True, we have history through classic Latin sources of the most important events of the first and second centuries. Yet these portraitures on stone, executed in the very epochs, add certainly great interest to the records of these times. The subjects on stone alluded to, mirror to us more faithfully, more vividly, scenes in the lives of several Roman emperors than any manuscript possibly could have done.
We have Trajan as emperor, judge, and warrior. We see him engaged in conflict, we admire him victorious, we rejoice in his happy return to Rome on several occasions; in his triumphant reception both by the people and the army, and in the arches erected as souvenirs of his prowess; in his dignified reception of the son of the King of the Armenians, and in his condescension in restoring their kingdom; in several of his expeditions against the Dacians, and in his happy escape from the plot of Decebalus. We have instances of his public charities delicately depicted in cameo; his religious sacrifices; his exploits as a hunter of many wild animals, the boar and the lion included, are exemplified. We have several beautiful groups with emperors delivering allocutions before the cohorts of their armies, senators, and other dignitaries; the triumphant entry of Titus Vespasianus into Jerusalem, whereon twenty-two figures are visible, and the exit from Jerusalem of his victorious army, on which nineteen figures are seen; also the groups of Jewish prisoners.
All these pages in my stone book are certainly interesting additions to ancient history.
SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.
 1339 | |
 1350 |  1351 |
 1349 | |
HISTORICAL CAMEOS.
ANIMALS AND BIRDS.
We have seen how large a proportion of the subjects on ancient gems were mythological, how extended was the class of religious and of Christian subjects; we have noted the loved portraits of sovereigns, statesmen, philosophers, physicians, and poets.
There remains a series worthy of notice—those intaglios and cameos worn as amulets on which were engraved innumerable animals, birds, fishes, and even insects.