In daily life, we make a thousand gestures or actions about which we think little, yet which add up to the whole picture of existence. If we button a shirt or buckle a belt, it is an action that comes automatically to us and requires little thought. Yet it is an unmistakable human gesture, something which bears our personal imprint. Imagine then the individual who buckled on this bronze ornament when Rome ruled the world. The buckle is heavy, utilitarian, yet with an abstract beauty that makes it appealing to modern sensibilities. It may have been part of a soldier's gear. If only it could talk, what tales it might tell about everyday life in a vanished time and place.