332 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
yet
every one conversant with the nature of gems will admit that these most
venerable productions of the glyptic art must still be in existence,
and in all their pristine splendour. No lapse of time produces any
sensible effect upon these relics, as the perfect conservation of such
in a softer material—mere vitrified clay—proves, and yet we have
abundance of tablets bearing the titles of Thothmes III., the
contemporary of Moses himself. Besides this, their intrinsic Value as
the finest gems that could be dedicated by the zeal of a race
trafficking all over the world must have caused them to be esteemed the
most precious of trophies, to be guarded with the most jealous care by
all the conquerors into whose hands they successively fell. Even
supposing them extracted from their primary arrangement and re-set
amongst the other state jewels of their captors, the essential portions
of the stones, with their inscriptions, would still remain unchanged.
Perhaps this was the reason why the Eationale is not to be found in
Ezra's list of the sacred articles restored by Cyrus to the Temple of
Jerusalem—the 5400 gold and silver vessels. The latter appear to have
been easily identified: because, according to the practice of the East,
they had all been placed as offerings and trophies in the grand temple
of the Babylonian Belus ; it is certain they, during those seventy
years, had still remained hallowed for sacred usage, for their
profanation for the first time by Belshazzar is assigned as the deed
that filled up the measure of his iniquities.
The
Breastplate described by Josephus was carried to Rome along with the
other spoils of the Temple upon the destruction of the Holy City by
Titus. The magnificent Temple of Peace, just erected by his father, was
the place selected to hold these trophies after they had been paraded
in his triumph through the streets of Rome. Of their sub-
