Coloring of Finger Nails

[Medusa Gladiatrix]

I wonder if in Ancient Rome existed anything as coloring of finger nails e.g. with henna. Does anybody know about this and has some sources? Thanks in advance for your help in answering this question. :???:

[Eleatic Guest]

You'll probably find this habit with Cleopatra and half of the Roman emperors. ;-)

[Epictetus]

I don't know specifically about colouring nails, but evidently their appearance was important. In the Art of Love Ovid tells men to keep them clean and nicely filed, and he tells women to not gesticulate when they are talking if their finger nails are "unsightly."

[Kegluneq]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but I have to admit I don't recall any references to coloured nails. I think the current enthusiasm for them is a fairly modern concept in the west though, and if the visual appearance of hands was regarded at all by the Romans, it was in the context of hygiene.

The ideal Roman woman (even among the upper classes) was also a manual labourer, partaking in spinning especially, so decorated nails may have been too impractical to incorporate into their self-image. I can't speak for the Egyptians (who apparently did use nail art to some degree), but it may also have been seen as un-Roman for that reason for Roman women to have incorporated it into their dress. For those in the northern and western parts of the empire, they may never have been exposed to it as a cultural influence to begin with.

Sorry for the pessimism!

[Nathan Ross]

I agree. The fashion for painting fingernails only took off in Europe in the 1920s and 30s - supposedly it was somehow connected with the development of hard lacquer paint by the car industry!

Dying fingers (not just the nails, but the whole finger and sometimes the whole hand) with henna, or painting the hands with henna designs, is traditional in areas of India and the Middle East: it's sometimes related to a verse in the Koran (I think) to the effect that women's hands should look different to men's, but it probably dates back to long before Islam. Either way, it's a cultural and/or religious custom that doesn't seem linked to the Roman or classical world.

So - more pessimism I'm afraid!

[Hanna]

Some mummies from egypt have painting fingernails with henna.