[2892] For ultimately, Oroetes, the satrap of Sardes, contrived to allure him into his power, and had him crucified, B.C. 522. Fuller, in his Worthies, p. 370, tells a very similar story of the loss and recovery of his ring by one Anderson, a merchant of Newcastle-on-Tyne; and Zuinglius gives a similar statement with reference to Arnulph, duke of Lorraine, who dropped his ring into the Moselle, and recovered it from the belly of a fish.
[2893] 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.”
[2894] “Achates.” A variegated chalcedony. It was probably what is called, from its radiated streaks, a fortification agate. See Chapter [54] of this Book.
[2895] Ajasson remarks that there can be little doubt that Nature had at least been very extensively seconded by Art.
[2896] “Choraules.” One who accompanies the chorus on the pipe or flute.
[2897] “Smaragdus.”
[2898] One of the Danaïdes.
[2899] This is said with reference to the one in the Temple of Concord, mentioned in Chapter [2].
[2900] But see Exodus xxvii. 9, et seq., where it is shown that the practice existed many hundreds of years before.