Handbook of archaeology, Egyptian - Greek - Etruscan - Roman . heroes, written by their side, leaves no doubt on the subject of thismagnificent intaglo. They are Amphiaraus, AMPIITJAKE ; Poly- 294 HANDB 0 OK OF AR CHjE OL 0 G Y. nices, PHVLNICES ; Tydeus, TVTE ; Adrastus, ATEESTHE;and Parthenopseus, PAETHANAPAE. Some Roman names arealso found on stones attributed to the Etruscans by their style andworkmanship. A cornelian published by Caylus, bears the lettersVIBIASF, written from right to left round the figure of a dyingwarrior. Lanzi reads it thus: VIBIA SEXTI FILTA, and con-siders that the
Handbook of archaeology, Egyptian - Greek - Etruscan - Roman . heroes, written by their side, leaves no doubt on the subject of thismagnificent intaglo. They are Amphiaraus, AMPIITJAKE ; Poly- 294 HANDB 0 OK OF AR CHjE OL 0 G Y. nices, PHVLNICES ; Tydeus, TVTE ; Adrastus, ATEESTHE;and Parthenopseus, PAETHANAPAE. Some Roman names arealso found on stones attributed to the Etruscans by their style andworkmanship. A cornelian published by Caylus, bears the lettersVIBIASF, written from right to left round the figure of a dyingwarrior. Lanzi reads it thus: VIBIA SEXTI FILTA, and con-siders that the dying warrior represents the father of Vibia, andthat the daughter wore the gem as a seal. A careful examina-tion of its workmanship can alone decide if it really belongs toEtruscan art, and if the inscription is of the same period. Theforms of early letters have been so frequently forged that one cannotbe too much on their guard against such fraudulent BELLEKOPHON TRAINING PEGASUS. From CI Gem. GREEK GLYPTIC ART. Pliny remarks that rings used for signets were unknown to theGreeks at the period of the Trojan war, as Homer nowhere makesmention of them. Plutarch gives an opposite opinion, as, accord-ing to him, Polygnotus painted Ulysses with a ring ; but the opinionof Polygnotus does not decide the question with regard to a factanterior by seven centuries to the period of that painter, and as we GREEK GLYPTIC ART. 295 do not intend to enter here on the origin of the glyptic art amongthe Greeks, who might have received a knowledge of that art beforethe siege of Troy, from the Phoenicians, or from colonies comingfrom Egypt where that art was practised from the earliest periods,we shall only say that the most ancient Greek engraved stonementioned in history is that in the celebrated ring of Poly crates,the work of Theodorus of Samos. According to Herodotus it wasan emerald, the device engraved on it being a lyre. Pliny says, itwas a sard
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