HAIR-DRESSING OF ROMAN LADIES AS ILLUSTRATED ON COINS.

58                               NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE

I am told by some English ladies, who used to dress their hair in a similar fashion about the year 1876, that they were in the habit of sewing these plaits together, with silk to match their hair, in order to get the correct basket-work effect, Otacilia and her contemporaries may have adopted a similar plan. It is a style that continued for some time, and is favoured by _Herennia Etruscilla, wife of Trajan Decius (circa 249-251)‑Illust. LXIV.‑though she sometimes reverts to the earlier style of Julia Mamaea, as given in Illust. LXII. Her bust, with very simple hair-dressing, is preserved in the British Museum (No. 1924).

Tranquillina, wife of Gordianus III (circa 241 A.D.), is similar in her style to Otacilia (Illust. LXIII.), but in her case the plait reaches the diadem, Illust. LXV.

Severina, wife of Aurelian (died 274A.D.), carries the mass of plaits still higher, till they reach the brow and lie under the crescent. Illust. LXVI.

Mariniana (circa 254 A.D.), who is variously described as the wife or the sister of Valerianus, being always depicted with a veil, throws very little light on the subject. Illust. LXVII.

Salonina (circa 260-268 A.D.), wife of Gallienus, has her hair deeply waved on either side of the face, the ear exposed, a curved braid lying below it, and a plait or plaits running up the back of the head to meet a crescent diadem, Illust. LXVIII.

With this may be compared the medallion in the British Museum (published in Roman Medallions in British Museum, 1874, Pl, xlix.), where the plait does not go quite so high.

When we come to Magnia Urbica, wife of Carinus (circa 285 A.D.), a princess unmentioned in history, we