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Sucoinum, Amber

Solis Gemma, Moon-stone Page of 453 Sucoinum, Amber Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
330
SUCCINUM.
Amber claims the highest antiquity in the list of Precious Stones used for personal ornament. It was the only one known to the early Greeks. Homer mentions no gem in his minute descrip­tion of various jewels, except this, " the gold necklace hung with bits of amber " (μετά δ'ήΧέκτροισιν eepro), offered by the Phoe­nician trader to the Queen of Syra (Odys. xv. 460). It is seen, often carved into elegant forms, in the earliest Etruscan jewelry. Amber scarabs alternate with others in Sardonyx, as pendants to the magnificent necklace (known as the Prince di Canino's), the masterpiece of the Etruscan goldsmith. This people, be­coming acquainted with the substance from their intercourse with the Gauls, had speedily availed themselves of it as a glyptic material, charmed by its extraordinary lustre, so far superior to that of the ill-polished gems that lay within their reach. Even in the best days of Greece it was held in the highest estimation. Theophrastus (29) speaks of " the Fossil Amber, a stone pro­duced in Liguria, possessing the property of attraction, but rare, and found in only a few countries." Even in Pliny's age, he satirically observes (xxxvii. 12) that " the price of a figurine in it, however small, exceeded that of a living, healthy slave," which we know was by no means inconsiderable. Juvenal re­presents his rich patron as displaying at bis feast a bowl em­bossed with Beryls, and relievi in Amber " Heliadum crustas."
To the very last, as we see from the article in Epiphanius on the " Lyncurium," there is always an uncertainty whether the Greeks understood Amber or Zircon under that name, or its other form Langurium. Though Theophrastus (28) sufficiently shows that his Lyncurium is a Zircon, by mentioning its extreme hard­ness, and employment for signet-stones, yet Pliny (13) asserts
Solis Gemma, Moon-stone Page of 453 Sucoinum, Amber
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