1. The Ring an Emblem of Power; Pharaoh; Quintus Curtius; Antiochus Epiphanes, Augustus; King of Persia, Egypt under the Ptolemies; Roman Senators; the Forefinger. 2. Rings used in Coronations; Edward the Second, Mother of Henry VIII.; Queen Elizabeth; Charles II.; Coronation Rings, Canute; Sebert; Henry II.; Childeric; Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror. 3. King withdrawing a Proceeding from the Council by the use of a Ring. 4. The Doge of Venice marrying the Adriatic. 5. The Ring of Office of the Doge. 6. The Fisherman’s Ring. 7. Papal Ring of Pius II. 8. Investiture of Archbishops and Bishops, by delivery of a Ring; Cardinal’s Ring; Extension of the two Forefingers and Thumb. 9. Serjeant’s Ring. 10. Arabian Princesses. 11. Roman Knights. 12. Alderman’s Thumb Ring.
§ 1. From the most ancient times, a ring has been an emblem of power.
Pharaoh put his ring upon Joseph’s hand, as a mark of the power he gave him; and the people cried, “Bow the knee.”[107]
Quintus Curtius tells us that Alexander the Great sealed the letters he wrote into Europe with his own ring seal, and those in Asia with Darius’s ring; and that when Alexander gave his ring to Perdiccas, it was understood as nominating him his successor.
When Antiochus Epiphanes was at the point of death, he committed to Philip, one of his friends, his diadems, royal cloak and ring, that he might give them to his successor, young Antiochus.[108]
Augustus, being very ill of a distemper which he thought mortal, gave his ring to Agrippa, as to a friend of the greatest integrity.
The ring given by Pharaoh to Joseph was, undoubtedly, a signet or seal-ring, and gave authority to the documents to which it was affixed; and by the delivery of it, therefore, Pharaoh delegated to Joseph the chief authority in the state.[109] The king of Persia, in the same way, gave his seal-ring to his successive ministers, Haman and Mordecai; and in the book of Esther,[110] the use of such a ring is expressly declared: “The writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s seal, may no man reverse.”
That ministers or lords under the king had their rings of office, is also apparent from what occurred with the closing of the den of lions: “And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.”[111]
In Egypt, under the Ptolemies, the king’s ring was the badge under which the country was governed. It seemed to answer to the great seal of England.[112] We read that Sosibius, minister under Ptolemy Philopater, was forced, by popular clamor, to give up the king’s signet ring to another. Here was a going out of a Lord John Russell, and a coming in of a Lord Palmerston.