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DIAMOND.
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79
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used
it ornamentally. Others affirm, that it was first discovered in Syria.
The Greeks certainly valued it very highly, and attributed to it
extraordinary magical virtues. The Romans also used it ; but we cannot
assert whether they had it traditionally from the Tyrrhenians, and
afterwards from the Etruscans, or if it first became known to them by
means of the trade between Greece and the East.
The
ancients, however, only used the diamond in its natural state, without
facetting it or subjecting it to any process but that of being polished.
It
appears, nevertheless, that before the time of Pliny this gem was very
rare in Italy. In the time of the Caesars it became more common, owing
to the more easy communication with the East.
I
now have a Roman ring of the Imperial epoch, in which a beautiful
hexahedral diamond is set, in its natural state, weighing about one
carat. In the catalogue of the Hertz collection a similar one is
described.
There
are said to be five different kinds of diamonds, viz., the Indian, the
Arabian, the Cyprian, the Macedonian, and the Siderite.
The
two first, described by Pliny, are really diamonds ; but the others
are white corundums, that is, very pale sapphires, especially the
Cyprian, denoted thus : Vergens in aereum colorem.
The
most probable opinion respecting the place whence the ancients obtained
the diamond is, that it was India; but the question remains yet—what
was the particularly adamantiferous part of that country ?
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