Note 2893 — BOOK XXXVII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES.

See Chapter 23. According to Herodotus, Pausanias, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Suidas, the stone was an emerald; and Lessing thinks that there was no figure engraved on it. See Chapter 4 of this Book. Without vouching for the truth of it, we give the following extract from the London Journal, Vol. xxiii. No. 592. “A vine-dresser of Albano, near Rome, is said to have found in a vineyard, the celebrated ring of Polycrates.—The stone is of considerable size, and oblong in form. The engraving on it, by Theodore of Samos, the son of Talikles, is of extraordinary fineness and beauty. It represents a lyre, with three bees flying about; below, on the right, a dolphin; on the left, the head of a bull. The name of the engraver is inscribed in Greek characters. The upper surface of the stone is slightly concave, not highly polished, and one corner broken. It is asserted that the possessor has been offered 50,000 dollars for it.”