ARMILLA
ARMILLA (
ψέλιον,
ὄφις, a bracelet or armlet. Ornaments of this
kind were worn by men
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Bracelets. (Museo Borbonico, vol. ii. tav. 14; vol.
vii. tav. 46.)
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Bracelet. (On statue of Sleeping Ariadne in the Vatican.)
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among the Persians and Medians, probably as a mark of distinction
(cf.
Hdt. 8.113; Xen.
Anab.
1.2.27): in Greece, however, they seem to have been confined to the female
sex, or to men of an effeminate character. With Greek ladies bracelets were
a favourite ornament, and the female figures on the Greek vases are
represented with bracelets of every kind. They were worn on one or both
arms, sometimes on the wrist (
περικάρπια),
sometimes on the upper arm (
περιβραχιόνια),
sometimes even on both at once. One favourite kind of bracelet went several
times round the arm, and seems to have had no clasp, over the wrist, and
retained in its place by compressing the arm. These bracelets, from their
resemblance to serpents, were known to the Greeks as
δράκοντες or
ὄφεις (cf.
Hesych. sub voce
ὄφεις). The above bracelets are of this
description.
Bracelets were likewise worn at Rome by ladies of rank, but it was considered
a mark of effeminacy for men in an ordinary way to use such female
ornaments. (
Suet. Cal. 52;
Ner. 30.) They were, however, publicly conferred by a Roman
general upon soldiers for deeds of extraordinary merit (
Liv. 10.44;
Plin. Nat. 33.37
; Festus, s. v.); in which case they were worn as a mark of honour, and
probably differed in form from the ordinary ornaments of the kind. See the
cut below.
The following cuts exhibit Roman bracelets. The first figure represents a
gold bracelet discovered at Rome on the Palatine Mount (Caylus,
[p. 1.192]Rec. d'Ant. vol. v. pl. 93). The
rosette in the middle is composed of distinct and very delicate leaves. The
two starlike flowers on each side of it have been repeated where the holes
for securing them are still visible. The second
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Roman Bracelets.
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figure represents a gold bracelet found in Britain, and preserved
in the British Museum. It appears to be made of two gold wires twisted
together, and the mode of fastening it upon the arm, by a clasp, is worthy
of observation. It has evidently been a lady's ornament. The third figure
represents
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Roman military Bracelet.
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an armilla, which must have been intended as a reward for
soldiers, for it would be ridiculous
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Armilla, bronze and gold. (From the Belotti Collection.)
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to suppose such a massive ornament to have been designed for
women. The original, of pure gold, is more than twice the length of the
figure, and was found in Cheshire. (
Archaeologia, 27.400.)
The last example is from the Belotti Collection.
[
J.Y] [
J.H.O]
