The Romans used ivory as a symbol of power; but they applied it practically to an infinite variety of purposes.  Their kings and magistrates sat on ivory thrones of rich and elaborate construction—­an idea received from the Etruscans.  The curule chairs of ivory and gold that belonged to the office of consul, together with the sceptres and other articles of similar description, were all of Etruscan origin.  The libri elephantis were tablets of ivory, on which were registered the transactions of the senate and magistrates; the births, marriages, and deaths of the people; their rank, class, and occupation, with other things pertaining to the census.  The Romans also applied this material to the manufacture of musical instruments, combs, couches, harnesses of horses, sword-hilts, girdles.  They were acquainted with the arts of dyeing and incrusting ivory, and they also possessed some splendid specimens of chryselephantine statuary.  Ancient writers, indeed, mention no fewer than one hundred statues of gold and ivory; but they furnish us with no particulars of the mode of executing these colossal monuments of art in a substance which could only be obtained in small pieces.  A head, smaller than the usual size, a statue about eight inches in height, and a bas-relief, are the only specimens that exist in the present day.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the taste for ivory ornament became almost extinct.  There were some periods, however, in the early part of mediaeval history when this material was not forgotten:  when the caliphs of the East formed of it some of the beautiful ornaments of their palaces; when the Arabian alchemists subjected it to the crucible, and so produced the pigment ivory black; when a Danish knight killed an elephant in the holy wars, and established an order of knighthood which still exists; when Charlemagne, the emperor of the West, had ivory ornaments of rare and curious carving.[3] It is, however, at a period subsequent to the return of the crusaders that we must date the commencement of a general revival of the taste in Europe.  It would be interesting to trace the steps by which ivory regained its place in the arts and commerce of nations; but on this point we must not linger.  From the low countries it spread to the far North.  Its relations with art and beauty soon became widely recognised; the growing luxury of the Roman pontificate encouraged its applications; and towards the end of the fifteenth century it was extensively employed as an article of ornament and decoration in every country and court of Europe.  The Portuguese were the first to revive a traffic with Africa which had been dormant for upwards of 1000 years.  It was originally confined to the immense stores of ivory which the natives had accumulated for the purposes of their superstition; but these soon became exhausted, and the inexorable demands of European commerce once more prompted the destruction of the mighty and docile inhabitant of the wilderness.  Elephant-hunting became a trade; and a terrible havoc was commenced, which has been unremittingly pursued down to the present time.