And yet, with reference to the very name of the ring, I find that there has been considerable uncertainty. That given to it originally by the Greeks is derived from the finger;[676] while our ancestors styled it “ungulus;”[677] and in later times both Greeks and Latins have given it the name of “symbolum.”[678] For a great length of time, it is quite clear, not even the Roman senators wore rings of gold: for rings were given, and at the public expense, to those only who were about to proceed on an embassy to foreign nations, the reason being, I suppose, because men of highest rank among foreign nations were perceived to be thus distinguished. Nor was it the practice for any person to wear these rings, except those who for this reason had received them at the public expense; and in most instances, it was without this distinction that the Roman generals celebrated their public triumphs.[679] For whereas an Etruscan crown[680] of gold was supported from behind over the head of the victor, he himself, equally with the slave probably, who was so supporting the crown, had nothing but a ring of iron upon his finger.[681] It was in this manner that C. Marius celebrated his triumph over Jugurtha; and he never assumed[682] the golden ring, it is said, until the period of his third consulship.[683] Those, too, who had received golden rings on the occasion of an embassy, only wore them when in public, resuming the ring of iron when in their houses. It is in pursuance of this custom that even at the present day, an iron ring[684] is sent by way of present to a woman when betrothed, and that, too, without any stone in it.