ENGRAVED AND CARVED GEMS 125
hance
the value of the amulet. The emerald ring of Polycrates must have
possessed some other than a purely artistic value in his eyes, when it
could be regarded by him as the most precious of his possessions.
In
Roman times the image of Alexander the Great was looked upon as
possessing magic virtues, and it is related that when Cornelius Macer
gave a splendid banquet in the temple of Hercules, the chief ornament
of the table was an amber cup, in the midst of which was a portrait of
Alexander, and around this his whole history figured in small, finely
engraved representations. From this cup Macer drank to the health of
the pontifex and then ordered that it should be passed around among the
guests, so that each one might gaze upon the image of the great man.
Pollio, relating this, states that it was a common belief that
everything happened fortunately for those who bore with them
Alexander's portrait executed in gold or silver.15 Indeed,
even among Christians coins of Alexander were in great favor as
amulets, and the stern John Chrysostom sharply rebukes those who wore
bronze coins of this monarch attached to their heads and their feet.16
Nowhere
in the world was the use of amulets so common as in Alexandria,
especially in the first centuries of our era, and the types produced
here were scattered far and wide throughout the Roman world. Amulets
made from various colored stones had been used for religious purposes
in Egypt from the very earliest period of its history, so that the
custom was deeply rooted in that land. When, therefore, Alexandria was
founded in
"Trebelii Pollionis, De XXX tyrannis, Lipsise, p. 295. MAd ilium, catech., Horn. II, 5.
