2 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
marn
authorities as regards the true Precious Stones : the latter writer had
evidently visited India, as may be deduced from his account of the
Sardonyx, its proper localities, and the mode in which it was employed
by the natives. Nicander ; perhaps meaning the physician,
author of the ' Theriaca,' into whose poetical pharmacopoeia gems
entered largely by reason of their supposed inherent virtues. Demo-critus, the
philosopher of Abdera, who had devoted himself, besides speculative
philosophy, to the study of Natural History in all its branches. Zoroastres, a
Magian as his name informs us, quoted by Pliny for his definitions of
the "Daphnsea" and "Exebenus" and subsequently by Mar-bodus, concerning
the virtues of Coral. That, however, he did not confine himself to the
elucidation of the mystical properties of stones, appears from his
notice of the Exe-benus, " that it was used in the arts for burnishing
gold." Callistratus, who treated of the Precious Stones exclusively. Metrodorus Scepsius, who seems to have been the celebrated confidant and counsellor of King Mithridates, that great amateur in gems. Zachalias of
Babylon, who had dedicated to the same monarch a treatise upon the
mystic virtues ot Stones : " describing their influence on the fortunes
of mankind." He may have been a Jew, the name being Zachariah
Grecized; the Persian alphabet having but one character for the L and
the R. Archelaus, " who was King of Cappa-docia," and therefore must be the father-in-law of Herol the Great, mentioned by Josephus. Boechus, an African by his name, and probably the Second, King of Getulia and Mauritania, Antony's ally at the battle of Actium. King Juba II. of Numidia, son-in-law of Cleopatra, and
