Concluding Ideas

In conclusion, brooches seem to have found a use across the empire by almost anyone considered important or wealthy.  They were most often made in imperial workshops and featured a crossbow design, and were largely popular in this form from the 4th century forward.  The found use in the governmental sphere in terms of civil servants and by military commanders and officials, and private citizens who could afford them often chose to have them designed for their use.  The most common materials appear to be less precious metals for government officials, and gold and silver for the more wealthy and important officials, as well as private citizens.  Brooches started off as a governmental form of jewelry, and then evolved into artwork worn by the elite of the empire.

 

Bibliography:

Brown, Katharine R. "Medieval Europe." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 53, no. 2 (1995). p. 22.

Croom, Alexandra. "Brooches." In Roman Clothing and Fashion, 25. Amberley Publishing Limited, 2013.

Eisenberg, Jerome M. "The New Byzantine Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Minerva 12, no. 3 (2001). pp. 24-25, fig. 6.

Elliott, Paul. "Chapter 11 Epilogue: Into the Fourth Century." In Legions in Crisis: The Transformation of the Roman Soldier - 192 to 284. Place of Publication Not Identified: Fonthill, 2014.

Evans, Helen C., Melanie Holcomb, and Robert Hallman. "The Arts of Byzantium." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 58, no. 4 (Spring 2001). p. 31.

Geroulanou, Aimilia. Diatrita: Gold Pierced-Work Jewelery from the 3rd to the 7th Century. Athens: Benaki Museum, 1999. no. 175, pp. 54, 235, fig. 67.

Higgins, Reynold Alleyne. Greek and Roman Jewellery. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980. 170-90.


Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. no. 121, p. 154, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Oliver, Andrew Jr. 1966. "Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Jewelry." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 24(9): pp. 283-4, fig. 31.


Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 475, pp. 405, 499, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.


Potter, T. W., and Catherine Johns. Roman Britain. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. 213-16.


Weitzmann, Kurt. 1979. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century no. 275, pp. 302-3, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Concluding Ideas