rays. So may your own sail shield you, even should the breeze blow."]

By _tua vela_ is to be understood "your own Umbrella." And
elsewhere the same writer gives the advice:--

"Ingrediare viam coelo licet usque sereno
Ad subitas nunquam scortea desit aquas."
--Man'., lib. xiv. Ep. 130.
[Footnote: "Though with a bright sky you begin your journey, let
this cloak ever be at hand in case of unexpected showers."]


It will be noticed from the above extracts that the Umbrella does
not appear to have been used among the Romans as a defence from rain;
and this is curious enough, for we know that the theatres were
protected by the _velarium_ or awning, which was drawn across
the arena whenever a sudden shower came on; strange that this
self-evident application of the Umbrella should not have occurred to a
nation generally so ingenious in the invention of every possible
luxury. Possibly the expense bestowed in the decoration of the
_umbraculum_ was a reason for its not being applied to what we
cannot but regard as its legitimate use.

After the founding of Constantinople, the custom of great people
carrying an Umbrella seems to have arisen, but in Rome it appears
only to have been used as a luxury, never as a mark of distinction,
Pliny speaks of Umbrellas made of palm-leaves, but from other sources
we may gather that the Romans--at all events in the days of the
empire--lavished as much splendour on their Umbrella as on all the
articles of their dress. Ovid (as above quoted) speaks of an Umbrella