many
of the earliest known localities for gems were in the East, or on the
other hand it may he that the people of the lands to the north-west of
India first showed a marked degree of civilisation and hence first
ohserved these wonders of Nature, and sought for and found new
localities where they occurred.
In
these early times gems were prized not only for ornament hut, possibly
to an even greater extent, for supposed magical and medicinal
virtues—magic and medicine being then only too closely associated.
Under the accurate learning of the best period of Greek civilisation
there seems to have been a much larger amount of scientific observation
brought to bear on the subject. Pliny in his time showed a still
greater exactness, and moreover a marked contempt for the "
preposterous lies of the impudent Magi." Solinus, a Roman writer
probably of the period of Constantine, improves further on some of
Pliny's descriptions of gems.
Later
again, the seemingly very deep-rooted belief in the medicinal
properties of gems coloured a great part of another work ; this was the
" Origines" of Isidorus of Seville, written in the seventh century. The
book, however, is valuable in containing quotations from writings now
lost. Isidorus was a bishop, and one of the next works of which we have
record was also the writing of a bishop—Marbodus, bishop of Rennes.
Marbodus says his work is a condensation of that of Evax, King of
Arabia; King, however {op. cit.), is of the opinion that no
such book was written by Evax, but that it was a compilation made after
the period of truer learning. Both these books show a retrograde step,
in going back to the mystical rather than in advancing the scientific
knowledge of the subject.
