[731] The reasons are mentioned by Ateius Capita, as quoted by Macrobius, Saturnal. B. vii. c. 13: also by Apion the Grammarian, as quoted by Aulus Gellius, B. x. c. 10.
[732] The ring of each finger had its own appropriate name.
[733] The “dactyliotheca,” or “ring-box.”
[734] Juvenal, Sat. i. l. 26, et seq., speaks of the summer rings of the Roman fops, and their fingers sweating beneath the weight.
[735] Martial, Epigr. B. xiv., speaks of the numerous accidents to which a weighty ring was liable.
[736] Hannibal, too, for instance, as mentioned in Note [701] to the preceding Chapter.
[737] He alludes, probably, to forgeries perpetrated through the agency of false signets.
[738] Plautus, Cicero, Horace, and Martial, each in his own age, bears testimony to the truth of this statement.
[739] Or remembrancer; a slave whose duty it was to remind his master of the name of each member of his household; see B. xxix. c. 8. Athenæus, B. vi., speaks of as many as twenty thousand slaves belonging to one household. Demetrius, the freedman of Pompey, mentioned in B. xxxv. c. 58, had a retinue of slaves equal to an army in amount.
[740] Meaning “Marci puer,” or “Luci puer”—“Marcius’ boy,” or “Lucius’ boy.”