Chap. 4] THE MOST SKILFUL LAPIDAEIE8. 389 



CHAP. 4. WHO WERE THE MOST SKILFUL LAPIDARIES. THE 



FINEST SPECIMENS OF ENGRAVING ON PRECIOUS STONES. 



The stone of tlie ring" which is now shown as that of Poly- 

 crates, is iHitouched and without engraving. In the time of 

 Ismenias, long^^ after his day, it would appear to have become 

 the practice to engrave smaragdi even ; a fact which is estab- 

 lished by an edict of Alexander the Great, forbidding his por- 

 trait to be cut upon this stone by any other engraver than 

 Pyrgoteles,*^ who, no doubt, was the most famous adept in this 

 art. Since his time, ApoUonides and Cronius have excelled in 

 it ; as also Dioscurides,^^ who engraved a very excellent likeness 

 of the late Emperor Augustus upon a signet, which, ever since, 

 the Eoman emperors have used. The Dictator Sylla, it is 

 said, always made use of a seaP^ which represented the sur- 

 render of Jugurtha. Authors inform us also, that the native 

 of Intercatia,^^ whose father challenged Scipio JEmilianus,^' 

 and was slain by him, was in the habit of using a signet 

 with a representation of this combat engraved upon it ; a cir- 

 cumstance which gave rise to the well-known joke of Stilo 

 Prseconinus,^^ who naively enquired, what he would have done 

 if Scipio had been the person slain ? 



The late Emperor Augustus was in the habit, at first, of 

 using the figure of a Sphinx^^ for his signet ; having found 

 two of them, among the jewels of his mother, that were per- 

 fectly alike. During the Civil Wars, his friends used to employ 

 one of these signets, in his absence, for sealing such letters 

 and edicts as the circumstances of the times required to be 

 issued in his name ; it being far from an unmeaning pleasantry 



" This is said with reference to the one in the Temple of Concord, 

 Mentioned in Chapter 2. 



'2 But see Exodus xxvii. 9, et. seq^ where it is shown that the prac- 

 tice existed many hundreds of years before. 



^3 See B. vii. c. 38 ; where marble is the substance named. There are 

 still -two gems in existence said to liave been engraved by this artist ; but 

 by some they are thought to be spurious. 



^"^ There are many precious stones with his name, still extant : but only 

 six appear to have been really engraved by him. 



1^ This signet is mentioned also by Plutarch and Valerius Maximus. 



16 See B. iii. c. 4. 



T' The younger Africanus. This circumstance is mentioned in the 

 Epitome of Livy, B. xlviii. is See B. xxxiii. c. 5, and end of Book ix. 



'8 In reference to the ambiguous part which he acted, Ajassou thinks, 

 in the early part of his career. 



