A bulla, an amulet worn like a locket, was given to male children in Ancient Rome nine days after birth. Inside the medallion, an amulet was placed, which was usually a phallus – a symbol that brought good luck in antiquity. Rather similar objects are rare finds from Late Bronze Age Ireland.
Roman bullae
Design The Latin word does not exclusively refer to the amulet; it also can describe any round or globular object, with the 6th-century author Isidore of Seville even claiming that the type of amulet was only named as such on account of its roundness.Isidore of Seville. Origines. 19.15.31.11. "." On this basis, the historian Magdolna Szilagyi concludes that, when Roman sources utilize the term , they must only ever mean a specifically round item, though—amongst modern archaeologists—the term denotes both globular and tubular amulets, for they both appear to have had similar functions. Bullae consisted of a round pendant topped with a loop; they were usually fashioned from two rounded or teardrop-shaped metal plates attached to each other either via soldering or hammering or a hinge. Amongst a sample of 80 bullae from Transdanubia, to hold the capsule of the bullae together, the ancient manufacturer either soldered the rims of two convex plates or cut out at the edge of one plate several triangular pieces that were then folded over the other plate.
In Roman Hispania, the majority of surviving bullae are formed from bronze, though there are some examples of silver, copper, or gold bullae. Likewise, in Pannonia, the vast majority of bullae were composed of bronze—out of a set of 75 bullae, only three were made of silver and four from gold. Given that certain bronzes can resemble gold when they are well-polished, it is possible that many bronze bullae were designed to imitate gold, though it is not possible to determine whether any surviving bullae actually underwent any maintenance procedures to preserve their gold-like appearance. During the Republic and early Empire, bullae were largely undecorated, save for the loops, though by the later Imperial period even the loops usually lacked adornments. Out of the aforementioned Pannonian sample, the bronze bullae are rarely decorated, whereas the select few silver or gold bullae usually have additional ornamentation. For instance, various Pannonian gold and silver bullae are ornamented with ribbing; one particular example of a gold bulla from Aquincum has loops bedecked with longitudinal ribs alongside radiating ribs dotting its capsule, whereas two other gold bullae, one also from Aquincum and the other from Kő, merely have loops marked by longitudinal ribs.
Some bullae were hollow, leaving an open space for the inclusion of some apotropaic item. Various different types of objects have been uncovered in bullae, such as vegetal items. For instance, one silver bulla uncovered from Via Sepulcral Romana contains an empty space in which vine was stored. Common organic substances found in bullae include medicinal herbs, dried grapes, rose thorns, Coriandrum sativum, or Pimpinella anisum. In certain cases, the vegetal item was itself wrapped in some other object. For example, at Intercisa, some examples of bullae contained plants wrapped in textiles; at Keszthely-Dobogó, a bulla was found containing a coriander seed encased in leaves; and at the Plaça de la Villa de Madrid in Barcelona, a sample of bulla containing coriander seeds also wrapped in leaves. According to the archaeologist Lidia González Estrada, the ancient Romans likely believed that "sensory or aromatic" properties of these plant items contributed to their medicinal value, which in turn enhanced the remedial or prophylactic function of the bulla itself.
Besides plant matter, one bulla from Keszthely-Dobogó was found containing wood, one gold bulla from Aquincum contained sand, and another gold bulla—also from Aquincum—contained a coin of Trajan alongside a folded silver plate marked by a Greek inscription. Analysis of one copper alloy bulla from a mid 4th-early 5th century tomb of a deceased 2-3 year-old infant in the Štrbinci cemetery, which is located near Đakovo, revealed that the artifact contained a clump of beeswax. Regarding the symbolism of this substance, the archaeologist Branka Migotti suggests a possible connection with the afterlife, noting that portraits of the deceased and the torches used to light funerary ceremonies at night were both composed of beeswax in Roman society. Alternatively, Migotti suggests that the presence of beeswax could merely indicate that the deceased's family worked as beekeepers. Some bullae contained miniature statuettes of deities, such as one bulla from Carnuntum, which included a figurine depicting the god Harpocrates. Likewise, another bulla found in a tomb near Rome was attached to a small statue of Isis.
There is perhaps also evidence indicating that Roman bullae contained imagery depicting a phallus. Macrobius, a 5th-century Roman historian, writes that—during a triumph—the general would wear a bulla containing within it remedies believed to be effective against the evil eye.Macrobius. Saturnalia. 1.9. However, archaeological excavations have yet to yield any example of a miniature phallus situated within a bulla, though researchers have discovered numerous miniature phalli across multiple Roman sites, some of which perhaps could have been stored in bullae. For instance, one small phallus dated to the 1st-century BCE from Oplontis lacked any ring at its base through which it could have been connected to a string or chain, meaning that the owner would likely have had to store it directly. within some object, such as perhaps a bulla. This particular phallus from Oplontis is only in length, and therefore could have fit inside of a bulla. There is also evidence that phalli were used separately as protective amulets independently, in which case they were known as the .
Roman boys In Roman accounts of the event wherein someone receives this amulet, it is bestowed upon them by their father. For instance, Plutarch recounts a story wherein Tarquinius Superbus showed great ferocity in a battle against the Latins and the Etruscans and thus was awarded the bulla by his father.Plutarch. Roman Questions. 102. Pliny the Elder provides a slightly different version of the story, claiming that Tarquin, while still young enough to wear the , was granted the amulet after having slain an enemy in battle.Pliny the Elder. Natural History. 33.10. According to the archaeologist Véronique Dasen, since the bulla was given by the father, it may have been granted to a child on the —the day when an infant was officially introduced into the paternal line.
The bulla was only given to freeborn boys, and it was thus symbolic of freeborn status in Roman culture. Plutarch says as much in his Roman Questions, wherein he inquires as to the origin of this practice and proposes a theory that the Romans of old stigmatized the act of maintaining a sexual relationship with boys of free birth, and thus they created the bulla so as to unambiguously mark one as such, thereby preventing confusion between slave boys—which were socially acceptable to love romantically—and freeborn boys.Plutarch. The Roman Questions. 288A. In Roman monuments from the late Republic and early Empire depicting the families of freed slaves, it was common for the children to wear bullae, thereby representing their freeborn status. For former slaves, the bullae likely served as a means of proudly proclaiming their newly acquired status as freed men by showcasing their now freeborn children. The children of slaves were naturally denied the right of wearing this amulet. For instance, one particular sculpture depicting members of the Gavii family showcases the child, named Gaius Gavius Rufus, wearing a toga, a garment only available to free Roman citizens, indicating that he was free at the time when the artwork was created. Yet, since Rufus is not depicted wearing a bulla, it is possible that his father, a man named Spurius, was still a slave at the time when Rufus was born.
Even more specifically, the bulla is frequently associated with upper-class individuals in Roman literature. Pliny the Elder, for instance, explicitly states that the bulla was worn exclusively by the children of equestrians. According to Plutarch, the Roman general Sertorius—during an attempt to Romanize the Iberian elite—presented their children with golden bullae.Plutarch. Sertorius. 14.1-3. Moreover, Macrobius records that the 2nd-century BCE politician Scipio Aemilianus, in one of his orations, lamented that a Roman boy adorned with the bulla, who was the son of someone seeking to hold office, was dancing in a manner that would supposedly be disgraceful for a slave.Macrobius. Saturnalia. 3.14.7. Bullae were evidently also very valuable and expensive items. Cicero, in his Verrine Orations, writes that Verres's nephew Junius had been reduced to poverty and deprived of his patrimony, forcing him to sell his bulla. Cicero states that the loss of his bulla induced much sympathy amongst the public, who felt great sorrow at him being relieved of "the boy’s jewel that his father had given him, the sign and token of his happier fortune."Cicero. In Verrem. 2.1.152. Furthermore, Suetonius writes that—following the assassination of Julius Caesar—women tossed their jewelry and their children's bullae onto the funeral pyre.Suetonius. Divus Iulius. 84.4. Additionally, Livy describes an incident in 210 BCE wherein the Roman senators agreed to donate their own personal gold, silver, or bronze so as to fund a new fleet. Senators were, however, permitted to keep certain items, including the bullae for their sons.Livy. History of Rome. 26.36.5.
Some Roman authors describe a particular type of leather strap worn around the necks that was used a substitute for the bulla by poorer individuals. According to Pliny the Elder, all children outside of the equestrian class had had to wear this leather strap (""). However, Macrobius states this type of alternative amulet was reserved for the children of freedmen who had been born of the "rightful " (i.e. who had been born of a legitimate marriage).Macrobius. Saturnalia. 1.6.14. This same leather item is once more referenced by the 2nd-century poet Juvenal, who establishes a contrast between those who, in their childhood, wore the "Etruscan gold [bulla]" ("") with those who wore the leather knot considered symbolic of a poor man ("").Juvenal. Satires. 5.165.
A freeborn Roman boy wore a bulla until he came of age as a Roman citizen. Before he put on his toga virilis ("toga of manhood") he placed his boyhood bulla in the care of his parental household deities (Lares).Clarke, John R., The Houses of Roman Italy, 100 BC-AD 250. Ritual, Space and Decoration, illustrated, University Presses of California, Columbia and Princeton, 1992, pp. 9-10; citing Propertius, 4.1.131-132 & Persius, The Satires, 5.30-1. Some modern sources interpret Macrobius's single reference to an amulet worn by a triumphal general during his procession as evidence that the childhood bulla was also a standard item of triumphal regalia.Beard, Mary: The Roman Triumph, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England, 2007, pp. 229-230, 375-376, note 29; citing see also Macrobius, 3. 6. 9.
Roman girls
A Roman girl did not wear a bulla per se, but another kind of amulet called a lunula, until the eve of her marriage, when it was removed along with her childhood toys and other things. She would then stop wearing child's clothes and start wearing women's Roman dress. In a passage from Plautus's The Rope, the character of Palaestra describes receiving a golden bulla from her father for her birthday.Plautus. The Rope. 1171.
Bronze Age Ireland