9). When Pompey's head was presented to Caesar it was accompanied by his ring, which had for its seal a lion holding a sword (Plut. Pomp. LXXX.5; cf. also Dion Cass. XLII.18). Caesar's own seal was an armed Venus; Augustus had first a sphinx, later the head of Alexander the Great, and finally his own image, specially engraved by Dioscurides, and this his successors continued to use as the imperial seal (Suet. Aug. L; Plin. H. N. XXXVII.10). Galba, however, continued to use his family seal, a dog upon the rostrum, or prow, of a ship (Dion Cass. LI.3); and Hadrian preferred his own portrait (Spart. Hadr. XXVI.7).

1 Non magnum pondus: the weight of one ring, even though a large one, may seem inconsiderable. But men of wealth, dandies, and fops in both Greece and Rome literally loaded their fingers with rings (Aristoph. Nub. 332); even Demosthenes and Aristotle wore several (Diog. Laert. V.1). Yet such was the persistence of Roman puritanical tradition that Crassus is said to have been the first to dare to appear in public with two rings on (Isid. Etym. XIX.32.4); by Horace's time it was considered fashionable to have three on the left hand (S. II.7.8). Quintilian warns orators against loading their fingers in such fashion, and especially against wearing rings beyond the second joint (XI.3.142). Martial speaks humorously of one effeminate fop who wore six rings on each finger, all hired! (X.59). It is interesting to note that it is directly after saying (I.28 ff.):

that Juvenal makes his famous remark: difficile est saturam non scribere! Ov. Amor. II.15 addresses his entire poem to a ring which he is about to send his sweetheart. With the language of Symphosius cf. l. 13: angustus et haerens; l. 20: adstringens digitos tuos; l. 22: quodve tener digitus ferre recuset onus.

2 Ingenitum dicas: Cic. Tusc. II.16 uses a similar figure in speaking of the arms of a Roman soldier: arma enim membra militis esse dicunt.

3 habitura: Riese's emendation is ingenious but unnecessary.