Fig. 319.
Fig. 320.
Circular fibulæ are occasionally met with, and these, like the bowed forms, vary very considerably in design. Sometimes they are flat on the face, and enamelled or inlaid in different colours. One of the most curious, but elegant, modifications of the circular form is [fig. 320], where the ends, which are serpents’ heads, are turned back to the sides of the body.
Armillæ, or bracelets, are found both in bronze, in silver, and in gold. They vary very considerably in form. Of these, one example ([fig. 321]) will be sufficient. The pair here represented are of base silver, and bear evidence of having been much worn. Examples of analogous type have been found at Castleford and other places. Other armlets partake more of the character of torques, torquis, or collar; and others, again, are simply bars of metal, twisted in one or more coils, like a spiral spring, around the wrist.
Fig. 321.
While speaking of armlets and torques, it may not be out of place, as I purposely omitted them in the Celtic division of this work, to say a few words about the latter. There can be no doubt that the torque was worn both by the ancient Briton and by his Roman conqueror, and therefore it is perhaps best, as it is at present not easy to say which of the known examples are to be attributed to the earlier and which to the later of these periods, to speak of them generally under this head.
The torque, or torquis, is said, by ancient writers, to have been first used by the Persians and by the nations of Northern and Western Europe. Virgil describes it as worn by the Trojans when they came to colonize Italy:—