jected slightly from its setting; and on one occasion adhered to the wax on which it was being impressed, and thus came out of the ring, when it appeared that the hollow behind had been filled with thin leaf-lead, retaining its form, but reduced by age to a brittle oxide; a change which must have been the work of many centuries to effect. We know that Cyrene was a favourite residence of the Jews from the very time of its foundation may we not have here an instance of a fair advantage in a bargain contrived by some individual of the Chosen People to obtain a few drachms more for his ware from some unsuspecting Gentile ?

Having now exhausted the subject of rings in all metals set with intagli, either in stone or paste, a fitting conclusion will be a brief notice of those, belonging usually to the Lower Empire, having, instead of an intaglio, a gold coin of the reigning prince ingeniously inserted in the bizzel. A fine specimen is given by Caylus, V. cxii., of one of elegant form, the broad shoulders being cut into an elaborate pattern of open work, the head octagonal, and holding an aureus of Maximinus: Rev. VICTORIA GERMANICA. A very similar one, but of still more tasteful design, in weight one ounce, and set with an aureus of Severus Alexander, was found a few years back in this country. This had probably been the official ring of some Roman officer serving in Britain, and corresponding to the "Annulus bigemmeus unciarius" assigned to Claudius Gothicus as tribune of the Fifth Legion."

It was no doubt the impossibility of obtaining good portraits engraved on gems, of the reigning emperors, that suggested the setting of the aurei with their likenesses in these massy

* I have lately seen another equally massive, but of the rudest fabrique, set with an aureus of Diocletian. Rev. VIRTVS MILITVM. It will be observed that aurei having reverses

relating to the army have been purposely selected in all these instances: another argument that they were military distinctions.

gold rings, evidently from their intrinsic value the ornaments of persons who, at an earlier period, would have worn a cameo or intaglio portrait in the same way, of the most admirable execution. But the art of engraving gems with any degree of skill appears to have expired, as it were, all at once, the last imperial portrait of fine work mentioned in any collection being one of Constantinus Junior; a fact the more strange when we consider that the medallions of this family are by far the most abundant in the whole series, whilst they are by no means contemptible as works of art; and from the manner in which they are found mounted with loops for suspension, were evidently designed to be used as personal ornaments. The total disappearance of the statues of the later emperors is more easily accounted for by the fact, that metal statues, usually gilt, were alone considered worthy to represent the form of the sovereign in that age of advancing barbarism. There is but one marble statue of Constantine at Rome, and one solitary bust of Julian; the last a most wretched production of expiring art. Now, not merely do the later historians make mention of statues of the emperors of those times, as set up in every large city, as of Theodoric and even Phocas at Rome, and of Justinian, and other celebrities of his reign at Constantinople; but they even allude to numerous bronze statues of poets, warriors, and advocates, the contemporaries of these emperors. All these, on any change of government, went at once into the furnace and re-appeared in the vile coinage of the epoch. This circumstance, besides the roguery of the coiners, may explain the great proportion of lead in the later bronze coins, such as the huge pieces of the sixth and seventh century; for Pliny states that a considerable proportion of this metal entered into the composition of statuary bronze in order to render it more fusible. Long after the art of

sculpturing marble was quite extinct, works in bronze, of considerable size and skill, were executed by Byzantine artists: witness the numerous doors of churches still existing, and dating even from the ninth and tenth centuries. In the best period of Roman art, marble seems to have been preferred to bronze for portrait statues-a fortunate circumstance, to which we owe the preservation of so many treasures of ancient art. Pausanias mentions 4000 statues of Hadrian alone, collected in the precincts of the Olympeium at Athens, the votive offerings of the same number of Grecian cities: no wonder that statues of this prince are still so numerous. Pliny, in his description of the Colossus of Nero, the work of Zenodorus, the most skilful statuary of the time, says that the execution of it proved the art of casting bronze to have been entirely lost: a strange statement probably referring to some defects in the finished cast, or faultiness in its colour." For there still exists, in the cortile of the Senator's Palace on the Capitol, a colossal bronze head of Nero, of admirable execution, which to all appearance completely refutes the assertion of Pliny as to the incapacity of the metal casters of that epoch.

This may have been merely an exaggerated mode of expression to signify the badness and honeycombed quality of the metal when cast; just as one might say at pre

sent (1859) the art of bell-founding is entirely lost in England, seeing the two successive failures of the Great Bell of Westminster.

Signet and monogram of Faulus Sard.

FIGURE RINGS.

6

The fashion of wearing figures of Egyptian deities on the fingers, derided by Pliny, has left us a beautiful example, which is now preserved among the scarabei in the British Museum. Three busts, of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, of RomanEgyptian work, and admirably executed in fine gold, are arranged side by side, so as to form the head of a ring, to which they are set on at a right angle; one exactly similar is given by Caylus, as well as another, in which the busts of Osiris and Isis form the opposite ends of a shank, and are so brought together as to lie side by side, the heads pointing in opposite directions. These rings composed of deities remind one of those common in Italy, and made of a crucifix so bent that the stem and upper limb of the cross meet together at their extremities and form the shank, so that the crucified figure becomes the most conspicuous portion of the ring. How strangely do the usages of the most remote ages and countries coincide in particular instances, especially in matters connected with religious worship. Again, the Hindoo lady generally wears on her finger a small mirror, set in a ring, so that she may be able to while away an idle hour in the pleasing contemplation of her dusky charms; whilst here certain fashionable prayer books of the best class are bound up with looking-glass linings to the covers, so as to enable the fair Christian devotee to support the infliction of a tedious service, or a dull sermon, by the aid of reflections of a more agreeable nature.

6 A most interesting and unique ring of solid gold and elegant form, in the collection of an acquaintance, has set upon its face, instead of the figurine of a god, a small temple, a pyramid of four degrees, with a door

in each of the lowest faces, the passages thus formed intersecting each other on the centre of the edifice. On the flat top of the pyramid is a panther in intaglio.

These aids to devotion recall the decade rings of mediæval times. These are often found of brass, but sometimes made of silver, and are readily known by their having ten projections like short cogs on their circumference, representing so many Aves, whilst the round head, engraved with I.H.S., stands for the Pater Noster. They were worn by the pious of old times, and could be used at night, in place of a rosary, by the wearer if he felt disposed to tell his beads.

PAPAL AND EPISCOPAL RINGS.

7

From the earliest period of the Middle Ages, the symbol of investiture with the office of bishop has been a ring set with a Sapphire or Ruby, and worn on the fore-finger. The real origin of this custom is not known, but probably was derived from the practice of the Empire, by which a ring was given to a military tribune on his appointment, and, in fact, as early as the age of Juvenal, had become the symbol of the office itself; and we have seen from the letter of Valerian that it was of a "regulation" weight and description. That the bishop's ring is a type of his mystical union with his diocese, is a subsequent interpretation due to the fancy of some mediaval ecclesiastic who, like Durandus, could espy a symbol in everything, even in a bell-rope. To the same source belongs the reason assigned for the choice of the gem with which it is set, and mentioned by Vossius, De Physiologia Christiana, VI., 7. "The Sapphire is said to grow dull and lose its colour if worn by an adulterer or a lascivious person." And, c. 25, he adds, “The Sapphire worn in a ring, or in other any is said to check lust, and for that reason is proper to be worn by the priesthood, and all persons vowed to perpetual chastity." But the true reason

manner,

"Semestri vatum digitos circumligat auro."-Sat. VII.