Chap. 3.] THE JEWEL OF TTRBI1U3. 387 



stones increased to such a boundless extent, that Polycrates, 1 

 the tyrant of Samoa, who ruled over the islands and the ad- 

 jacent shores, when he admitted that his good fortune had beta 

 too great, deemed it a suflicient expiation for all this enjoy- 

 ment of happiness, to make a voluntary sacrifice of a single 

 precious stone ; thinking thereby to balance accounts with the 

 inconstancy of fortune, and, by this single cause for regret, 

 abundantly to buy oil' every ill-will she might entertain. 

 Weary, therefore, of his continued prosperity, he embarked on 

 board a ship, and, putting out to sea, threw the ring which lie 

 wore into the waves. It so happened, however, that a lish of re- 

 markable size, one destined lor the table of a king, swallowed 

 the jewel, as it would have done a bait; and then, to com- 

 plete the portentous omen, restored it again to the owner in the 

 royal kitchen, by the ruling hand of a treacherous 4 fortune. 



The stone in this ring, it is generally agreed, was a sardonyx," 

 and they still show one at Home, which, if we believe the 

 story, was this identical stone. It is enclosed in a horn of gold, 

 and was deposited, by the Emperor Augustus, in the Temple 

 of Concord, where it holds pretty nearly the lowest rank among 

 a multitude of other jewels that are preferable to it. 



CHAP. 3. THK JEWEL OF prUBETUS. 



Next in note after this ring, is the jewel that belonged to 



3 Sec IJ. xxxiii. c. 6. 



* For ultimately, Oroetes, (he satrap of Sardes, contrived to allure him 

 into his power, and had him crucified, B.C. 6'J2. Fuller, in his n'i>rthu$, 

 p. 370, tells a very similar story of the loss and recovery of his ring by 

 one Anderson, a merchant of Xewcastle-on-Tyne ; and Zuingliua gives a 

 similar statement with reference to Arnulph, duke of Lorraine, v ho dropped 

 his ring into the Moselle, and recovered it from the belly of a lish. 



* See Chapter 23. According to Herodotus, I'ausuiiias, bionysius of 

 llalicnrnassus, and Suidas, the stone was an emerald ; and Lesbing thinks 

 that there was no figure engraved on it. JSee Chanter 4 of this Book. 

 "Without vouching for the truth of it, we give the following extract from 

 the London Journal, Vol. xxiii. Is'o. 002. " A vmc-drtt*cr of Albano, 

 near Koine, is said to have found in a vineyard, the celebrated ring ot 

 Volycrates. The stone is of considerable size, and oblong in form. The 

 engraving on it, by Theodore of ISamos, tho sou of Talikle*, is of extra- 

 ordinary fineness and beauty. It represents a lyru, with three bees living 

 about; below, on, the right, a dolphin; on the left, the head of a bull. 

 The name of thq engraver is inscribed in Greek characters. The upper 

 surface of the etone is slightly concave, not highly polished, and one 

 corner broken. It is assorted that the puuusor has bten olfcrtd 50,00tf 

 Uullari tor it." 



B B 2 



