Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ANNULUS. ANNULUS. 95
ginally applied to any bearers of burdens, and women likewise used to wear rings, but not so frenext, to compulsory service of any kind. [P. S.] quently as men; the rings of women also appear
ANGIPORTUS, or ANGIPORTUM, a nar- to have been less costly than those of men, for
row lane between two rows of houses; such a lane some are mentioned which were made of amber,
might have no issue at all, or end in a private ivory, &c. (Artemid. I. c.) Rings were mostly
house, so as to be what the French call a cul-de- worn on the fourth finger (7rapdcieosr, Plut. Symsac, or it might terminate at both ends in some pos. Fraigm. lib. iv.; Gellius, x. 10). The Lacepublic street. The ancients derived the word daemonians are said to have used iron rings at all
from angustus and portus, and explain it as mean- times. (Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 4.) With the excep..
ing, originally, the narrow entrance to a port. tion perhaps of Sparta, the law does not appear to
(Fest. p. 17. ed. Muller; Varro, De L. L. v. 145, have ever attempted in any Greek state to counter.
vi. 41; Ulpian, in Dig. De Signif. Verb. 59.) The act the great partiality for this luxury; and no.
number of such narrow courts, closes, or lanes seems where in Greece does the right of wearing a gold
to have been considerable in ancient Rome. (Cic. ring appear to have been confined to a particular
de Div. i. 32, p. Mil. 24, ad tieren. iv. 51; order or class of citizens.
Plaut. Pseud. iv. 2. 6, cap. Non. iii. 1; Ter. The custom of wearing rings was believed to
Adelpli. iv. 2. 39; Horat. Cantr. i. 25. 10; Catull. have been introduced into Rome by the Sabines,
58. 4.) [L. S.] who are described in the early legends as wearANGUSTUS CLAVUS. [CLAvus.] ing gold rings with precious stones (gemsnati
ANNA'LES MA'XIMI. [PONTIFEX.] annsuli) of great beauty. (Liv. i. 11; Dionys. ii.
ANNO'NA is used to signify, 1. The produce 38.) Florus (i. 5) states that it was introduced
of the year in corn, fruit, wine, &c., and hence, 2. from Etruria in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus,
Provisions in general, especially the corn which, in and Pliny (I. c.) derives it from Greece. The
the latter years of the republic, was collected in fact that among the statues of the Roman kings
the storehouses of the state, and sold to the poor at in the capitol, two, Nulna and Servius Tullius,
a cheap rate in times of scarcity; and which, under were represented with rings, can scarcely be adthe emperors, was distributed to the people gra- duced as an argument for their early use, as later
tuitously, or given as pay and rewards. [CON- artists would naturally represent the kings with
GIARIUM; FRUMENTATIO; PRAEFECTUS AN- such insignia as characterized the highest magiNONAE.] [P. S.] strates in later times. But at whatever time,
A'NNULUS (daamrvdhos), a ring. Every free- rings may have become customary at Rome, thus
man in Greece appears to have used a ring; and, much is certain, that at first they were always ot
at least in the earliest times, not as an ornament, iron, that they were destined for the same purpose
but as an article for use, as the ring always served as in Greece, namely, to be used as seals, and that
as a seal. How ancient the custom of wearing every free Roman had a right to use such a ring.
rings among the Greeks was, cannot be ascertained; This iron ring was used down to the last period
though it is certain, as even Pliny (II. N. xxxiii. of the republic by such men as loved the simplicity
4) observes, that in the Homeric poems there are of the good old times. Marius wore an iron ring
no traces of it. In works of fiction, however, and in his triumph over Jugurtha, and several noble
in those legends in which the customs of later ages families adhered to the ancient custom, and never
are mixed up with those of the earliest times, we wore gold ones. (Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 6.)
find the most ancient heroes described as wearing When senators in the early times of the republic
rings. (Paus. i. 17. ~ 3, x. 30. ~ 2; Eurip. Iphlig. were sent as ambassadors to a foreign state, they
4ul. 154, Hippol. 859.) But it is highlyprobable wore during the time of their mission gold rings,
that the custom of wearing rings was introduced which they received from the state, and which
into Greece from Asia, where it appears to have were perhaps adorned with some symbolic reprebeen almost universal. (Herod. i. 195; Plat. de sentation of the republic, and might serve a.s a
Re Publ. ii. p. 359.) In the time of Solon seal- state-seal. But ambassadors used gold rings enly
rings (orrppay-tes), as well as the practice of coun- in public; in private they wore their iron ones.
terfeiting them, seem to have been rather corm- (Plin. xxxiii. 4.) In the course of time it bemon, for Diogenes Laertius (i. 57) speaks of a law came customary for all the senators, chief magiof Solon which forbade the artist to keep the form strates, and at last for the equites also, to wear
of a seal (o-opayfs) which he had sold. (Instances a gold seal-ring. (Liv. ix. 7. 46, xxvi. 36; Cic.
of counterfeited seals are given in Becker's Ch/ari- c. Vers. iv. 25; Liv. xxiii. 12; Flor. ii. 6.) This
kles, ii. p. 217.) Whether, however, it was cus- right of wearing a gold ring, which was subsetomary as early as the time of Solon to wear rings quently called the jes annosii aaeri, or the jfts
with precious stones on which figures were en- anumlorum, remained for several centuries at Rome
graved, may justly be doubted; and it is much the exclusive privilege of senators, magistrates,
more probable that at that time the figures were and equites, while all other persons continued to
cut in the metal of the ring itself, a custom which -use iron ones. (Appian, de Reb. Pun. 104.) Mawas never abandoned altogether. Rings without gistrates and governors of provinces seem to have
precious stones were called a&4/ripoi, the name of the had the right of conferring upon inferior officers, or
gem being *1&ipos or mppayis. (Artemidor. Oneiro- such persons as had distinguished themselves, the
crit. ii. 5.) In later times rings were worn more privilege of wearing a gold ring. Verres thus
as ornaments than as articles for use, and persons presented his secretary with a gold ring in the
now were no longer satisfied with one, but wore assembly at Syracuse. (Cic. c. Verr. iii. 76, 80,
two, three, or even more rings; and instances are ad Farn. x. 32; Suet. Caes. 39.) During the
recorded of those who regularly loaded their hands empire the right of granting the annulus aureus
with rings. (Plat. Hlpp. Min. p. 368; Aristoph. belonged to the emperors, and some of them were
Eccles. 632, Nub. 332, with the Schol.; Dinarch. not very scrupulous in conferring this privilege.
en Demost.. p. 29; Diog. Laert. v. 1.) Greek Augustus gave it to Mena, a freedman, and to