ORNAMENTA ROMANA

Only by the end of the VII and the beginning of the VI century BC were the Romans aware of gold and extravagance. This was because of their contact with the wealthy Etruscans.
At first these valuable items were reserved exclusively for the gods and people of high rank.
During the Republic there was a strict ruling which permitted specific social classes to wear rings.
In the first centuries, senators wore iron rings with engraved gems which were used as seals. Pliny recounts how gold rings were worn by senators only when they made visits abroad as ambassadors.
Later, the wearing of gold rings became so widespread that it was limited by a decree issued in 23 AD to those who were the affluent descendants of free parents and grandparents.
Freed slaves could wear silver rings. Over time, iron rings came to be used only by servants.
Rings with engraved gems gradually lost their function as a seal and remained exclusively ornamental.
Furthermore, more than one was worn on the same hand, usually the left, and on the same finger. The middle finger was avoided as this was considered immodest.
Serpent-head shaped rings and bracelets were quite common, probably even in the Imperial Court. Suetonius tells us how Agrippina persuaded Nero to put a snakeskin inside a gold scabbard and wear it like a bracelet.
In the Augustan period it became more common to wear numerous pieces of jewellery which were often encrusted with precious stones from the eastern provinces, as well a pearls from the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Those who were less privileged used jewels made of mother of pearl and coloured glass paste.
After the third century AD jewellery began to be encrusted with coins too.
The richest women could afford long necklaces, which they wore in various ways, for example crossing them over their breasts and letting them fall over their hips.
Augustus, respecting Italic customs, imposed the use of the buckle. This did not belong to traditional Roman dress and in the course of the 1st century AD was used as a clasp for cloaks.

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