horse-trappings, and fibnlæ[1]. Under the decadence of the empire, the torques was given by the Roman commanders, and many who subsequently obtained the purple had been thus decorated when in the military ranks, as Maximin by Severus[2], Claudius II., or Gothicus, by Valerian[3], who gave him a torques of a pound weight[4], and Probus[5].
At the proclamation of Julian by the soldiery at Paris, A.C. 300, Maurus, one of the legion of Petulantes, probably a Celtic levy, "abstractum sibi torquem quo ut draconarius utebatur capiti Juliani imposuit[6]." The draconarius, or dragon bearer, was an officer of a cohort of a later period; and on the column of Trajan, the Dacians (not the Romans) carry this standard. Hence it is probable that among the barbarian troops of the empire the officers retained their national marks of distinction; and as the troops of Rome became almost entirely levies from the Celtic and German youth, it is not extraordinary to find that under Theodosius, the torques was a part of the military dress of the tribune[7]. In A.D. 380 Vegetius mentions the two orders of torques, as duplares and simplares[8]: and Ambrose, A.D. 390, alludes to the same decoration[9]. But as late as Arcadius it does not appear to have been an ordinary decoration[10], while the manner in which Agathias describes the Medes under Justinian, shews that it was not an usual ornament in the Roman empire[11] in the middle of the sixth century, and in the eleventh it seems obsolete among the Romans.
The tore is occasionally mentioned, according to Dr. Pughe[12], in Welch literature, as in the expressions tynu torc, to draw, a torques, or contend for the mastery; "eurdorçogean," or those wearing the golden torques, are much praised by the bards of the Cymwry. Aneurin, the author of Gododin, a poem on the battle fought against Iddra, at Cattaeth, in the sixth century, states that he was one of the three out of three hundred and sixty-three wearing them, who escaped that
- ↑ Paus. ii. 89.
- ↑ Capitolinus, vita Maximin.
- ↑ Pollio.
- ↑ Pollio, vit. Claudii, apud Hist. Aug. Scriptores.
- ↑ Vopisc. vit. Prob.
- ↑ Ammian. Marcellin. xx. 4. cf. Paulus Diaconus, lib. xi.
- ↑ Prudent, de Peristephan. cf. Curopal. off. Const. Sidon. Apollin. viii. 574. c. xxvii. 426.
- ↑ ii. cxvii.
- ↑ De Inst. Virg. et de Jejunio.
- ↑ No torques occurs on the necks of any Roman on the Sculptures of the Thermæ Arcadianæ. Banduri., Imp. Orien. p. 513.
- ↑ De Bello Gothico, lib. iii. cf. Jornandes de Success. Justinian. Ammian., l. xxix.
- ↑ Archæol., vol. xxi. p. 517.
