Other Forms
Labels
Signaculum also describes the stamps on some Roman Imperial goods, and are used to identify the manufacturer and/or other pertinent facts about the item.
Mark of slaves
Slaves were also known to wear dog tags on their person, typically in the form of an unremovable metal collar that would be inscribed with messages such as:
If you find this slave, he has run away. Please return him to his owner at the following address. You will be rewarded.These, along with branding and tattooing, were common ways for Roman slaves to be separated from the rest of the Roman social system, and easily punishable should they make their escape.
Stamps
It is possible that signacula that were carried by domestic workers were used as stamps to record usage of tools, and debts from one to another.
Read more about this topic: Signaculum
Famous quotes containing the word forms:
“A monarchy is the most expensive of all forms of government, the regal state requiring a costly parade, and he who depends on his own power to rule, must strengthen that power by bribing the active and enterprising whom he cannot intimidate.”
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851)
“The delicious faces of children, the beauty of school-girls, “the sweet seriousness of sixteen,” the lofty air of well-born, well-bred boys, the passionate histories in the looks and manners of youth and early manhood, and the varied power in all that well-known company that escort us through life,—we know how these forms thrill, paralyze, provoke, inspire, and enlarge us.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)