toga when a person went abroad, but the sandals were generally used on a journey. The patrician senator's shoes reached as high as the middle of the leg, and had a gold or silver crescent on the top of the foot. The ordinary shoes were black, but some were scarlet or red, and others were ornamented with gold, silver, and precious stones; those worn by the Roman women were usually white, but often red, scarlet, purple, and yellow, and adorned with pearls and embroidery. A senator was known by having four latchets to his shoe, instead of one, like ordinary people. The shoes were of unwrought leather. Sometimes they had socks of wool or goat'shair. Many writers imagine that the Romans had no gloves, but they are mentioned both by Greek and Roman authors, and also mittens. We see by the ancient coins and medals that the ancient Romans were bareheaded, except at sacred rites, games, festivals, and when at war. Baldness was looked upon as such a deformity that Cæsar, who had no hair on his head, is said to have prized the honour of wearing a laurel crown above all the other dignities conferred on him by the senate, because it served to conceal his baldness. In the city, to screen themselves from the heat, rain, or wind, the Romans frequently threw the folds of their robe over their heads; but if they met any one to whom they owed respect, they immediately let the folds drop and remained bareheaded. At all sacred rites but those of Saturn, and in any grief, danger, or despair, they veiled their heads. At festivals they had a woollen cap or bonnet, and on a journey a round cap like a helmet, or a cap of un wrought leather; but this last was more frequently worn by warriors. Men and women, but particularly the latter, wore quantities of false hair, often arranged in the shape of a helmet. The head-dresses of the Roman women frequently changed, but when they went abroad they at all times covered their faces with a veil. They were particularly addicted to frizzling and curling their hair, and raising it into stories of curls, some of a great height. Ancient writers say that the lofty pile of false hair they wore upon their heads resembled a building. They used long hair-pins to fix their curls. Thus Virgil says: "his frizzled hair to soil, Hot with the vexing iron, and smeared with fragrant oil." of Arranging the hair was a matter grave importance; slaves frizzled and adjusted it, and a number of females learned in the art of the coiffeur attended to see to the proper arrangement of the locks, while the fair dame herself watched the growing edifice of curls, gold, pearls, precious stones, crowns, or chaplets of flowers, in a mirror made of polished steel or brass, of tin, or of silver. Ribands, or fillets, were a very general headdress. Thus Virgil says: "In perfect view their hair with fillets ty'd." An embroidered, or golden net or caul, was fre quently used to enclose the hair. We find in the "Eneid:" "Her head with ringlets of her hair is crown'd, And in a golden caul the curls are bound." The caul appears, also, to have been used to enclose the tresses of a corpse; for in describing the preparations for the funeral of Pallas, after the account of the vests in which the body was arrayed, we read: "One vest array'd the corpse, and one they spread, O'er his closed eyes, and wrapp'd around his head : The priests who offered up sacrifices for the fertility of the ground had a woollen bandage, tied with ribands, round the head. To this custom, probably, Virgil alludes: "His hoary locks with purple fillets bound." Others of the ministers of religion wore wreaths of oak-leaves, or vervain, around their brows. Thus in the "Eneid:" "In purest white the priests their heads attire; And o'er their linen hoods, and shaded hair, Suppliants, also, and warriors wore fillets of purple or of gold. Æneas is thus described : "Green wreaths of bays his length of hair enclose, A golden fillet binds his awful brows." Cosmetics, washes, paint, and perfumes, were much used among the Roman women. White lead, to whiten the skin, and vermilion to make it red, were constantly employed by both sexes. The wife of Nero invented a pomatum said to have preserved her beauty. But not content with paints and ointments, the women wore patches also, and stained their eyelids and eyebrows with black powder or soot. They also wore massive ear-rings, sometimes three or four in each ear, of immense value, bracelets, necklaces, armlets, brooches, and clasps. Men wore a twisted chain, or a circular plate of gold. "Some at their backs their gilded quivers bore, Their chains of burnished gold hung down before.”—Æneid. Roman matrons wore an ornament peculiar to themselves, called segmentum. Some authors suppose it to have been a necklace, others imagine it was an embroidered riband or fringe, sewn upon the robe. Women of all ages also had a boddice, formed of a broad riband, which served for modern stays, and they wore a clasp or buckle on the left shoulder, also a muffler or handkerchief round the neck. No ornament was so much cherished and worn by men and women of all ranks as rings of gold, silver, and baser metals. They were frequently set with precious stones, on which were usually engraved the images of some of their friends, or the representation of some great event. These rings were used for sealing letters and papers. When at the point of death a Roman usually presented his ring, as a token of esteem, to his dearest friend. Young boys wore an ornament hung round their necks, which was supposed to prompt them to wisdom: it was called bulla, and was a hollow golden ball or boss. The beard among the ancient Romans was allowed to grow, shaving it off being quite unknown among them till about the year of the city 454, when some barbers came from Sicily, and introduced the fashion of smooth chins. Beards, however, were allowed to sprout again under Hadrian, who, having some deformity on the face, revived the custom, but it was soon abandoned again. The Romans usually cut their hair very short, and in the later ages they devoted much time to the arrangement of it; they dyed and perfumed it, and wore false hair and perukes. The men frequently consecrated their beard and hair to some deity: Nero devoted his, enclosed in a golden box, to Jupiter Capitolinus. Philosophers always wore long beards, to give them an air of gravity and learning. In sorrow and mourning the Romans, unlike the Greeks, allowed their beards to grow, and both men and women let their hair hang dishevelled. Thus Virgil says: "Her beauteous breast she beat, and rent her flowing hair." And again : "In mournful guise the matrons walk around: |