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Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet

Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet Page of 384 Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
ALABANDICUS.
19
Catlistratus states that some of the Indian Carbunculi attained such extraordinary dimensions as to admit of being formed into cups holding a sextarius, or nearly a pint. Such stones, according to Satyrus, were never clear, but generally foul within, and of a harsh, disagreeable tint. Such a description applies to our commoner Carbuncle, which does indeed attain a very great bulk, though the fact mentioned by Callistratus is tinged by the usual ex­aggeration of the Grecian traveller in the far East. Yet I have seen an antique cup, hollowed out of a solid Garnet, as large as a half goose-egg, and which was engraved internally with the name of its ancient owner, Codrus;* and a heart-shaped tablet (Hertz Collection), covered with a long Gnostic formula on both sides, an Alexandrian work of the 3rd century, is 2-1/2 x 1-1/2 inches in extent, showing the immense magnitude of the crystal from which it has been sawn. In these two works the material was of bad quality, confirming Pliny's quotation from Archelaus (30), that " those found near Thebes were brittle, full of veins, and like burning coals nearly ex­piring." f These garnet bowls, or at least paste imitations of them, are certainly what Martial means by his " Amethy-stinos trientes " (x. 49) ; now, as the triens, according to its name, held four ounces of liquid, such bowls would have no more than equalled a small tea-cup in capacity. On the
Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet Page of 384 Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet
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