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Tonsor Humanus: Razor and Toilet-knife in Antiquity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

George C. Boon
George C. Boon
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Penarth
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Extract

‘To be shaved by a barber means good all round, for — so to speak — from the act of being shaved (karēnai) proceeds that of being gladdened (charēnai), just one letter being substituted for another. … ‘By a barber’ is stipulated, because, if one shaves oneself and is not a barber, then that signifies bereavement or a sudden disaster. … Cutting one's own nails signifies paying one's debts, if one is a debtor. … ’

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 22 , November 1991 , pp. 21 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © George C. Boon 1991. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 J. Carcopino, Daily Life in Ancient Rome (1941). 157-64, and Penguin Books (1956 etc.), 160–7, for the best account. Nicolson, F.W., Harvard Stud, in Class. Philol. ii (1891). 41–56, deals on a literary basis with the vocabulary and with men's hair-stylesCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Garbsch., J.Bay. Vorgeschichtsblätter xl (1975). 69–73Google Scholar.

3 Riha, E., Röm. Toilettgerät und med. Instrumente aus Augst und Kaiseraugst, Forsch. in Augst vi (1986), 29Google Scholar.

4 Fulford, M., Antiq. Journ. Ixv (1985), 446Google Scholar.

5 Amelung, W., Die Skulpturen des Vatikanischen Museums i (1903). 275–7, no.147 pl. xxx; and B.M. Guide to … Greek and Roman Life (1929), fig. 166Google Scholar.

6 Ulpian cited in Digest ix. 2.11. Lex Aquilia, cf. A.M. Prichard, Leage's Roman Private Law (1961), 408–16Google Scholar.

7 Bellows, J., Trans. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. v (1880–1), 139Google Scholar; Smith, R.A., Archaeologia lxi (1908), 322Google Scholar, fig. 2; cf. Proc. Cotteswold Nats. Field club viii (1886), 81–2Google Scholar.

8 Respectively from Cologne (Fremersdorf, F., Bonner Jahrb. exxxi (1926), 291–2Google Scholar and Kölner Jahrb. ii (1956), 14 (I am indebted to Dr Naumann-Steckner of the Romisch-Germanisches Museum for a fine drawing of the knife, on which my own poor sketch is based)); Vieques, Switzerland, cf. Riha, op. cit. (note 3), 30, note 67, Abb. 11 (there is a close parallel, also in bone, handle only, from Gt. Chesterford. Essex: J. Liversidge, Britain in the Roman Empire (1968), fig. 66d); and Silchester (Reading Museum, unpublished)Google Scholar.

9 Just cultellus in Ulpian's case (note 6); c. tonsorius. Val. Maximus (note 12); culter t.. presumably in the sense of cultellus. Petronius. Satyricon CVIII. 10–12.

10 Pollux, , Onomusticon x. 140Google Scholar, from Posidippus (Edmonds, J.M., The Fragments of Attic Comedy iiia (1961), 236–7)Google Scholar.

11 A pair from Priene is shown, appropriately with sewing-things, in B.M. Guide to … Greek and Roman Life. 153.

12 Valerius Maximus 11. 2.15.

13 Plutarch. Antonv I has a tale concerning Antony's father, who to satisfy an importunate friend called for a silver basin of water as if to shave, and then gave the other the bowl instead of money. It is not clear, however, whether he intended to shave himself, rather than be shaved: presumably the latter, as the paidarion was sent away.

14 CIL vi. no. 9938; cf. Tacitus. Annales IV. 13. A female (tonslrix) is mentioned, e.g. CIL vi, no. 9941.

15 Corte., M. DeliaAusonia (Rome) ix (1919), 139–54, esp. 141–4Google Scholar.

16 Bonner Jahrb. cxxiv (1917), 168Google Scholar, Taf. xxvi, 20; Rhein. Landesmuseum Bonn, no. 28855; cf Menzel, H., Dieröm. Bronzen aus Deutschland, iiiGoogle Scholar: Bonn (1986), Taf. 135, no. 406 (the same, though given without provenance owing to the wrong inventory-number). A second parallel, perhaps not so close — the object was much corroded – comes from the Augusto-Tiberian military site on the Ems estuary at Bentumersiel (Ulbert, G. in Probleme der Küstenforschung im südl. Nordseegebiet xii (1977), 52, 49, Taf. 4. 15)Google Scholar.

17 cf. my remarks in Britannia xx (1989), 214–5, with refsGoogle Scholar.

18 Riha, op. cit. (note 3). 30, no. 87, Taf. xi. Another dog's-head terminal on a bronze knife-handle was found at Villards d'Héria, Franche-Comté (Gallia xxxii (1974), 415. fig. 22, 1)Google Scholar.

19 Martial 1. 17: not a very high-class salon, perhaps.

20 Mentioned in the Lex Melalli Vipascensis (ILS no. 6891 (37)). If not sent round by the lessee of the mine himself, they had to deposit a pledge or bond (pignus); and if they did not do so. were to be fined 15 denarii for every offence. That must have been a large sum in relation to the price of a haircut or shave, which cannot well have been more than a quadrans if. after the great third-century inflation, a base two-denarius piece was the price; see note 22.

21 Anth. Pal. vi, no. 307. refers to lipokoptous phasganidas (‘fat-cutters’), and this expression has been reasonably emended to tylokoptous or ‘callosity-cutters’, cf. Nicolson. op. cit. (note 1). 52. If corns, warts etc. were to be removed sine ferro, ‘without the iron’, various preparations were available; Scribonius Largus. for instance, gives one which included quicklime (Comp. CCXXVIII).

22 S. Lauffer. Diokletians Preisedikt (1971), 120–1. vii. 22–3.

23 Horace., Epist. I. 7. 50–1Google Scholar.

24 Plautus. Aulularia 311–3.

25 cf. R. Merrifield. The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (1987). 163, etc. Pliny, , Nat. Hist. XXVIII. 28Google Scholar. refers to one superstition connected with nail-cutting; and the Budé editor. A. Ernout, brings others together in his note (l'Ancien., PlineHistoire Naturelle XXVIII (1962). p. 128)Google Scholar.

26 The expression, in the form TOSOR VMANVS, appears on the Narbonne block cited note 30; CIL xii, no. 4517.

27 Lucian., The Ignorant Book-Collector, in Harmon's, G.M. Loeb edition iii (1921). 210–11Google Scholar.

28 Espérandieu, Recueil général, no. 4494.

29 Haberey, W., Germania xvi (1932), 129–33Google Scholar.

30 Espérandieu. op. cit. (note 28). no. 640.

31 Garucci., R.Storia dell' arte cristiana vi (1881). 153. tav. 488. 6–8. These, and the Narbonne stone, have been reproduced by Haberey and Garbsch. op. cit. (notes 29 and 2)Google Scholar.

32 Blümner., H.Archaeol. Zeitung xxxii (1874), 141–2. Taf. 14. lower. Nicolson. op. cit. (note 1). 55, is confused over the manner of use. thinking that the blades were pivoted (i.e.. scissors), and the expression diplē machaira, or ‘double blade’, meant ‘scissors’. The ‘twin blades’ are, as pointed out in the present paper, always shown separately, at most with a loose thong between them. Blümner, 142 note 4, was unable to establish an instance of ‘diplē machaira’ except in the one corrupt passage of Pollux (11.32): Nicolson, 54. seems to agreeGoogle Scholar.

33 Clement of Alexandria. Paedagogus III. 11 (Migne. PG viii. 653–4): tais duoin machairais tais kourikais, ou xyrōGoogle Scholar.

34 Martial VI. 52.

35 Shears are not shown on barber's monuments and are absent from the Cologne barber's grave (note 29). Lucian in The Fisherman proposes the use of goat-shears to cut off the beard of a false philosopher (Loeb edition 111. 68–9). This does not imply the use of shears for cutting human hair, at least in any normal course of events. It is true that Cratinus in Dioysalexander (preserved in Pollux x. 140; cf. Edmonds, , op. cit. (note 10). i (1957). 34–5) talks of ‘barber's shears (machairai kourides) with which we cut both flocks and shepherds’; and from Aristophanes' Acharnians (849) we hear of a ‘co-respondent's cut’ by the ‘single blade’ (mia machaira) generally thought to be shears, consisting as they do of one piece of metal bent round. The second example is obviously referring to a passing fashion á l'adultére; the first is not perhaps as definite, for it is important to remember that we are concerned with quirky comedy remarks, and the machairai kourides could just as well be the ‘twin blades’ as shears, in which case the joke would be not on men being shorn with shears, but on the flock being shorn with ‘the blades’Google Scholar.

36 It was long customary for the hair to be loosened and sometimes cut off in wild mourning, and a law of the Twelve Tables forbade women to scratch their cheeks till the blood ran (Servius, ad Aen. XII. 606). But when Electra in Euripides' play (241) specifies a razor as the instrument, that is obviously to impress on the audience the depth of her grief. Shaving the head, and eyebrows, by razor, with brand to follow, is mentioned in Petronius (CIII) as a procedure to distinguish felonsGoogle Scholar.

37 I.M. Stead and V. Rigby, Verulamium: the King Harry Lane Site (1989). figs. 136 (no. 242) and 168 (no. 384. with shears, a male grave).

38 Radere does not necessarily mean ‘shave’ in the narrow sense. Cf. Caesar, , De Bello Gallico V. 14: cf. Diodorus Siculus v. 28; but shaving seems to have been optional, a fashion of nobles, who kept their moustache. It may have been optional too in Britain, for several of the late British coins show heads with great beards (R.P. Mack, Coinage of Ancient Britain (1953), nos. 158, 167–8), if such evidence may be admitted, as is very doubtfulGoogle Scholar.

39 Varro, , De Re Rustica II. 11.10Google Scholar.

40 Livy 1. 36.

41 Gnecchi, F., I medaglioni romani (1912) ii, 13 no. 32, pl. 46. 3 (Paris)Google Scholar.

42 In Plutarch's, Table Talk (Moralia) v. 5, ed. Hoffleit., H.B. Loeb edition viii (1969). 408–9Google Scholar.

43 The story in Plutarch of Antony's father (note 13; Loeb edition of Lives, by Perrin., B. ix (1920), 138–9)Google Scholar is. as Nicolson remarks, the only evidence of the lotion used – water, and we are not told whether it was cold or hot. As far as is known, soap was never used to soften the beard, and as a cleansing agent is first mentioned by Galen (E. Brödner, Thermen und das antike Badewesen (1983), 108), though perhaps commoner in Egypt, cf. Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogus III. 2Google Scholar (Migne, , PG viii. 653–4)Google Scholar.

44 Juvenal 1. 25 and X. 226. Ammianus XXI. 16.9 refers to Constantius II's pride in a clean shave.

45 Down., A.Chichester Excav. vi (1989). 196. fig. 27.2. 28Google Scholar.

46 G.C. Boon, Silchester: the Roman town of Calleva (1974). 133. fig.16.6.

47 Ruoff., U.Archäol. Korrespondenzblatt xiii (1983). 459. illusGoogle Scholar.

48 R.F. Tylecote, The Early History of Metallurgy in Europe (1987), fig.7.71; note also his tables 17.1 and 17.6 for comparative hardnesses.

49 B.M. Guide to … Greek and Roman Life, fig. 143, lower. I am indebted to Mr Don Bailey for his help over this piece, and for noticing the mode of construction.

50 Scott, I.R., Britannia xx (1989), 59 no. 6, fig. 11, correctly related to the later framed razorGoogle Scholar.

51 Stead and Rigby, op. cit. (note 37), figs, no (no. 123), 121 (no. 182), 154 (no. 361), 168 (no. 384) and 179 (no. 455); Stead, I.M., Archaeologia ci (1967), 38, fig. 23. Origin, Stead and Rigby, 145, note on no. 6Google Scholar.

52 J. Déchelette, Manuel d'Archéologie préhistorique, celtique et gallo-romaine, ii: Archéologie celtique ou protohistorique, 3e partie: Second Âge du Fer ou Époque de La Tène (1914), 1279–80, fig. 553.

53 Mariën, M.E., Helinium xi (1971), 213–7, cf. xiii (1973). 71–8Google Scholar.

54 Stead and Rigby, op. cit. (note 37), 105, col. 2.

55 Déchelette, op. cit. (note 52). fig. 600.2 from Reinecke, La Tène-Denkmäler [not seen]; the nature of the piece is not understood ad loc.

56 Mariën, op.cit. (note 53); Garbsch. op. cit. (note 2), 73–81, Abb. 3–6; Doyen, J.-M., Amphora (Brussels) no. 53 (1988), 29–36 (I am obliged to Miss Cherry Lavell for a Xerox copy of this)Google Scholar.

57 Frere, S.S. and Stowe, S., Archaeology of Canterbury vii (1983). 333–4; another unreported in the Corinium Museum. Cirencester (C.345). Another from Little Orme. Caerns. (National Museum of Wales)Google Scholar.

58 R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia (1960), pl. xxviia. G. Calza. La necropoli … nell 'Isold Sacra (1940), 251–2. Tomb 29, fig. 150.

59 Frisch, T.G. and Toll, N.P., The Excavations at Dura-Europos: Final Report iv (1949). 33. pl. vii. 94–5Google Scholar.

60 Evans, A.J., Archaeologia xlviii (1885). pl. ii (I am indebted to Mr A.G. MacGregor for help with this piece, which docs not show the sandwich construction mentioned above. If of Norican iron, as is very likely given the findspot, it would have taken a good edge, especially if additionally carburized in the forging-process)Google Scholar.

61 Jaskanis, D. and Kacyński., M.The Balts (Exhn. Cat., Warsaw, 1981). fig. 28; the grave belonged to the fifth centuryGoogle Scholar.

62 Corte., M. DeliaAusonia (Rome) ix (1919). 139–54. esp. 141–4. The B.M. has a fine example with a Ravenna provenance (1968, 4.20)Google Scholar.

63 Garbsch. op. cit. (note 2), 81–4, Abb. 7.

64 Fremersdorf, op. cit. (note 8), 307. Abb. 2, 4.

65 See note 31.

66 Daremberg, and Saglio, , Dictionnaire iv. 1, 108, fig. 533 show inter alia a Punic razor with convex chisel-edgeGoogle Scholar.

67 Witt, G., Archaeologia xliii (1872), 250–7, pls. xxiv–v (I am obliged again to Mr Don Bailey over this piece)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68 Though not precisely relevant to the topic under discussion, it is worth placing on record a correction to many – indeed myself — who have always supposed that the strigil was meant, certainly, to remove oil and sweat, but also dirt and sand from the palaestra. That is apparently not so: Artemidorus (Onirocriticon I. 64) refers to scrapers as well as strigils — stlengides as distinct from xystrai.

69 For comic effect or not, ‘razor’ is one of the very considerable number of items listed as women's effects by Aristophanes in the Second Thesmophoriazusae (Edmonds, op. cit. (note 35), 662–3); but in his Ecclesiazusae one of the women characters (62–7) speaks of throwing away her razor and qualifying for membership of the Assembly ‘so as to become hairy, and no longer look like a woman.’ I can find no Roman reference; they were, perhaps, more reticent.

70 Silchester, and Hole, Wookey, Boon, G.C., Proc. Univ. Bristol Spelaeol. Soc. xv. 1 (1978). 42, no. 8. fig. 11a–bGoogle Scholar.

71 Alarcão, J. de, Conimbriga xiii (1974), 6Google Scholar, Tomb I, pl. i, inset. Some baluster-shaped handles catalogued by Riha (op. cit. (note 3), nos 82–5) are now known to be from scalpels, not razors (cf. Blicquez, L.J., Bonner Jahrb, cxxxix (1989), 665Google Scholar.

72 W. Whiting et al., Report on … the Roman Cemetery at Ospringe (1931). pl. lv, left; cf. Arch. Cant, xxxvi (1923), 66; and G.C. Dunning. Maison Dieu (Official Guide, 1958), 16, pl. iii (I am indebted to Mr D.B. Kelly, of Maidstone Museum, for help in tracing this specimen, which is at Maison Dieu)Google Scholar.

73 Corder, P. and Richmond, I.A., Antiq. Journ. xviii (1938), 68–74, Pls. xxx–iCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 Quoted by Dunning, op.cit. (note 72).

75 Walton, H., Trans. Woolhope Nats. Field Club xxxiii (1949–51), 193–4Google Scholar.

76 Kirk, J.R., Oxoniensia xiv (1949), 40, 1–1 and pl. iv. E–F (F, drawn here), has a thin side-view. Both have slots, but there is no definite sign of the rivets mentioned by Miss Kirk; indeed they would not be expected. (I am obliged to Mr MacGregor for further help over these specimens)Google Scholar.

77 Bonner Jahrb. cxvi (1907), 155, Taf. iii, 8Google Scholar; ORL Abt. A, 7–9 (1933), 234, pl. xxiv, 83Google Scholar.

78 In my note on the Wookey terminal (note 70). Not catalogued.

79 Gaitzsch., W.Bonner Jahrb. clxxxiv (1984), 198–207Google Scholar.

80 Edmonds, op. cit. (note 10), 242–3; his rendering.