HAIR-DRESSING OF ROMAN LADIES AS ILLUSTRATED ON COINS.

59                               NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE

find the plait going under the crescent and lying in a loop over the forehead, similar to the style of Severina (Illust. LXVI.), and recalling that of Fulvia, some three centuries earlier (Illust. VIII.). Illust. LXIX.

About this time, indeed, there is a tendency to revert to the roll of hair above the forehead which characterizes some of the earlier busts, assumed to

be portraits of Octavia, though now the effect is obtained by the looping of a plait brought up from the neck, rather than by a roll commencing at the brow. The “Octavian roll,” as adopted by a “hard-favoured” lady, can be studied in Brunn and Arndt's Corpus of Roman Portraits, Pl. 61, 62.

A coin of Galeria Valeria (292A.D.), found at Belgrade (Illust. LXX), shows the plait brought up, while one struck at Siscia emphasizes the “Fulvia” braid (Illust. LXXI.). Galeria's hair in either case seems to grow very low over the brow, almost joining the eyebrows. If this represents her own hair, it does not inspire much confidence in her intellectual capacity, though, of course, it may be an artificial assumption of a “point” of beauty then in vogue.

It is really curious how often, amid fashions denoting every variety of elaboration, simplicity seems to have held its own. Fausta, wife of Constantine (circa 326 A.D.), has her deeply waved hair gathered into a knot that reminds us of the mode of Lucilla (Illust. XLIV.).  Illust. LXXII.

But sometimes Fausta shows more elaboration of coiffure, as in the example preserved in Paris, in the Bibliotheque Nationale (Illust. LXXIII.). I am indebted to Mr, Wroth of the British Museum for kindly procuring for me an illustration of this unique medallion. The thick roll of hair in this instance is arranged in a similar