Isidore of Seville, in his brief chapters on rings, cites the words spoken by Gracchus against Mænius, before the Roman Senate, as a proof that the wearing of many rings was then considered to be unworthy of a man. The speaker calls upon his hearers to “look upon the left hand of this man to whose authority we bow, but who with a woman’s vanity, is adorned like a woman.” The Bishop of Seville also adduces the declaration of Crassus who, as an explanation for his wearing two rings, although an old man, said that he did so in the belief that they would further increase his already immense wealth.[92] Hence he must have thought them endowed with some magic power. One explanation of the greater supply of ancient gems of the period subsequent to the Augustan Age, as compared with those of an earlier date, has been found in the increasing popularity of ring-wearing. Horace (65–8 B.C.) already considers three rings on the hand as marking the limit of fashionable wear, but Martial (ab. 40–104 A.D.), writing a century later, tells of a Roman dandy who wore six rings on each finger. As an instance of the multiplication of seal-rings, Pliny states[93] that the signet proper had to be placed for safe-keeping in a special receptacle, which was then stamped with the impression of _another_ seal, lest some improper use should be made of the signet, the equivalent of an individual signature.[94] When the usage of wearing rings set with plain or engraved precious stones became general in Rome, special caskets were made--many of them of ivory--to contain the rings and other small jewels. The name _dactyliotheca_, “ring-treasury,” was given to such a casket. The first Roman to own one was Emilius Scaurus, son-in-law of Sylla (138–78 B.C.), who lived in the early part of the first century before Christ, but for a long time his example was not followed by the Romans, the next _dactyliotheca_ to be seen in Rome being that dedicated by Pompey to the Capitol in 61 B.C., out of the spoils of Mithridates the Great, who owned the most famous gem collection of his time.[95] In the first century A.D. these ring-caskets came into general use, and were regarded as indispensable parts of a rich man’s luxury. This is brought out in one of Martial’s epigrams when, after saying that Charmius wore six rings on each finger and kept them on at night and even when he took his bath, he proceeds: “You ask why he does so? Because he has no _dactyliotheca_.”[96] This evidently implies that he lacked one of the elements of Roman “good form” in the fashionable world. The Latin epigrammatist whose brief, caustic poems are a mine of information regarding the customs and costumes of the Romans in the Imperial age, wrote the following couplet, probably designed for an inscription upon a _dactyliotheca_, or ring-case:[97] “Often does the heavy ring slip off the anointed fingers; but if you confide your jewel to me, it will be safe.”