The story of Torquatus,[697] too, is a proof that the Gauls were in the habit of wearing ornaments of gold when engaged in combat;[698] from which it would appear that the sum taken from the Gauls themselves, and the amount of which they had pillaged the temples, were only equal to the amount of gold collected for the ransom, and no more; and this is what was really meant by the response given by the augurs, that Jupiter Capitolinus had rendered again the ransom twofold.[699] As we were just now speaking on the subject of rings, it may be as well to add, by way of passing remark, that upon the officer[700] in charge of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus being arrested, he broke the stone of his ring between his teeth,[701] and expired upon the spot, thus putting an end to all possibility of discovering the perpetrator of the theft. It appears, therefore, that in the year of the City 364, when Rome was captured by the Gauls, there was but two thousand pounds’ weight of gold, at the very most; and this, too, at a period when, according to the returns of the census, there were already one hundred and fifty-two thousand five hundred and seventy-three free citizens in it. In this same city, too, three hundred and seven years later, the gold which C. Marius the younger[702] conveyed to Præsneste from the Temple of the Capitol when in flames, and all the other shrines, amounted to thirteen thousand pounds’ weight, such being the sum that figured in the inscriptions at the triumph of Sylla; on which occasion it was displayed in the procession, as well as six thousand pounds’ weight of silver. The same Sylla had, the day before, displayed in his triumph fifteen thousand pounds’ weight of gold, and one hundred and fifteen thousand pounds’ weight of silver, the fruit of all his other victories. CHAP. 6.—THE RIGHT OF WEARING GOLD RINGS. It does not appear that rings were in common use before the time of Cneius Flavius, the son of Annius. This Flavius was the first to publish a table[703] of the days for pleading,[704] which till then the populace had to ascertain each day from a few great personages.[705] The son of a freedman only, and secretary to Appius Cæcus,[706] (at whose request, by dint of natural shrewdness and continual observation, he had selected these days and made them public),[707] he obtained such high favour with the people, that he was created curule ædile; in conjunction with Quintus Anicius Prænestinus, who a few years before had been an enemy to Rome,[708] and to the exclusion of C. Pœtilius and Domitius, whose fathers respectively were of consular rank.[709] The additional honour was also conferred on Flavius, of making him tribune of the people at the same time, a thing which occasioned such a degree of indignation, that, as we find stated in the more ancient Annals, “the rings[710] were laid aside!”