Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Galerus

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

GALE'RUS and GALE'RUM (κυνέη). A scull-cap made from the skin of animals with the fur left on; worn by rustics (Virg. Moret. 121.); huntsmen (Grat. Cyneg. 339.); and by the old inhabitants of Latium, instead of a helmet. (Virg. Aen. vi. 688.) The example (Galerus/1.1) is given by Du Choul (Castramet. p. 100.), from a Roman monument.

2. A fur cap of similar character, but made out of the skin of a victim which had been slain at the altar, and having a spike of olive wood, surrounded by a flock of wool, on the top. (Serv. ad Virg. Aen. ii. 683.) It was worn by the Pontifices (Apul. Apol. p. 441.), and the Salii (Juv. viii. 208.), and is shown by the annexed engraving (Galerus/2.1), from a medal of M. Antony.

3. A wig of artificial hair (Juv. vi. 120. Avian. Fab. x.), sewn on to a scalp, in order to fit the head in the same manner as still practised. (Tertull. de Cult. Foem. Suet. Otho, 12. Compare Ov. A. Am. iii. 165.) Many of the female busts, and even some of the portrait statues preserved in the Vatican and Capitol, are furnished with a moveable scalp, sometimes executed in a different-coloured marble from the rest of the statue, so that it could be taken off and changed at pleasure; of which an instance is afforded by the annexed bust (Galerus/3.1) from a statue of Julia Soemias, the mother of the Emperor Heliogabalus. The entire scalp representing hair is removeable, with the exception of the two tresses on the shoulders, which are carved out of the solid block of marble. Some antiquaries are of opinion that these scalps were intended to represent wigs, and infer from thence that it was the fashion at Rome for females of all ages to shave off their own hair, and wear an artificial peruke, at the periods when these busts were executed; but it is far more reasonable to attribute the practice to the frivolous and ever changing modes of the day, and to recognise in them an expedient resorted to by sculptors, in order to gratify the vanity of their patrons, who, being unwilling to see their own portraits in a head-dress which was no longer in vogue, could by this mean alter the coiffure with the change of the day, without disfiguring or mutilating the statue.

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  Galerus/1.1
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  Galerus/2.1
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  Galerus/3.1