Quantcast
  Due to a new server, slow response may occur for which we apologize Portal logo
Login/Register
Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
/gemstones/king-natural-history/page_331 - 2
 

Smaragdus, Emerald

Smaragdus, Emerald Page of 453 Smaragdus, Emerald Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
322
SMARAGDUS.
ago. The Brighton Emeralds, so largely purchased by visitors, are of similar origin : the broken bottles thrown purposely into the sea by the lapidaries of the place are, by the attrition of the shingle, speedily converted into the form of natural pebbles.
Nero, who was extremely shortsighted6 (Neroni oculi hebetes, nisi quum ad prope admota conniveret, Pliny xi. 54), used to view the combats of gladiators in the arena through an Emerald (smaragdo spectabat). This stone must have been hollowed out at the back (as many antique gems, especially Carbuncles, are still found to be), and thus have acted as a concave lens in assisting his sight to distinguish clearly what was going on so far below the imperial seat. But this virtue then must have been ascribed to the material, not to the form of the stone, for the looking at an Emerald was by the ancients considered extremely beneficial to the sight—a notion that prevailed as early as the times of Theophrastus, who states that people wore Emeralds set in their rings for this very purpose.7 Had it not been for this confusion of ideas, the invention of spectacles, at least for myopes, would have been anticipated by more than a thousand years. Some commentators (to begin with Marbodus) have absurdly supposed that Nero employed a flat " table " Emerald as a mirror, to reflect the distant combat : such writers could never themselves have suffered from shortsightedness, or they would have been well aware that to an eye so formed, the reflection of a distant scene would be but obscurity doubly obscured. But had the Emerald been employed on these occa­sions merely as a mirror, Pliny would have used the expression " in smaragdo," not " smaragdo " simply, which last can only signify " by the aid of an Emerald." The explanation of the concave lens is supported by the obscure remark of Pliny a few
Smaragdus, Emerald Page of 453 Smaragdus, Emerald
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page