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Chrysolithus, Oriental Topaz

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CHRYSOLITHUS.
167
 
 

 
 
by Propertius (II. xvi.) amongst the bribes by which the " wealthy praetor from Illyria," gorged with the plunder of his province, had seduced his Cynthia away from him—
"quoscunque Sraaragdos Quosque dedit flavo luniine Chrysolithos."
This "yellow lustre" of the Crysolithus, coupled with its value, points out the Oriental Topaz as the gem here meant. The Jacinth was much too common a stone then to be mentioned in the same breath as the Emerald, the most precious gem in the Roman jeweller's list.
The Oriental Topaz was formerly much esteemed, and that in comparatively modern times. De Boot puts the value at 2 thalers for the first carat; and after, as the weight squared: Dutens, at a third higher than the Sapphire. The finest on record is that seen by Tavernier in the treasury of Aurungzeb, weighing 157-1/4 carats, and but recently purchased by that em­peror for a sum equal to 11,000 1. At present their value is little more than nominal, because in wear they are so easily con­founded with the common stones of the same colour.
This stone (the Oriental Topaz) was too valuable, and perhaps too hard, for the ancient artists to attack ; no genuine works of theirs are therefore to be met with in it.3 The only yellow gems em­ployed by them were the Jacinth, and occasionally the Cinnamon-stone. From some unexplained cause, the yellow Crystal, though equally abundant in nature with the purple (or Common Ame­thyst), was very seldom engraved upon by the ancients : genuine works in it being infinitely more unfrequent than in the Jacinth. The best examples known to myself are a head of Julia Titi, an exact replica in miniature of the famous Beryl by Evodus,
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
       
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