Caligula and his Sisters, Julia, Drusilla, Agrippina. Sard. This is one of the most singular historic intagli in existence, and its genuineness beyond suspicion.. Antoninus Pius: Cameo. Emerald. The stone is a true Emerald, though of bad quality; doubtless from the Egyptian mine ..

Agate of

Philosopher meditating upon the Immortality of the Soul: Greek.
three bands. The severed head upon the ground typifies Death, as the
escaping butterfly the Soul set free (Rhodes).

Sailor of Ulysses opening the Bag of Winds given to him by Eolus to ensure a
calm voyage: Etruscan scarab. Sard.
Caligula as Mercury. Sard (p. 171) (Rhodes).

Apotheosis of Augustus, who is borne up to heaven by Mithras. The "Cameo
of the Sainte Chapelle," Paris

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201

Greek Cameo found in Cabul. Sardonyx (p. 199) (Rhodes).
Ceres, with name of artist, Aulus. Sard (Rhodes).
Cicero; contemporary portrait. Antique paste.
Signet of Rutina. Red Jasper. A monster with heads of a boar and a bull
conjoined (p. 484).

Gryllus, signet of Titinius. Obsidian. The "motive" of this composition
(not clearly given by the cut) is two doves pecking at the ear of a huge
mask, one from above, the other from below. The figure is completed by a
wolf's head. This was a favourite caprice. One exactly similar, but
better finished, is now in the collection of O. Morgan, Esq., M.P.
Neptune: Poniatowsky gem. Amethyst (Rhodes).

Inscribed Etruscan gem. The name is that of the hero, but written in the cus-
tomary barbarous manner (Foreign Collection) (p. 168).
Hercules strangling Antæus; Earth, the giant's mother, reclining below:
Cinque-Cento. Sard (Rhodes).

Di-drachm of Caulonia, showing the guilloche Etruscan border..

Macenas, by Apollonius. Jacinth. This portrait is perhaps superior even to
the Julius of Dioscorides, being in a more elegant and softer style (Rhodes). 211
Satyr surprising a sleeping Nymph (Amymone); signet of Aspasius: Roman
work. Agate. Extremely minute, half the diameter of the cut, yet most
elaborately finished (Rhodes).

Faun with Urn: finest Greek style. Sard (Rhodes).
The Julius of Dioscorides. Sard (British Museum). ..
Hydraulis: Plasma (p. xvii.) (British Museum). The two men at the sides are
working the pumps that force the water into the huge bronze reservoir,
shaped like an altar, which supports the pipes and the performer. The
air compressed in its upper part served the purpose of the wind-chest in
the modern organ. The letters are blundered, but probably stand for
VIVAS; addressed to the musician to whom the gem was doubtless pre-
sented by an admirer...

Cupid rescuing Psyche; by Pamphilus. Sard (British Museum).

Hermes making Lyres (Foreign Collection).

Roma holding forth a torques, the usual reward of military valour: a Victory presents an olive-branch; at her side is a singular vizored helmet on a stand. Spotted Sard...

Hercules and the Stymphalian Birds (Foreign Collection).

5 The description of the hydraulis, invented by Ctesibius of Alexandria, as given by Athenæus (iv. 75), exactly applies to this intaglio. "The hydraulic organ seems to be somewhat after the nature of a water-clock. Perhaps it ought to be termed a wind-instrument, inasmuch as the organ is filled with breath by

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means of water; for the pipes are bent down into water, and the water being 'pounded' by an attendant, whilst tubes pass through the body of the organ itself, the pipes are filled with wind and give forth an agreeable sound. The organ resembles in form a round altar."

Juno; by John Pichler. Sard (Rhodes). ..

Ship under sail-emblem of mortal life (Foreign Collection).

Cupid chained by Psyche to a column. Girasol. The signet of M. Mausius
Priscus.

..

Narcissus and Echo: Roman. Prase. Cupid, emerging from the fountain, is
aiming his shaft at Narcissus; Echo, reduced to a shadow, hovers before
him (Rhodes).
Mask hollowed out behind to contain poison. Onyx (p. 278). The subject
apparently chosen by the wearer from the same motive that caused masks
to be adopted as the usual decorations of monuments, or else to mark his
opinion, "Life is a jest and all things show it."..

Signet and Monogram of Paulus. Sard.

Serapis: Roman work: Cameo.

..

This Onyx has running through its white layer-in which the bust is cut-the large perforation of the original Indian bead...

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301

Triple Mask: Roman. Jacinth (now in Lord Braybrooke's Collection).
Jupiter Olympius: Roman work of the best times. Sard (Rhodes)..
Attributes of Ganymede: Roman: Cameo. Onyx.

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311

Diocletian and Maximian as Janus. Green Jasper.

315

Antique gem with forged name of artist (Mycon), an addition of the last century:
Greek work, on a very fine ruby-coloured Sard (Rhodes).

Mithridates; a contemporary portrait. Yellow Sard of a very singular quality, nearly opaque (Author's Collection).

Stymphalian Bird: Roman. Burnt Sard (Author's Collection).

Bunch of Grapes: Roman. Red Jasper (Author's Collection).......
Gryllus, a fantastic Horse: Roman. Sard.

Sol within the Zodiac (Foreign Collection).

Augustus with his Horoscope Capricorn (Foreign Collection).

Hipparchus the Astronomer: Roman. Lapis-lazuli. The gold spots of the
stone have been taken advantage of to form the sun and stars. ..
Alexandrian Emerald: of Roman date, and the identical gem figured by Caylus
(Vol. I. pl. lxvi.), who calls it "une très belle prisme d'emeraude; but it
is a true Emerald of the Mount Zahara mine.
Mithraic Bull-symbol of the Earth.

..

Green Jasper (Author's Collection). Mithraic Talisman of Nicandra. Green Jasper. A gryphon supporting a wheel -a common attribute of Sol-stands upon a column, to which a figure is fastened with hands bound behind the back. The legend on the reverse invokes his protection for Nicandra and Caleandra; apparently Alexandrian ladies, judging from the orthography of the name Neicandra, instead of Nicandra.

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Anubis, surrounded by the seven vowels (p. 345), standing on a serpent. Green Jasper. The stone is broken at each extremity, but the head is evidently that of a jackal, not a hawk's as it appears in the cut. The work of the intaglio is extraordinarily fine, rendering this gem quite unique in its class. 342 Abraxas. Green Jasper. Also of unusually good and finished work, and belonging to the very dawn of Gnosticism; certainly not later than Hadrian's reign. ..

Chneph: Alexandrian. Sard. The legend, if written in the usual letter, is
Άνουβις Ανοχ Σεμες Ειλαμ, followed by the trifid emblem so common in
these formulæ

Martyrdom of a female Saint. Red Jasper. This was probably executed about
the time of Diocletian, its style bearing a close affinity to the neat work
characterizing his restoration of the coinage (Litchfield).
Triune deity, with Coptic legend. Green Jasper. This figure has the heads of

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352

the ibis, jackal, and hawk, attributes of Isis, Anubis, and Phre or Sol, whose triple godhead he symbolizes. The legend on the reverse ends with the word Zovμapra, a title constantly occurring in these invocations, but as yet unexplained.

....

Mithraic Symbol. The two Principles, altar with the sacred wafers, lustral water, raven, &c.; above are seen the busts of Sol and Luna. Plasma. The work of the rudest description.

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Hermes Heptachrysos: Roman. Sard.

363

Isiac Vase. Red Jasper. This is an extremely elegant composition. Asps
form the handles, under which are Satyric masks.
Christian symbols upon its surface are worthy of attention.

The (afterwards)

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Oculist's Stamp. Sard (British Museum).

....

Jupiter, Sol, Luna. Opal (p. 66).
Cassandra mourning the doom of Troy. Sard. Gerhard, however, explains this
as Aglauros meditating suicide. The subject is, in fact, extremely obscure.
It may mean Roma lamenting some great calamity before the Palladium..
Minerva supporting the bust of Domitian. Sard. The head has, in the gem, a
proper radiated crown, which is blundered in the cut. The work of this
gem is particularly neat.
Hercules trimming with his sword an uprooted tree for his club: Etruscan
scarab. Sard. Mercury furnished Hercules with a sword on his first start-
ing upon his adventures, but he exchanged it for a club on having to deal
with the impenetrable hide of the Nemean lion, which he was obliged to
flay off with the beast's own talons (Apollodorus, ii. 4).
Type of the Satyric Drama. Red Jasper. This symbolical group comprises the
satyr, the mask, and the goat, the original prize of the early comedians.
Gorgon: Greco-Italian Cameo. Sard. An unique example of so early a period,
worked in the same manner as the scarabs. This identical Gorgon's head
is seen on the coins of Posidonia, and may be safely assigned to the same date.
Pompey, with his titles. Nicolo. The legend is formed of the contractions for
"Cnæus Pompeius Imperator Iterum Præfectus Classis et Ora Maritimæ,"
his style upon his denarii; where it will be remarked that the engraver—
like the Arrius immortalized by Catullus-has thought proper to spell Oræ
with an H.

..

Death of Eschylus. An eagle drops a tortoise upon his bald pate, mistaking it
for a stone. He holds a bowl to signify his love of wine (Stosch).
Polyphemus: Sard. A fragment of a magnificent Greco-Italian scarab. The
giant seated upon an inverted amphora, has been beguiling his hopeless love
for Galatea upon a rustic lyre, which appears dropping from his hand: in
the field is the plectrum, the exact form of which instrument is here very
carefully defined, and gives additional value to this remarkable intaglio.
Plato; signet of Saufeius. Sard. An early Roman work, dating from the
Republic. Heads of Plato can only be distinguished from those of the
Indian Bacchus-whom he resembled as much as his master did Silenus--
when the butterfly-wings, in allusion to his doctrine of the soul's immor-
tality, are introduced, as here, upon the shoulder, or, as sometimes, behind
the ear. I believe, however, that I have discovered another distinction-
the extremely elevated eyebrows, arched into a complete semicircle, in such
portraits; a personal peculiarity of the sage that did not escape the witti-
cisms of the comic writers of his own times. Thus Amphis, in the Dexi-
demides (Diog. Laert. iii. 1)—
"O Plato, Plato,

How all thy wisdom lies in looking grave;
Majestically lifting high thy brows

Like as the snail [protrudes his eye-tipped horns]."

Psyche mourning the flight of Cupid (Foreign Collection).

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418

433

Phenician Sphinx. Spotted Onyx. The object in the background is probably a mummy-formed divinity (Rhodes)."

..

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..

Silenus placing a crater on its stand ayyoŋên, or incitega): Roman. Sard
(Author's Collection). ..
Parthian King between two crowned Asps. Sard. On the reverse of this most
puzzling gem are cut a serpent, some Greek letters, and certain unknown
characters. It is probably due to some early Persian Manichean, or
Gnostic, which would explain the introduction of the asps, the Egyptian
symbol of royalty
Indian Sacred Bull, with Pehlevi legend. A calcedony, hemispherical, stamp.
This Brahminee bull figures even on the early Assyrian monuments. Here
the legend commences with the usual AP, or title of the king, but the other
letters are so rudely cut as to be undecipherable; perhaps the three last
stand for Bagi, "the Divine."
Favourite Racehorse, Syodus (Speedaway). Jacinth. Greek work of uncommon
spirit, commemorating, there can be little doubt, some victor in the
Stadium (Rhodes).

....

Somnus, on his rounds, holding a wreathed horn in each hand, and from one pouring out his balm upon the earth. The god here is depicted with butterfly-wings like Psyche, of which I have seen no other example, since his figure upon monuments can only be distinguished from Cupid's by the diversity of their attributes. Lessing has admirably treated this subject in his dissertation, "Wie die Alten den Tod gebildet." The work of this intaglio belongs to the best period of Roman art, and is cut on a Sard of the finest quality

Death, within an opened monument; beneath is the pig, the funeral sacrifice:
Cameo. Onyx. The ancients represented Death and Sleep as twin-
brothers, but black and white in colour, carried in the arms of their mother
Night (Pausan. Eliac. xviii.). In addition to the difference of colour Death
is distinguished by his inverted torch, Sleep by the horn whence he pours
out his dewy blessings.

"Et Nox, et cornu fugiebat Somnus inani."-Theb. vi. 27.
"Night fled, and with her Sleep with emptied horn."

Dagon: Phenician scarab. Green Jasper; or perhaps a green terra-cotta.
Babylonian Cylinder. Loadstone. Remarkable for the neatness of the cutting
of the cuneiform inscription filling one half its surface.
Fauns playing: Nicolo. Described by Caylus (II. pl. lxxxiii) as having been re-
cently discovered at Xaintes, set in a massy gold ring weighing 1 oz. The
antique setting has disappeared, by reason doubtless of its large intrinsic
value, but the correspondence of the scale and material prove the identity of
the gem itself.
Canopic Vase: Greco-Egyptian date. Almandine; retaining its antique iron-
ring (p. 285). On the belly of the vase is the sun's disk, and below, the
royal vulture with spread wings. The iron ring itself is elegantly formed.
(Author's Collection).

..

6 Described by Raspe as " a Persian Sphinx,

..

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the bas-reliefs of Chelminar; with a figure be

or Mithras, the image of the Sun, as seen upon hind, like Horus, swathed."

Combat between Lion and Bull: Etruscan. Sard.

ANCIENT GEMS.

SECTION I.-MATERIALS.

Livia. Red Jasper.

SOURCES WHENCE GEMS WERE OBTAINED BY THE ANCIENTS.

BEFORE we enter upon the consideration of the intagli and camei themselves, and of the various styles of art which they present, it will be more appropriate to give a brief description of the different sorts of gems upon which they usually are found, to point out their respective characters, and at the same time to identify, as far as can be done, the species of stones principally employed by the ancients for these works; and to distinguish them from those only known to modern engravers, or at least more generally used by the latter than by the artists of antiquity. The sources whence they were obtained will be separately noticed under each head, but a most suitable introduction to this section will be the elegant description given by Dionysius Periegetes of the trade in precious stones carried on by the Orientals early in our era; for, although the date of his poem is disputed, yet his allu

B