of the difference between stones that either burn or do not burn, from which we moved into this discussion.
There are also other stones from which seals are cut that are (remarkable), some of them only for tJxeir appearance,20 such as the sardion, the iaspis,21 and the sappheiros, and the last of these seems to be spotted with gold. But the smaragdos also has certain powers, for it makes the color of water just like its own, as we have said before; a stone of moderate size affects a small amount of the water in which it is placed, the largest kind the whole of the water, and the worst kind only the part close to it. It is also good for the eyes, and for this reason people carry seals made of it, so as to see better.22 But it is rare and of small size, unless we are to believe the records about the Egyptian kings; for it is said that among the gifts from the king of the Babylonians a smaragdos was once sent to them which was six feet23 in length and four and a half in width, and that four such stones are deposited as an offering in the obelisk of Zeus. These were sixty feet long, and their width was six feet at one end and three at the other. But these statements depend entirely on their writings.
The largest of the stones which many call tanoi2* is the one at Tyre. For tliere is a large slab in the temple of Herakles, unless this is a false smaragdos, for a species of that kind does exist. The stone occurs in places that are well known and easy to reach, especially in two of them, the copper mines of Cyprus and the island lying off Chalcedon. In the latter, exceptional stones are found. This kind is obtained by mining, like the others, and nature has produced it separately in many veins in Cyprus.
They are not often found large enough for a seal, but most of them are smaller in size; for this reason the stone is used for soldering gold, since it solders like chrysofolla.2" And some people even suppose that its nature is the same, for they both happen
20 Schneider thinks that something is missing here; the meaning should be "some of them differ in their appearance but have the same name." Cf. sec. 30.
21 Not our modern jasper. For its identification, see Commentary, sec. 27.
22 Perhaps eS βλίτων ("to see well," "to improve their sight").
23 A cubit was about one and a half feet; thus four cubits means six feet.
24 For a possible identification, see Commentary. Wimmer reads βακτριανων ("Bactrian stones") instead of τανων.
25 A name applied to certain green copper minerals. It probably included malachite as well as the modern chrysocolla.
