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Sardonyx

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SARDONYX.
Third in size, but superior as a work of art, in consequence of the priority of its date, is the " Gomma Augustea " of Vienna, the subject of which is the reception of Drusus (father of Ger-manicus) after his victory over the Rhaeti and Vindelici, b.c. 17. Augustus as Jove, Livia as Roma, seated on thrones, welcome the hero and his brother Tiberius. This is the finest work in relief extant ; the stone, however, has but two layers, and is rather to be termed an Agathe-onyx. Its shape is elliptical, 9 χ 8 inches. This relic, wrested by Philippe le Bel from the Templars, and presented by him to the Abbayo of Poissy, was stolen thence in the civil wars of the 16th century, and ulti­mately purchased by Rudolf II. for 1200 ducats (6000 l.), and that more for its value as a stone than as a work of art.
The Marlborough Cabinet boasts of another approaching to this in dimensions, being 8 inches wide by 6 deep, and the most remarkable of all in a mineralogical point of view : for it presents strata of transparent sard, purple or rather lilac, opaque white, and a ground of opaque black ; colours not united in any other example known to the world. It bears in flat relief two well-executed imperial busts, in a style marking the commencement of the Decline, attributed without much reason to Didius Juli-anus and Manlia Scantilla (but more probably Commodus and Crispina) : the one in the combined characters of Jupiter, Dodo-naaus, and Ammon ; the other, of Libera, or Cores. Another large oval Sardonyx in the same collection, with the helmeted head of Constantine, is of remarkable beauty ; though inferior in size to the bust of Constantinus II., the glory of the Royal Dactyliotheca, an oval of 7-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches, surrounded by an architectural border : in this stone the respective layers are of considerable thickness ; in the former, they are extremely thin.
The long and luxurious reign of Constantine has left us several works, some of Christian subjects on pieces of Sardonyx of the finest quality ; and such appear in the latest ages of the Byzantine Empire, disfigured by designs in the wretched taste of that period, which, from their subjects, the Angelical Saluta­tion, the Annunciation, figures of saints, &c, wore evidently intended to ornament ecclesiastical plate.
The existence of this material at Constantinople at so late a
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