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Sardonyx

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SARDONYX.                                 297
camei seem by a refinement of luxury to have been employed in some manner in the decorations of state-rooms, enchased in the furniture seems the most reasonable conjecture. Statius, in describing the villa of Manlius Vopiscus at Tivoli (Syl. I. 3), has—
" Vidi artes veterunique manus variisque metalla Viva modis. Labor est auri memoraro figuras, Aut ebur, aut (lignas digitis contingere gemmas."
A perfect Oriental Sardonyx is still required to exhibit the same characters as when Pliny defined them. The base must be black (in reality a translucent chocolate colour when held against the sun), the middle zone opaque fatty white, the surface a light brown or red. It is, perhaps, now more valuable when of a certain size (the source being lost) than in Eoman times—one as large as a crown piece selling for 30?. on the Continent.* The noble collection of Baron Eoger includes two specimens of unparalleled mag­nitude and beauty, being circular disks three inches in diameter, the strata perfectly even, valued at 1000Z. each. But that even under the Empire it was a stone of price, however small its dimensions, appears from the provision in Ulpian (De Bon. Damnât.), from a law of Hadrian's, which excepts the contingency of the (capitally convicted) criminal's having on his finger a Sardonyx or other precious stone exceeding the value of 5 aurei (5Z.).f In Juvenal's days it was the most fashionable of all gems. Talking of the necessity of a barrister's keeping up appearances if he
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