precious stones and profusely embellished with them, besides
vast stores of costly jewels. It is on record that one dish,
weighing fifty pounds, ornamented with gems, was presented to
one of the Gothic kings by a successful general, and fifty basins
filled with these valuable spoils were given to one of the princesses, a statement corroborated by the immense treasures in
jewels found in the palace of the Visigoth kings at the pillage
of Narbonne by the Franks, in the sixteenth century, and in the
Gothic treasures of Toledo, presented in the form of crosses,
chalices, paieras, caskets, and other articles, all elaborately
garnished with precious stones, which were seized by the
Moslem conquerors and sent to Damascus during their wars in
the Peninsula. A remarkable discovery of buried treasure has
also been made in Roumania, the ancient Dacia, a country
occupied by the Goths, comprising gold and jewels of Gothic
and Byzantine workmanship, probably the spoils captured by
these warlike tribes, in some of their predatory excursions.
The early Gauls cared less for personal adornment than the
Franks, who, in the time of Dagobert, displayed their love of
ostentation by the free use of gems to decorate their attire and
weapons of war, but after these tribes embraced Christianity,
their use of these ornaments was directed into another channel
— that of embellishing their churches and other religious buildings, which, in the mediaeval period, became depositories of
wealth in gems and costly jewels.
After the reign of Charlemagne, there was a decline in the
use of precious stones, so that in the twelfth century their
possession was confined almost entirely to princes and ecclesiastics.
The Anglo-Saxons participated in the general passion for
ornaments, embroidered robes, and crowns brilliant with precious stones, while the caparisons of their horses, with their
