"Never, on any occasion," says one of his
memorialists (Dio,) "neither in summer heat nor in winter's cold, did he
cover his head; but, as well in the Celtic snows as in Egyptian heats, he
went about bareheaded." This anecdote could not fail to win the especial
admiration of Isaac Casaubon, who lived in an age when men believed a hat
no less indispensable to the head, even within doors, than shoes or
stockings to the feet. His astonishment on the occasion is thus expressed:
"Tantum est _hae aschaesis_:" such and so mighty is the force of habit
and daily use. And then he goes on to ask--"Quis hodie nudum caput radiis
solis, aut omnia perurenti frigori, ausit exponere?" Yet we ourselves, and
our illustrious friend, Christopher North, have walked for twenty years
amongst our British lakes and mountains hatless, and amidst both snow and
rain, such as Romans did not often experience. We were naked, and yet not
ashamed. Nor in this are we altogether singular. But, says Casaubon, the
Romans went farther; for they walked about the streets of Rome [Footnote:
And hence we may the better estimate the trial to a Roman's feelings in
the personal deformity of baldness, connected with the Roman theory of its
cause, for the exposure of it was perpetual.
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