After the custom of shaving had been introduced, by Mena, A. U. C. 454, it went out, for a short time, in Rome, during the time of Adrian, who as Spartianus relates, in his Life of that Emperor, having some ugly excrescences on his chin, suffered his beard to grow to conceal them--of course the courtiers followed the example of the emperor--the people, that of the courtiers. The grave concealed those excrescences, more effectually, A. D. 139, and the _navacula_ again came into use, among the Romans: Marcus Antoninus, his successor, had no excrescences on his chin. The day, upon which a young Roman was said _ponere barbam_, that is, to shave for the first time, was accounted a holiday; and Juvenal says, iii. 187, he received presents from his friends. Ovid, Trist. iv. 10, 67, dates his earliest literary exhibitions, before the people, by his first or second shave, or clip-- Carmina quum primum populo juvenilia legi, Barba resecta mihi bisve semelve fuit. Which may be thus translated-- When first in public I began To read my boyish rhymes, I scarcely could be call'd a man, And had not shav'd three times. Cæsar says of the Britons, B. G. V. 14--omni parte corporis rasa, præter caput et labrum superius--they shave entirely, excepting the head and upper lip. Half-shaving was accounted, in the days of Samuel, I suppose, as reducing the party to a state of semi-_barbarism_: thus, in Samuel II. x. 4--"Wherefore Hanan took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards." To be denied the privilege of shaving was accounted dishonorable, among the Catti, a German nation, in the days of Tacitus; for he says, De Moribus Germanæ, 31--Apud Cattos in consensum vertit, ut primum adoleverint, crinem barbamque submittere, nec, nisi hoste cæso--It was settled among the Catti, that no young man should cut his hair, or shave his beard, till he had killed his man. Seneca, Cons. Polyb. xxxvi. 5, blames Caius, for refusing to shave, because he had lost his sister--Idem ille Caius furiosa in constantia, modo barbam capillumque submittens--There is that Caius, clinging so absurdly to his sorrow, and suffering his hair and beard to grow on account of it. There is an admirable letter, from Seneca to Lucillus, Ep. 114, which shows, that the dandies, in old Rome, were much like our own. He is speaking of those--qui vellunt barbam, aut intervellunt; qui labra pressius tondent et abradunt, servata et submissa cætera parte--who pull out the beard, by the roots, or particular parts of it--who clip and shave the hair, either more closely, or leave it growing, on some parts of their lips.