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CHALCEDONIUS.
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85
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a
large stone of this sort is engraved the finest Greek intaglio that is
possessed by our National Collection : the subject is Victory crowning
a trophy, in design identical with the same type upon the medallion of
Agathocles, to whose date it indubitably belongs, and, in truth, may on
very good grounds claim the honour of having been the royal signet. In
form it is a scarabeoid, a modification of the scarabeus much
in favour with the Asiatic Greeks. This magnificent historical gem was
lately found at Syracuse. The Girasol is sometimes improperly called
the Opaline, so that antique works in it are often described as
executed in real Opal, a stone in which (with perhaps a solitary
exception) they never occur.
Busts
and heads, in full and in bas-relief, and of considerable volume, were
executed by the Romans in Calce-dony. Under the Empire, these carvings
constituted the phalerae so often mentioned as military
distinctions. They had replaced at an early period the original gold
bosses forming that decoration—Virgil's
" Phaleras Rhanmetis et aurea bullis—Cingula ; "—
for
M. Ccelius, who perished with Quintilius Varus, is sculptured on his
cenotaph (Mayence) with all the rewards earned during a long military
career, decorating his effigy ; torques, armillas, and on his
breastplate the phalerœ—a Gorgoneion and several Bacchic masks
evidently akin to those about to be described. Most of the existing
specimens will be found perforated with holes placed diagonally for
the reception of the rods framing the several pieces together. The head
of Horus is, under the Lower Empire, a special favourite. These large
sculptured heads in Calcedony may indeed have also been female
ornaments, and employed in a manner one would not have expected, to
decorate the hair. This discovery was suggested to me by
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