near Toledo. Claudian enumerates amongst the treasures of the Emperor Theodosius left in Stilicho's charge—
Amongst
the Rutupine antiquities preserved in the library of Trinity College,
Cambridge, is a portion of a necklace of small rough Sapphires, drilled
at each end, and linked together with gold wire, the exact ornament
referred to by the poet Naumachius.
Previous
to the Imperial epoch, engravings in Sapphire are of the rarest
possible occurrence. A small Etruscan scarabeus, however, on an
inferior variety, has recently come under my notice, and also a
magnificent head of Jupiter inscribed ΠΥ, executed in the purest Greek
style. This latter had been accidentally discovered ornamenting the
pommel of a Turkish dagger, the intaglio turned downwards, and the
back of the stone rudely facetted by the Oriental lapidary into whose
hands this precious monument had fallen, an additional proof of its
genuine antiquity. This stone was one inch in diameter (Rosanna,
Mexico). Even superior to this as a work of art, and belonging to the
same school, is the Medusa's Head in nearly full face, one of the chief
glories of the Marlborough Collection ; displaying most exquisite
finish combined with the utmost vigour, and which would render precious
even an ordinary material, but are greatly enhanced here by the fine
quality of the Sapphire, cserulean and clear. Another of larger size
(3/4 X 1/2 inch) in the same collection, a stone of much deeper azure,
though streaked with lighter shades, bears the head of Caracalla, as
good a work in point of art as his times could produce, but in which
the peculiar execution bears testimony to the difficulties of the task,
the hair being made out by a series of drill-holes
