A-dictionary-of-greek-and-roman-antiquities-william-smith

920 PILEUS. PILEUS.
the British Museum, and shows the mode of wear
ing the petasus tii'd under the chin. In other in
stances, it is tied behind the neck instead of being
tied before it. (See the next woodcut) Very
frequently we observe a boss on the top of the pe
tasus, in the situation in which it appears in the
woodcuts, pages 259, 379. In these woodcuts
and in that here introduced the brim of the petasus
is surmounted by a crown. Frequently the crown
is in the form of a skull-cap ; we also find it sur
rounded with a very narrow brim. The Greek
petasus in its most common form agreed with the
cheapest hats of undyed felt, now made in Eng
land. On the heads of rustics and artificers in
our streets and lanes we often see forms the exact
counterpart of those which we most admire in the
works of ancient art The petasus is also still
commonly worn by agricultural labourers in Greece
and Asia Minor. In ancient times it was pre
ferred to the skull-cap as a protection from the sun
(Sueton. Aug. 82), and on this account Caligula
permitted the Roman senators to wear it at the
theatres. (Dion Cass. Hx. 7.) It was used by
shepherds (Callim. /-Yog. 125), hunters, and tra
vellers. (Plaut Ampkitr. Prol. 143, i. 1. 287,
Pseud, ii. 4. 45, iv. 7. 90 ; Bmnck, AnaL ii. 170.)
The annexed woodcut is from a fictile vase belong
conical form, though bent forwards and down
wards. By some Asiatic nations it was worn
erect, as by the Sacae, whose stiff peaked caps
Herodotus describes under the name of KvpScurlai.
The form of those worn by the Armenians (wiAotp6pot
'Apfitntoi, Brunck, Anal. ii. 146) is shown
on various coins, which were struck in the reign
of Verus on occasion of the successes of the Roman
army in Armenia, A. n. 161. It is sometimes
erect, but sometimes bent downwards or truncated.
The truncated conical hat is most distinctly seen
on two of the Sarmatians in the group at page 213.
Among the Romans the cap of felt was the
emblem of liberty. When a slave obtained his
freedom he had his head shaved, and wore instead
of his hair an undyed pileus (irlAeoF AsvkoV, Diod.
Sic. Etc Leg. 22. p. 625, ed. Wess. ; Plaut.
Amphit. i. 1. 306 j Persius, v. 82). Hence the
phrase servos ad pileum vocare is a summons to
liberty, by which slaves were frequently called
upon to take up arms with a promise of liberty.
(Liv. xxiv. 32.) The figure of Liberty on some
of the coins of Antoninus Pius, struck A. d. 145,
holds this cap in the right hand.
In contradistinction to the various forms of the
felt cap now described, we have to consider others
more nearly corresponding with the hats worn by
Europeans in modern times. The Greek word
ireracos, dim. itstoVioi', derived from wtrdyyvfit,
" to expand," and adopted by the Latins in the
form petasus, dim. petasunculus, well expressed the
distinctive shape of these hats. What was taken
from their height was added to their width. Those
already described had no brim : the petasus of
every variety had a brim, which was cither exactly
or nearly circular, and which varied greatly in its
ing to Mr. Hope (Costume, i. 71), and it repre
sents a Greek soldier in his hat and pallium. The
ordinary dress of the Athenian ephebi, well exhi
bited in the Panathenaic Frieze of the Parthenon,
now preserved in the British Museum, was the hat
and scarf. [Chlamys.] (Brunck, Anal. L 5,
ii. 41 ; Philemon, p. 367, ed. Meineke ; Pollux,
x. 164.) Among imaginary beings the same cos
tume was commonly attributed to Mercury ( Arnob.
adv. Gent. vL ; Martianus Capella, ii. 1 76 ; Ephippus
ap. Alien, xii. p. 537. f), and sometimes to
width. In some cases it is a circular disk without the Dioscuri.
any crown at all, and often there is only a depres Ancient authors mention three varieties of the
sion or slight concavity in this disk fitted to the petasus, the Thessalian (Dion Cass. /. e. ; Callim.
top of the head. Of this a beautiful example is Frag. 124 ; Schol. in Soph. Oed. Col. 316), the
presented in a recumbent statue of Endymion, Arcadian (Brunck, Anal. ii. 384 ; Diog. Laert vi.
habited as a hunter, and sleeping on his scarf: 102), and the Laconian (Arrian. Tact. p. 12, ed.
this statue belongs to the Townley Collection in Blaucardi) ; but they do not say in what the dif