gems, glyptic, engraved gems, agate, cameo, intaglio, seals, cylinders

When, in studying the engraved stones bequeathed to us by antiquity, I came upon the fish, I thought I would have to limit myself to drawing from the scholarly works dedicated thus far by learned researchers to the symbolic and allegorical fish. These seemed to belong almost exclusively to the Christian religion, although in fact they were merely a tradition of ancient Eastern antiquity; before they were known to the Greeks and Romans, the Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Egyptians had indeed adopted them as symbols—still unexplained—and had placed them among the celestial constellations.