Chap. 4.] THE MOST SKILFUL LAPIDA11IE3. 389 



CHAP. -4. "WHO TYERE THE MOST SKILFUL LAPIDAUIES. TIIB 



FINEST SPECIMENS OF ENGRAVING ON PRECIOUS STONES. 



The stone of the ring 11 which is now shown as that of Poly- 

 crates, is untouched und without engraving. In the time of 

 Ismenias, long 12 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, 15 who, no doubt, was the most famous adept in this 

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

 it ; as also Dioscu rides, 14 who engraved a very excellent likeness 

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

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

 paid, always made use of a seal 15 which represented the sur- 

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

 of Intercatia, 16 whose father challenged Scipio JErailianus, 11 

 and wa-s bluin 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 

 l > ra?coninus, H 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 1 * 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 scaling such letters 

 and edicts as the circumstances of the times required to be 

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



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

 mentioned in Chapter 2. 



' J'ut sec Kxodus xxvii. 9, ct. $eq, where it is shown that the prac- 

 tice existed many hundreds of years before. 



13 See U. vii. c. 3S; where marble is the substance named. Thcr* nre 

 still two poms in existence said to have beeu engraved by this artist; but 

 by sonic they are thought to b- spurious. 



14 There are many precious btoiu * with his name, still extant : but only 

 bix appear to have been really engraved by him. 



1J This signet is mentioned al>o by Plutarch and Valerius Maximus. 



18 See U. iii. c. 4. 



17 The youn^rr Afrirnnus. This circumstance is mentioned in the 

 Kpitome of I.hy, IJ. xlviii. * See II. .\\xiii. c. 5, and end of IJook ix. 



19 In reference to the ambiguous part which he acted, Ajassou tilings, 

 in the early part of hia career. 



