Rings designed for finger ornaments were not only made of
gold and precious stones, but also of silver and the baser metals
— bronze, iron, and lead, frequently set with engraved stones;
sometimes these jewels were contrived with a hollow cavity for
holding poison as a convenient and ready means of suicide, a
use to which they were applied by some celebrated characters
in history, as is related of Hannibal and Demosthenes. They
are assigned an indefinite age by tradition, which represents
Prometheus wearing a ring mounted with a stone from the
Caucasus ; they were very generally used for ornaments, set
with intagli, during the Roman Republic. It is said they were
collected by bushels from the field after the battle of Cannae,
which occurred in the Second Punic War, 216 B. C, showing
that the Romans and Carthaginians had been accustomed to a
free use of personal ornaments long before the period of the
Roman Empire.
There are historical rings famous for the part they have
played in human affairs, or for some striking peculiarity they
have possessed ; one of the latter class was the agate ring of
King Pyrrhus, said to have presented a natural representation
of Apollo and the Muses ; and of the former, the ring given by
Ptolemy to Lucullus when sent by his government on a mission to Africa, containing a valuable emerald engraved with the
king's portrait, which the Roman consul accepted with great
reluctance lest he might be accused of having been bribed.
The ring of Polycrates of Samos is one of the most celebrated
jewels of antiquity. The story, briefly told, is as follows : This
prince, having been favored with uninterrupted good fortune,
was advised by his ally, Amasis, King of Egypt, to make some
costly sacrifice in order to neutralize the danger of unalloyed
prosperity. With this object in view he threw into the sea his
signet ring set with an emerald, his most valued gem. But
