- sian cap "felt in the shape of a tower" (L. xv. p. 231). The
king of Persia was distinguished by wearing a stiff cyrbasia, which stood erect, whereas his subjects wore their tiaras folded and bent forwards.[1] Hence in the Aves of Aristophanes the cock is ludicrously compared to the Great King, his erect comb being called his "cyrbasia." The Athenians no doubt considered this form of the tiara as an expression of pride and assumption. It is recorded as one of the marks of arrogance in Apollodorus, the Athenian painter, that he wore an "erect cap[2]."
The coin represented in Plate VIII. fig. 15. (taken from Patin, Imp. Rom. Numismata, Par. 1697, p. 213) is of the reign of the Emperor Commodus, and belonged according to the legend either to Trapezus in Cappadocia or to Trapezopolis in Caria. It represents the god Lunus or Mensis, who was the moon considered as of the male sex agreeably to the ideas of many northern and Asiatic nations (Patin, p. 173). This male moon or month was, as it seems, always represented with the cyrbasia[3]. In another coin published by Patin (l. c.) a cock stands at the feet of this divinity, proving that this was the sacred bird of Lunus, and probably because the rayed form of the cock's comb was regarded as a natural type of the cyrbasia, which distinguished the kings of Persia and was attributed also to this Oriental divinity. A lamp found on the Celian Mount at Rome[4] represents in the centre Lunus with 12 rays, probably designed to denote the 12 months of the year, and on the handle two cocks pecking at their food. A head of the same divinity, published by Hirt (l. c.) from an antique gem at Naples, has 7 stars upon the cap, perhaps referring to the 7 planets.
Instead of the conical cap of the Asiatics many of the Northern nations of Europe appear to have worn a felt cap, the form of which was that of a truncated cone. Of this a good example is shown in the group of Sarmatians, represented in theHesychius, s. v. [Greek: Skiagraphai].]
