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INTRODUCTION.
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AEsopus " reader to King Mithridates," who, to judge from the citation "on the Pan-fish," followed in the same line of the marvellous.
The ' Poetical Description of the Inhabited World,' composed by Dionysius, hence
entitled " Periegetes," a native of Charax, in Susiana, contains many
important notices of the different Eastern localities producing the
several precious stones ; which will be found called into use, under
their respective heads, in the course of this ' History.' The epoch of
the author is a matter of conjecture, but is usually placed at b.c. 30.
As, however, in one passage he alludes to the " Persian conquests " of
his patron, he must certainly have flourished long prior to this date,
and probably under one of the early and enterprising Seleucidae.
Of ancient Greek
Mineralogy this is absolutely all that remains. Of Roman, besides
Pliny's inestimable though much too compressed compendium, somewhat
more is extant, although it is of but trifling importance. Solinus, who seems, from certain incidental notices * in his
descriptions of places, to have belonged to the weakly Eevival of
literature in the age of Constantine, has in his 'Polyhistor '
particularly discussed the article of the precious stones furnished by
the several regions he is passing in review. His notices are often
extremely useful, inasmuch as he evidently aims at a more precise and
technical description of the various kinds than that to be obtained
from his precursor, Pliny ; and indeed he displays in his definitions
the knowledge of the practical jeweller. For example, it is impossible
to derive a clear notion of what stones the Romans understood by
certain denominations (notably the "Hyacinthus" and the "Sardonyx")
from Pliny's vague description of them, but for the aid of the
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