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Prasius, Plasma

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PRASIUS.
267
The commonness of the stone when Pliny wrote, is clearly shown by his expression " vilioris est turbaä Prasius," " the Prase belongs to the vulgar herd." It was extensively used for intagli by the Romans of the Lower Empire, though but little at an earlier date, to judge from the circumstance that although engravings in it are more abundant than in any other material except the Sard and Carnelian, yet any of really fine Roman work are ex­cessively rare ; and of the Greek period, hardly to be met with. Indeed, the sole intaglio in Plasma possessing great artistic merit, that has ever come under my notice, is a bust of Severus in a large gem of remarkable beauty for its purity and tint, lately acquired by the British Museum. The subjects also engraved upon it are usually of the class most in fashion in the times of the Decline, such as Eagles, Victories, Venus and the Graces. It is strange that it should not have been more employed by the artists of a better period, both on account of its agreeable colour, and its resemblance to Calcedony in the facility of working. One would argue from this that the material was of late importation into the Roman world, and, to support this belief, another good work known to me in it represents a girl, with her name added(perhaps the poetess
lauded by Martial), wearing her hair in the odd fashion that came in under Domitian. As for camei in this stone, though abundant enough, yet they seem with few excep­tions to belong to the times of the Eenaissance, or later.
The native country of the fine, antique Prase is now unknown* (though an inferior sort is obtained in the Faroe Isles), but lumps of it unworked are sometimes
* There is good reason for believing it India : for Dionysius Perie-getes describes the natives of Ariania as collecting the " grass-green Jaspis along with the Diamond, the Beryl, and other stones of price from amongst tho gravel of their torrents.
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