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Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond

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48 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
afterwards gave to Trajan on appointing him bis colleague, and with which the latter some years later rewarded the eminent services of Hadrian in the second Dacian War, as Spartian records, thereby tacitly acknowledging him for his successor in the Empire.
A few rings also have come down intact to our times, which show what was the appearance of this of Nerva's, or of the one set with the
" Adamas notissimus et Berenices In digito factus pretiosior,"
that doubtless had flashed in St. Paul's eyes on the mo­mentous audience before the Jewish queen and her too-loving brother in their " great pomp," and which afterwards, a souvenir of Titus, graced the finger of the imperious lady in Juvenal's days. The Hertz Collection possessed a well-formed octahedral Diamond, about a carat in weight, set open in a Roman ring of unquestionable authenticity. The Waterton Dactyliotheca, in its almost unlimited extent, comprising the rings of all nations and ages, furnishes a yet finer example of the Diamond in its original setting ; a ring of a singular fashion, apparently dating from the Lower Empire, for the head is much thrown up, and has the sides pierced into a pattern, the " opus interrasile," so greatly in vogue during those times. It is set with two diamonds of (judging by the eye) a carat each ; one a perfect octahedron of considerable lustre, the other duller and irregularly crystallised. Another such example might be sought for in vain throughout the largest cabinets in Europe.
The Romans in their estimation of this gem were guided by the Indians, who have ever given it the first rank amongst jewels ; the Persians, however, in the thir­teenth century, placed it fifth; after the Pearl, Ruby,
Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond Page of 377 Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond
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