A brooch, consisting of a pin, and of a curved portion furnished with a hook. The curved portion was sometimes a circular ring or disc, the pin passing across its centre and sometimes an arc, the pin being as the chord, of the arc. The forms of brooches, which were commonly of gold or bronze, and more rarely of silver, were, however, as various in ancient as in modern times; for the fibula served in dress not merely as a fastening, but also as an ornament. - Smith, 1873.