Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  Indeed the most important transactions of life are now made to depend upon this instrument, though at what period this first began to be the case, I am at a loss to say. It would appear, however, so far as foreign nations are concerned, that we may admit the importance attached to it, from the days of Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, whose favourite ring, after being thrown in the sea, was recovered from a fish that was caught; and this Polycrates, we know, was put to death about the year of our City, 230. The use of the ring must, of necessity, have become greatly extended with the increase of usury; one proof of which is, the usage still prevalent among the lower classes, of whipping off the ring the moment a simple contract is made; a practice which takes its date, no doubt, from a period when there was no more expeditious method of giving an earnest on closing a bargain. We may therefore very safely conclude, that though money was first introduced among us, the use of rings was introduced very shortly after. Of money, I shall shortly have occasion to speak further.

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  CHAP. 7.

  THE DECURIES OF THE JUDGES.

  Rings, as soon as they began to be commonly worn, distinguished the second order from the plebeians, in the same manner as the use of the tunic distinguished the senate from those who only were the ring. Still, however, this last distinction was introduced at a later period only, and we find it stated by writers that the public heralds even were formerly in the habit of wearing the tunic with the purple laticlave; the father of Lucius Ælius Stilo, for instance, from whom his son received the cognomen of “Præconinus,” in consequence of his father’s occupation as a herald. But the use of rings, no doubt, was the distinguishing mark of a third and intermediate order, between the plebeians and the senators; and the title of “eques,” originally derived from the possession of a war-horse, is given at the present day as an indication of a certain amount of income. This, however, is of comparatively recent introduction; for when the late Emperor Augustus made his regulations for the decuries, the greater part of the members thereof were persons who wore iron rings, and these bore the name, not of “equites,” but of “judices,” the former name being reserved solely for the members of the squadrons furnished with war-horses at the public charge.

  Of these judices, too, there were at first but four decuries only, and in each of these decuries there was hardly one thousand men to be found, the provinces not having been hitherto admitted to the office; an observance which is still in force at the present day, no one newly admitted to the rights of citizenship being allowed to perform the duties of judex as a member of the decuries.

  (2.) These decuries, too, were themselves distinguished by several denominations—” tribunes of the treasury,” “selecti,” and “judices:” in addition to whom, there were the persons styled the “nine hundred,” chosen from all the decuries for the purpose of keeping the voting-boxes at the comitia. From the ambitious adoption, however, of some one of these names, great divisions ensued in this order, one person styling himself a member of the nine hundred, another one of the selecti, and a third a tribune of the treasury.

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  CHAP. 8.

  PARTICULARS CONNECTED WITH THE EQUESTRIAN ORDER.

  At length, however, in the ninth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, the equestrian order was united in a single body; and a decree was passed, establishing to whom belonged the right of wearing the ring, in the consulship of C. Asinius Pollio and C. Antistius Vetus, the year from the foundation of the City, 775. It is a matter for surprise, how almost futile, we may say, was the cause which led to this change. C. Sulpicius Galba, desirous in his youth to establish his credit with the Emperor by hunting out grounds for prosecuting the keepers of victualling-houses, made complaint in the senate that the proprietors of those places were in the habit of protecting themselves from the consequences of their guilt by their plea of wearing the golden ring. For this reason, an ordinance was made that no person whatsoever should have this right of wearing the ring, unless, freeborn himself as regarded his father and paternal grandfather, he should be assessed by the censors at four hundred thousand sesterces, and entitled, under the Julian Law, to sit in the fourteen tiers of seats at the theatre. In later times, however, people began to apply in whole crowds for this mark of rank; and in consequence of the diversities of opinion which were occasioned thereby, the Emperor Caius added a fifth decury to the number. Indeed to such a pitch has conceit now arisen, that whereas, under the late Emperor Augustus, the decuries could not be completed, at the present day they will not suffice to receive all the members of the equestrian order, and we see in every quarter persons even who have been but just liberated from slavery, making a leap all at once to the distinction of the golden ring: a thing that never used to happen in former days, as it was by the ring of iron that the equites and the judices were then to be recognized.

  Indeed, so promiscuously was this privilege at last conferred, that Flavius Proculus, one of the equites, informed against four hundred persons on this ground, before the Emperor Claudius, who was then censor: and thus we see, an order, which was established as a mark of distinction from other private individuals of free birth, has been shared in common with slaves !

  The Gracchi were the first to attach to this order the separate appellation of “judices,” their object being at the same moment a seditious popularity and the humiliation of the senate. After the fall of these men, in consequence of the varying results of seditious movements, the name and influence of the equestrian order were lost, and became merged in those of the publicani, who, for some time, were the men that constituted the third class in the state. At last, however, Marcus Cicero, during his consulship, and at the period of the Catilinarian troubles, re-established the equestrian name, it being his vaunt that he himself had sprung from that order, and he, by certain acts of popularity peculiar to himself, having conciliated its support. Since that period, it is very clear that the equites have formed the third body in the state, and the name of the equestrian order has been added to the formula— “The Senate and People of Rome.” Hence it is, too, that at the present day even, the name of this order is written after that of the people, it being the one that was the last instituted.

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  CHAP. 9.

  HOWOFTEN THE NAME OF THE EQUESTRIAN ORDER HAS BEEN CHANGED.

  Indeed, the name itself of the equites even, has been frequently changed, and that too, in the case of those who only owed their name to the fact of their service on horseback. Under Romulus and the other kings, the equites were known as “Celeres,” then again as “Flexuntes,” and after that as “Trossuli,” from the fact of their having taken a certain town of Etruria, situate nine miles on this side of Volsinii, without any assistance from the infantry; a name too which survived till after the death of C. Gracchus.

  At all events, in the writings left by Junius, who, from his affection for C. Gracchus, took the name of Gracchanus, we find the following words— “As regards the equestrian order, its members were formerly called ‘Trossuli,’ but at the present day they have the name of ‘Equites;’ because it is not understood what the appellation ‘Trossuli’ really means, and many feel ashamed at being called by that name.” — He then goes on to explain the reason, as above mentioned, and adds that, though much against their will, those persons are still called “Trossuli.”

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  CHAP. 10.

  GIFTS FOR MILITARY SERVICES, IN GOLD AND SILVER.

  There are also some other distinctions connected with gold, the mention of which ought not to be omitted. Our ancestors, for instance, presented tores of gold to the auxiliaries and foreign troops, while to Roman citizens they only granted silver ones: bracelets too, were given by them to citizens, but never to foreigners.

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  CHAP. 11.

  AT WHAT PERIOD THE FIRST CROWN OF GOLD WAS PRESENTED.

  But, a thing tha
t is more surprising still, crowns of gold were given to the citizens as well. As to the person who was first presented with one, so far as I have enquired, I have not been able to ascertain his name: L. Piso says, however, that the Dictator A. Posthumius was the first who conferred one: on taking the camp of the Latins at Lake Regillus, he gave a crown of gold, made from the spoil, to the soldier whose valour had mainly contributed to this success. L. Lentulus, also, when consul, presented one to Servius Cornelius Merenda, on taking a town of the Samnites; but in his case it was five pounds in weight. Piso Frugi, too, presented his son with a golden crown, at his own private expense, making it a specific legacy in his will.

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  CHAP. 12. (3.)

  OTHER USES MADE OF GOLD, BY FEMALES.

  To honour the gods at their sacrifices, no greater mark of honour has been thought of than to gild the horns of the animals sacrificed — that is, of the larger victims only. But in warfare, this species of luxury made such rapid advances, that in the Epistles of M. Brutus from the Plains of Philippi, we find expressions of indignation at the fibulæ of gold that were worn by the tribunes. Yes, so it is, by Hercules! and yet you, the same Brutus, have not said a word about women wearing gold upon their feet; while we, on the other hand, charge him with criminality who was the first to confer dignity upon gold by wearing the ring. Let men even, at the present day, wear gold upon the arms in form of bracelets — known as “dardania,” because the practice first originated in Dardania, and called “viriolæ” in the language of the Celts, “viriæ” in that of Celtiberia, let women wear gold upon their arms and all their fingers, their necks, their ears, the tresses of their hair; let chains of gold run meandering along their sides; and in the still hours of the night let sachets filled with pearls hang suspended from the necks of their mistresses, all bedizened with gold, so that in their very sleep even they may still retain the consciousness that they are the possessors of such gems: but are they to cover their feet as well with gold, and so, between the stola of the matrons and the garb of the plebeians, establish an intermediate or equestrian order of females? Much more becomingly do we accord this distinction to our pages, and the adorned beauty of these youths has quite changed the features of our public baths.

  At the present day, too, a fashion has been introduced among the men even, of wearing effigies upon their fingers representing Harpocrates and other divinities of Egypt. In the reign of Claudius, also, there was introduced another unusual distinction, in the case of those to whom was granted the right of free admission, that, namely, of wearing the likeness of the emperor engraved in gold upon a ring: a circumstance that gave rise to vast numbers of informations, until the timely elevation of the Emperor Vespasianus rendered them impossible, by proclaiming that the right of admission to the emperor belonged equally to all. Let these particulars suffice on the subject of golden rings and the use of them.

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  CHAP. 13.

  COINS OF GOLD. AT WHAT PERIODS COPPER, GOLD, AND SILVER WERE FIRST IMPRESSED. HOW COPPER WAS USED BEFORE GOLD AND SILVER WERE COINED. WHAT WAS THE LARGEST SUM OF MONEY POSSESSED BY ANY ONE AT THE TIME OF OUR FIRST CENSUS. HOW OFTEN, AND AT WHAT PERIODS, THE VALUE OF COPPER AND OF COINED MONEY HAS BEEN CHANGED.

  The next crime committed against the welfare of mankind was on the part of him who was the first to coin a denarius of gold, a crime the author of which is equally unknown. The Roman people made no use of impressed silver even before the period of the defeat of King Pyrrhus. The “as” of copper weighed exactly one libra; and hence it is that we still use the terms “libella” and “dupondius.” Hence it is, too, that fines and penalties are inflicted under the name of “æs grave,” and that the words still used in keeping accounts are “expensa,” “impendia,” and “dependere.” Hence, too, the word “stipendium,” meaning the pay of the soldiers, which is nothing more than “stipis pondera;” and from the same source those other words, “dispensatores” and “libripendes.” It is also from this circumstance that in sales of slaves, at the present day even, the formality of using the balance is introduced.

  King Servius was the first to make an impress upon copper. Before his time, according to Timæus, at Rome the raw metal only was used. The form of a sheep was the first figure impressed upon money, and to this fact it owes its name, “pecunia.” The highest figure at which one man’s property was assessed in the reign of that king was one hundred and twenty thousand asses, and consequently that amount of property was considered the standard of the first class.

  Silver was not impressed with a mark until the year of the City 485, the year of the consulship of Q. Ogulnius and C. Fabius, five years before the First Punic War; at which time it was ordained that the value of the denarius should be ten libræ of copper, that of the quinarius five libræ, and that of the sestertius two libræ and a half. The weight, however, of the libra of copper was diminished during the First Punic War, the republic not having means to meet its expenditure: in consequence of which, an ordinance was made that the as should in future be struck of two ounces weight. By this contrivance a saving of five-sixths was effected, and the public debt was liquidated. The impression upon these copper coins was a two-faced Janus on one side, and the beak of a ship of war on the other: the triens, however, and the quadrans, bore the impression of a ship. The quadrans, too, had, previously to this, been called “teruncius,” as being three unciæ in weight. At a later period again, when Hannibal was pressing hard upon Rome, in the dictatorship of Q. Fabius Maximus, asses of one ounce weight were struck, and it was ordained that the value of the denarius should be sixteen asses, that of the quinarius eight asses, and that of the sestertius four asses; by which last reduction of the weight of the as the republic made a clear gain of one half. Still, however, so far as the pay of the soldiers is concerned, one denarius has always been given for every ten asses. The impressions upon the coins of silver were two-horse and four-horse chariots, and hence it is that they received the names of “bigati” and “quadrigati.”

  Shortly after, in accordance with the Law of Papirius, asses were coined weighing half an ounce only. Livius Drusus, when tribune of the people, alloyed the silver with one-eighth part of copper. The coin that is known at the present day as the “victoriatus,” was first struck in accordance with the Clodian Law: before which period, a coin of this name was imported from Illyricum, but was only looked upon as an article of merchandize. The impression upon it is a figure of Victory, and hence its name.

  The first golden coin was struck sixty-two years after that of silver, the scruple of gold being valued at twenty sesterces; a computation which gave, according to the value of the sesterce then in use, nine hundred sesterces to each libra of gold. In later times, again, an ordinance was made, that denarii of gold should be struck, at the rate of forty denarii to each libra of gold; after which period, the emperors gradually curtailed the weight of the golden denarius, until at last, in the reign of Nero, it was coined at the rate of forty-five to the libra.

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  CHAP. 14.

  CONSIDERATIONS ON MAN’S CUPIDITY FOR GOLD.

  But the invention of money opened a new field to human avarice, by giving rise to usury and the practice of lending money at interest, while the owner passes a life of idleness: and it was with no slow advances that, not mere avarice only, but a perfect hunger for gold became inflamed with a sort of rage for acquiring: to such a degree, in fact, that Septimuleius, the familiar friend of Caius Gracchus, not only cut off his head, upon which a price had been set of its weight in gold, but, before bringing it to Opimius, poured molten lead into the mouth, and so not only was guilty of the crime of parricide, but added to his criminality by cheating the state. Nor was it now any individual citizen, but the universal Roman name, that had been rendered infamous by avarice, when King Mithridates caused molten gold to be poured into the mouth of Aquilius the Roman general, whom he had taken prisoner: such were the resul
ts of cupidity.

  One cannot but feel ashamed, on looking at those new-fangled names which are invented every now and then, from the Greek language, by which to designate vessels of silver filagreed or inlaid with gold, and the various other practices by which such articles of luxury, when only gilded, are made to sell at a higher price than they would have done if made of solid gold: and this, too, when we know that Spartacus forbade any one of his followers to introduce either gold or silver into the camp — so much more nobleness of mind was there in those days, even in our runaway slaves.

  The orator Messala has informed us that Antonius the triumvir made use of golden vessels when satisfying the most humiliating wants of nature, a piece of criminality that would have reflected disgrace upon Cleopatra even! Till then, the most consummate instances of a similar licentiousness had been found among strangers only — that of King Philip, namely, who was in the habit of sleeping with a golden goblet placed beneath his pillows, and that of Hagnon of Teos, a commander under Alexander the Great, who used to fasten the soles of his sandals with nails of gold. It was reserved for Antonius to be the only one thus to impart a certain utility to gold, by putting an insult upon Nature. Oh how righteously would he himself have been proscribed! but then the proscription should have been made by Spartacus.

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  CHAP. 15.

  THE PERSONS WHO HAVE POSSESSED THE GREATEST QUANTITY OF GOLD AND SILVER.

  For my own part, I am much surprised that the Roman people has always imposed upon conquered nations a tribute in silver, and not in gold; Carthage, for instance, from which, upon its conquest under Hannibal, a ransom was exacted in the shape of a yearly payment, for fifty years, of eight hundred thousand pounds’ weight of silver, but no gold. And yet it does not appear that this could have arisen from there being so little gold then in use throughout the world. Midas and Crœsus, before this, had possessed gold to an endless amount: Cyrus, already, on his conquest of Asia, had found a booty consisting of twenty-four thousand pounds’ weight of gold, in addition to vessels and other articles of wrought gold, as well as leaves of trees, a plane-tree, and a vine, all made of that metal.