Pliny: Natural History, Vol. IX (Loeb)

it would not have been possible for those three pecks original: "trimodia" of rings to have been sent to Carthage by Hannibal. Quarrels also began between Caepio and Drusus over a ring put up for sale at an auction, 21 from which originated the Social War original: "socialis belli" and its destructive consequences. Not even then did all senators possess them, for in the memory of our grandfathers many men who had even served as praetor lived out their lives in iron ones—as Fenestella reports of Calpurnius and Manilius, who was a lieutenant to Gaius Marius in the Jugurthine War, and many report the same of that Lucius Fufidius to whom Scaurus wrote about his own life. In the family of the Quintii, indeed, it was not the custom for even the women to have gold, and the greater part of the tribes and peoples of mankind, even those who live under our empire, possess none today. The East or Egypt does not seal, being content even now with written signatures alone.

22 Luxury has varied this in many ways, as it has everything else, by adding gems of exquisite brilliance and burdening the fingers with a wealthy revenue, as we shall say in the volume on gems; soon after, it varied this by engraving portraits, so that in one case the art was valued, in another the material. Later, luxury considered it a sacrilege for certain other gems to be violated and, so that no one would understand the purpose of sealing in
23 rings, it wore them solid. Some

indeed, luxury did not enclose in gold even on the side which is hidden by the finger, and made the gold cheaper with fragments of little stones. On the contrary, many allow no gems and seal with the gold itself. This was discovered during the reign of Claudius Caesar. And what is more, slaves now encircle their iron with gold—some decorate themselves with pure gold—the origin of which license, as the name itself declares, was instituted in Samothrace.
24 At first it had been the custom to wear them on the individual fingers that are closest to the little one. Thus we see them in the statues of Numa and Servius Tullius. Afterwards, they placed them on the finger next to the thumb, even in the statues of the gods, then it pleased them to give one to the little finger also. Gaul and Britain are said to have used the middle one. This one is now the only one exempted, all the others are burdened, and even the joints are privately laden with other, smaller ones. There are those who heap them all on one little finger, while others wear only one on that finger, with which they seal their signet. That one is stored away, as a rare thing unworthy of the insult of use, brought forth as if from a sanctuary, so that even having one on the little finger may be a display of costlier equipment kept in storage. Now others show off their weight. For others, it is a labor to wear more than one, others...