FI´BULA
FI´BULA (
περόνη,
περονίς: πόρπη,
ἐπιπορπίς:
ἐνετή), a brooch consisting of a pin (
acus), and of a curved portion furnished with a hook (
κλείς,
Hom. Od. 18.293). The curved portion was
sometimes a circular ring or disc, the pin passing across its centre
(woodcut, figs. 1, 2), and sometimes an arc, the pin being as the chord of
the arc (fig. 3). The forms of brooches, which were commonly of gold or
bronze, and more rarely of silver (Aelian,
Ael. VH
1.18), were, however, as various in ancient as in modern times;
for the fibula served in dress
[p. 1.841]not merely as a
fastening, but also as an ornament. (
Hom. Od.
19.256,
257;
Eur. Phoen. 805.)
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Fibulae, brooches and buckles. (British Museum.)
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As specimens of the exquisite workmanship of the more elaborate fibulae, we
give two examples from the gold ornament cases of the British Museum.
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Fibulae, brooches. (British Museum.)
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Women wore the fibula both with the
AMICTUS and the
indutus; men wore it
with the amictus only. Its most frequent use was to pin together two parts
of the scarf, shawl or cloak [CHLAMYS; PEPLUS;
PALLIUM], which constituted the amictus, so as to fasten it over the
right shoulder. (
Soph. Trach. 924-6;
Theocr. 14.66; Ovid,
Ov. Met. 8.318; Tac.
Germ. 17.) [Woodcuts, pp. 3, 158, 315.] More rarely we
see it over the breast. The epithet
ἑτερόπορπος was applied to a person wearing the fibula on one
shoulder only (Schol.
in
Eur. Hec. 933,
934); for women often wore it on both shoulders. [Woodcuts, pp. 368,
386.] In consequence of the habit of putting on the amictus with the aid of
a fibula, it was called
περόνημα or
ἐμπερόνημα (Theocr. 15.34, 79),
πόρπαμα (Eurip.
Elect.
820),
περονατρίς (Theocr.
l.c. 15), or
ἀμπεχόνη
περονᾶτις (Brunck,
Anal. 2.28=
Anth.
Pal. 7.713). The splendid shawl of Ulysses, described in the
Odyssey (
19.225)-231), was provided with
two small pipes for admitting the pin of the golden brooch; this contrivance
would secure the cloth from being torn. The highest degree of ornament was
bestowed upon brooches after the fall of the Western empire. Justin II.
(Corippus, 2.122), and many of the emperors who preceded him, as we perceive
from the portraits on their medals, wore upon their right shoulders fibulae,
from which jewels, attached by three small chains, depended. (Beger,
Thes. Pal. pp. 407 ff.)
It has been already stated that women often wore the fibula on both
shoulders. In addition to this, a lady sometimes displayed an elegant row of
brooches down each arm upon the sleeves of her tunic (Aelian,
Ael. VH 1.18), examples of which are seen in
many ancient statues. It was also fashionable to wear them on the breast
(Isid.
Orig. 19.30); and another occasional distinction of
female attire, in later times, was the use of the fibula in tucking up the
tunic above the knee.
Not only might slight accidents to the person arise from wearing brooches
(
Hom. Il. 5.425), but they were
sometimes used, especially by females, to inflict serious injuries. The pin
of the fibula is the instrument which the Phrygian women employ to deprive
Polymestor of his sight by piercing his pupils (
Eur. Hec. 1170), and with which the Athenian women, having first
blinded a man, then dispatch him (
Hdt. 5.87;
Schol.
in
Eur. Hec. 934). Oedipus strikes the pupils of
his own eyeballs with a brooch taken from the dress of Jocasta (
Soph. Oed. Tyr. 1269;
Eur. Phoen. 62). For the same reason we find
that
περονάω meant “to
pierce,” since
περόνη was properly
the pin of the brooch (
περόνησε,
“pinned him,”
Hom. Il. 7.145;
13.397).
Brooches were succeeded by buckles, especially among the Romans, who called
them by the same name. The first woodcut shows on the right hand the forms
of four bronze buckles (4, 5, 6, 7), from the collection in the British
Museum. This article of dress was chiefly used to fasten the belt [
BALTEUS], and the girdle [
ZONA]. (
Verg. A. 12.274; Lydus,
de Magistr. 2.13.) It
appears to have been in general much more richly ornamented than the brooch;
for, although Hadrian was simple and inexpensive in this as well as in other
matters of costume (Spartian.
Hadr. 10), yet many of his
successors were exceedingly prone to display buckles set with jewels
(
fibulae gemmatae).
The terms which have now been illustrated as applied to articles of dress,
were also used to denote pins variously introduced in carpentry; e. g. the
linch-pins of a chariot (Parthen. 6.4); the wooden pins inserted through the
sides of a boat, to which the sailors fasten their lines or ropes (
Apollon. 1.567); the trenails which unite the
posts and planks of a wooden bridge (Caesar,
Caes.
Gal. 4.17); and the pins fixed into the top of a wooden triangle
used as a mechanical engine (
Vitr. 10.2).
[
J.Y] [
W.W]
