28 ' CYPRUS. 
CHAP. 
I. 
to Pliny \ until the time of Claudius Ct^sar. The 
most antient intaglios of Egypt were graven upon 
stones, having the form oiscarah^i^. This kind of 
signet was also used by the Phoenicians, as will 
further appear. The characters upon them are 
' therefore either in hieroglyphical writing, Phceni- 
cian letters, or later monograms derived from the 
Greek alphabet. Alexander, at the point of death, 
gave his signet to Perdiccas^; and Laodice, mother 
of Seleucus, the founder of the Syro- Macedonian 
empire, in an age when women, profiting by the 
easy credulity of their husbands, apologized for 
an act of infidelity by pretending an intercourse 
with Apollo, exhibited a signet found in her bed, 
with a symbol afterwards used by all the 
Seleucidce'^ . The introduction of sculptured 
animals upon the signets of the Romans was 
derived from the sacred symbols of the Egyp- 
tians : hence the origin of the Sphinx for the signet 
of Augustus. When the practice of deifying- 
princes and venerating heroes became general, 
portraits of men supplied the place of more 
Origin antient types. This custom gave birth to the 
of the Ca- yo 7 . /-( / 1 ■ • 1 
machuia. Camackuia, or Cameo; a later mvention, merely 
(1) Hist. Nat. lib. xxxiii. c. 1. 
(2) See a former note in this Chapter, for the history of the antient 
superstition concerning' the Scaraba-us. 
(.3) Justin, lib. xii. 
(4) Ibid. lib. XV. c.<\. 
