Roman Ring

[poliphilo]

I used to own a Roman ring. It was too small to fit on any of my fingers, so I wore it on a thong round my neck.

Yes Roman. Really and truly Roman. Or so the seller said.

Last week the thong came untied and I lost the ring.

So I went on eBay and  bid for another.

There are an awful  lot of Roman rings for sale on eBay. I guess they're genuine. I figure they sell too cheaply for anyone to bother faking them. But where do they all come from?

The Romans must have been a really careless set of people.

Roman matron: (walking down country lane) "Drat, my ring just slipped off my finger into the ditch.  That's the third in as many weeks."

Roman patriarch: (cheerily) "Never mind dear. Plenty more where that came from."

Of course it is entirely possible that they....

have been robbed out of graves.....

(pause for delicious shudder.)

Anyway, I just learned that I won my auction. A bronze ring with a blue stone in it  is coming my way.

 

Comments

[aellia.livejournal.com]

I've got a liitle Roman clasp..no pin though,but I wear it on a chain put through the hole bit.
I'd love to see your ring?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Here it is....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7357674951&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1#ebayphotohosting

Thank you!

[aellia.livejournal.com]

And it's beautiful,I shall look at his other things when I come home from work

Re: Thank you!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It just amazes me that one can pick up something like this- that's over 1500 years old- for less than twenty quid!

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Ooh... Nice...

*covets*

*walks slowly away from E-bay*

That place is just dangerous, really... I try to avoid their website, because I know I shouldn't buy anything, but it's so tempting!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Aw, come on- a little Roman ring...or brooch....where's the harm in that?

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

I'm exceedingly short on storage space in my tiny flat, and I have plenty of stuff that I never use anyway... :-)

(Like my father's engagement ring... NOT, however, inscribed with my mother's name, but with "Pauline", who remains to this day a murky person whom he refuses to comment on... LOL So who needs a Roman ring when you have a family heirloom like that? With my close relationships to exes I suppose it's only fair that I have that ring...)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. We're getting ready to sell stuff on eBay- and maybe cart our junk round a few carboot sales once Ailz has finished with her exam.

Pauline? how very, very odd.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Funny how people talk of "winning" stuff on e-Bay... I think I'll start referring to stuff I win at the supermarket as well! :-)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a competition, ain't it? You're bidding against other punters....

That said, my bid on this particular item was unopposed.

Actually I rather like the idea of going to the supermarket and "winning" things. It has a heroic ring to it. There are overtones of horned helmets and broadswords.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Yes, i mean I know the reason for calling it "winning" on e-Bay, and I agree that it does sound rather more heroic than just "buying". (Perhaps also less materialistic? Dunno... I seem to be fightong my own bourgeois tendencies as hard as I can these days, but am failing miserably!)

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

You really *are* in a Wodehousian mood today, aren't you?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It keeps the blue devils at bay.

[aellia.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you don't have to bid at the supermarket ..well not the one that I work at :-)

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should start a new trend, then?

"2.50 you say? I'll pay 3.50!!!"

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Very forceful.

And the supermarket companies would love it.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

They probably wouldn't... They'd have to give up the "prices are getting LOWER"-slogans (ASDA's rollback etc.), and that just wouldn't look very competitive... Of course one might try advertising "the new and EXCITING supermarket experience!"...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And it would be exciting too.

People just love auctions.

Do you ever watch those auction shows on TV, like Flog It? I'm addicted.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

They're strangely compelling, those shows... Which, I suppose, might explain why UK television seems to be packed with them. The new gardening-show! (Wonder what the next day-time TV-fad will be...)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Gardening shows don't do it for me. All that decking- pah!

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

Ahaha! You are, of course, entirely right. "Quick!" says the e-email. "Don't let it get away! Make us more money! Win!"

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Must.do.what.e-mail.tells.me...

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

It's pretty...why a Roman ring, though?

Ebay is like instant gratification. Last summer a bracelet I had worn forever (that my mother got at the Dollar Store) finally gave up the ghost. By an hour later I had purchased another.

Of course, that one broke about three weeks ago. I've been staying away from ebay....

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I feel a strong affinity with the Romans- always have done. They're my favourite ancient civilisation.

Here's a poem i wrote after buting my first roman ring....

RINGS
That the Romans in Britain left so much clutter
To be gathered up by the metal detectors
Amazes me. So many rings-
In bronze, silver, occasionally gold-
You can get ‘em on e-Bay for less than a tenner.
It’s not that they’re pretty, the rings. They’re not .
The stall on the market has lovelier stuff,
And if an old object could give you a hit
Of history the staff at museums would live
In a psychic fizz, with their minds bent sideways
By showings. So what are you buying? The string
Sags into the dark and will never pull tight.
But someone long dead- a slave most probably-
Once had a stain on their skin- just like yours.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

This is great. YOu could make up a whole story about your ring, and it would be true because it's your ring...

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I love this poem, Tony.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Jackie.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

The Romans must have been a really careless set of people.

They were also a very clean people. They went to the baths a lot and lost things into the drains. If you ever get a chance, go to Caerleon. There's the Roman Amphitheatre and the excavated baths and the museum has lots of rings and stones from rings that they found in the old drains.

The thing I found really fascinating was the fact that the Roman soldiers used to contribute to a funeral club to ensure a decent burial when they died/were killed. It's exactly what my grandmother and others of her generation did in Manchester.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I must go to Caerleon.

Have you been to Chester? There's an amphitheatre there as well, and a museum gallery full of well-preserved Roman tombstones.

Oh, and a much-eroded votive image of Minerva still attached to the rock face in what is now a public park.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

I wonder who wore it all those years ago? I love making up stories about the people who had things now in junk shops.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

These cheap bronze rings could well have belonged to slaves. that's what I like to think, anyway.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Is there a chance that someone will find your other ring and put a "found" ad in the paper?

In any case, I'm glad you're getting a new old ring! Will this one fit, so that you can wear it on your finger?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's heavily corroded and looks like a piece of industrial scrap. It's very unlikely that anyone who found it would consider it of value.

But there's a goodish chance that I lost it in the house and that it will eventually eventually turn up.

I've no idea how big the new ring is. The seller's description only describes it as "wearable".

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

`winning` at the supermarket.

yes i like this.

perhaps they should install some swinging axes too that u have to dodge between like in Dr. Who ep 2 (that i saw last nite) or even some wild LOST-ish monster that u never see but that rattles the baked beans on the shelf as u pass.

pits also. for jumping, NO WAIT- for swinging over! and they give you a whip at the door so you can be like INDY JONES YES!!!!

this rocks. fantastic idea.

replacing tins of tuna with a bag of sand u found in the parking lot, so the poison darts don`t get you, or the bigt rolling ball or even THE BOULDER they have ALREADY in ASDA!

*pumps fist*

*goes YEAH!*

i am READY to shop!!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Me too.

Pass me my fedora....

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

yo pops on a completely different tack- ur a LJ paying member eh- do u use the search feature u get much? like- to search by location?
i wonder.
perhaps it`s not worth paying cos hell, i could just look up folks with an interest in japan then find out which one`s actually live there by trawling the sites myself.
extensive customizing u can do with paid accounts, i`m like- huh. not bothered.
finis.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The one feature of the paid account that I make full use of is the scrapbook. Otherwise- naaah- none of those other features interest me once.

When I first got the P.A. I did do some searching, and maybe I found a few friends that way. But these days I've got more friends than I can properly keep track of.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

"interest me once"? I meant "interest me much".

Hmm, sounds like I'm bragging about all my friends, doesn't it? I didn't mean it to sound like that. What I'm trying to get at is that the search feature is useful when you're finding your way around LJ, but becomes redundant once you're fullu embedded.

[philtration.livejournal.com]

The part that puzzles me is that the ring is too small for your finger yet it slipped easily off the finger of the Roman. How did they create such an empire with dainty little hands?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The Romans were small. I think that can be verfied from the archaeology.

But then, nearly everyone in the past was smaller than we are today. I guess it's got a lot to do with nutrition.

I remember as a child seeing one of Admiral Lord Nelson's uniforms in a museum display case and my mother pointing out how tiny he was.

[philtration.livejournal.com]

True. I saw a documentary stating that the average Roman solder stood just 5 foot 4 inches tall (162.5 cm). Even as recent as the 1860s the population was much smaller than today. Here in Chicago, the Chicago Historical Society has a display featuring the bed that Abraham Lincoln died in after being shot. Lincoln had to be laid on an angle to fit into this standard sized bed even though he was 6 foot 3 inches tall (198.1 cm) which was freakishly large by their standards.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's a photograph from the civil war in which Lincoln is pictured with a group of his senior officers. He towers above them all.

[kaysho.livejournal.com]

Whenever I see something like that, I wonder what the original owner would think if he knew where it had ended up so many generations later.

*goes to eBay himself, dangerously* :)