Nvs Amoris
ABES PROTEROS VGIAE Roman 'memorial' gift-rings. adopted for classic rings when used as memorial gifts. The first is inscribed, - You have a love-pledge,' the second,- 'Proteros (to) Ugiæ,' between conjoined hands.
Anglo-Roman.
The annexed illustration represents a jewelled ring of gold, considered to be of Roman work. It is formed with nine little bosses, set with uncut gems, emeralds, garnets, and a sapphire: one only, supposed to be a blue spinel, is cut in pyramidal fashion.
A similar ring, of gold, found in Barton, Oxfordshire, may, probably, be ascribed to the same period of the Roman rule in Britain. Weight 3 dwts. 16 grains. (‘Archæological Journal,' vol. vi. p. 290.) Anglo-Roman.
Roman.
The Roman ring here given must have been inconvenient to the wearer from its form, but may have been used as a signet. Rings were chiefly used by the Romans for sealing letters and papers; also cellars, chests, casks, &c.1 They were affixed to certain signs, or symbols, used for tokens, like what we call tallies, or tally-sticks, and given in contracts instead of a bill, or bond, or for any sign. Rings were also given by those who agreed to club for an entertainment, to the person commissioned to bespeak it, from symbola, a reckoning; hence, symbolam dare, to pay his reckoning. Rings were also given as votive offerings to the gods.
In 1841 a curious discovery was made at Lyons of the 1 Xenophon, in his 'Economics,' states that the Greek matrons had the power of sealing up, or placing the seal upon the house-goods, and at Rome, Cicero's mother was accustomed to enhance to consumers the merits of some poor thin wine, vile Sabinum, by affixing to each amphora her official signet. It appears that the women of Greece did not use the ring as frequently as the men, and that theirs were less costly.