The Etruscans represented their gods with Beards, and wore them
themselves; as did the Romans. Every schoolboy recollects the awe
inspired to the invading Gauls when, on entering the Senate-house, they
saw the conscript Fathers sitting calm and immovable as the gods, for
which the Barbarians at first view took them, till one bolder than the
rest plucked at the Beard of the noble Marcus Papirius, who by
indignantly raising his staff, unconsciously gave the signal for the
murder of himself, and his venerable compatriots.
During all the best ages of the Republic, while the old Roman virtue
retained something of its original vigour, and before it had been sapped
and undermined by the imported vices and effeminate customs of conquered
nations, Rome’s statesmen, heroes, priests and people all wore, and all
reverenced, the virile glories of the Beard!
It was not till the year of Rome 454, about three centuries before our
era, that one of those corrupt Prætors, who usually returned laden with
foreign gold, and pampered with foreign luxury, imported a stock of
Barbers from Sicily; and that credulous gossip Pliny libels the younger
Scipio Africanus by stating—calumnious on dit!—“that he was the first
who shaved his whole Beard.” This is just one of those instances where a
foolish custom, like a bad piece of wit, is sought to be fathered on
some world-renowned name.
Long after the above date, the Beard was only partially shaved or
trimmed; and the same word (tondere) is sometimes used to mean either.
Of course when once the fashion had set in, it was, as with us,
considered unbecoming to wear a Beard; and Marcus Livius on his return
from banishment, was compelled by the Censors to shave, before appearing
in the Senate.
With the increasing growth of vice and effeminacy among this once hardy
race, the decreasing Beard kept pace.[11] Cæsar, the real founder of the
empire, by whom every kind of foppery and debauchery was indulged in as
a mask to deep schemes of ambition, of course shaved;[12] and having
done so, shaving continued to be the imperial fashion down to the time
of Hadrian, (whose bold Roman head I exhibited, as the first restorer of
manly beauty.) From his time most of the Emperors[13] wore it till
Constantine, who shaved out of superstition. His father had a noble
Beard.
Footnote 11:
Suetonius says, “he was excessively nice about his body, that he was
not only sheered and shaved, but plucked.”
Footnote 12:
Besides shaving, the Romans as they progressed in luxurious
effeminacy, used depilatories, tweezers and all sorts of contrivances
to make themselves as little like men and as much like women as
possible; and their satirists abound with passages impossible to quote
with decency on the causes and consequences of this abrogation of the
distinctive peculiarities of the two sexes.
Footnote 13:
Pagenstecher says, “one of the Emperors of Rome refused to admit to an
audience certain Ambassadors of the Veneti, because they had no
Beards.”
Even after the custom of shaving was introduced, the first appearance of
the Beard was hailed with joy, and usually about the time of assuming
the toga; the “first fruits” of hair were solemnly consecrated—relict of
previous respect—to some god, as in the case of Nero,[14] who presented
his in a golden box, set with jewels, to the Capitoline Jupiter.[15]
Footnote 14:
The branch of the Roman family to which Nero belonged was called
Enobarbus, copper-coloured or red Beard; and the legend of the family
was, that the Dioscuri announced to one of their ancestors a victory,
and to confirm the truth of what was said, stroked his black hair and
Beard, and turned them red. Cn. Domitius, who was Censor with L.
Crassus the orator, “took” says Pagenstecher, “too much pride in his,”
and Crassus fired away the following epigram upon it. “Quid mirum si
barbam habet aeneam Domitius cum et os ferreum et cor habet plumbeum.”
(Where’s the wonder Domitius has a brazen Beard, when he has bones of
iron and a heart of lead.) Shakspeare (the _unlearned_!) who never
loses a characteristic, makes his Enobarbus, (who was great
grandfather of Nero, wore a Beard, as seen on his medals, and was a
fine bold warrior,) speak thus of Antony, under the fascination of
Cleopatra:—
LEP. “Good Enobarbus, ’Tis a worthy deed,
And shall become you well, to entreat your Captain
To soft and gentle speech.”
ENOB. “I shall entreat him
To answer like himself: if Cæsar move him,
Let Antony look over Cæsar’s head,
And speak as loud as Mars. _By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonius’ Beard,
I would not shave’t to-day._”
This passage evidently associates the Beard with manly determination,
and shaving with the want of it, for subsequently Enobarbus speaks of
Antony’s effeminacy in these words:—
“Our courteous Antony,
Whom ne’er the word of No woman heard speak,
_Being barber’d ten times o’er_, goes to the feast,
And for his ordinary pays his heart
For what his eyes eat only.”
Footnote 15: