gems, glyptic, engraved gems, agate, cameo, intaglio, shell, ancient gems, Rome, Greece, ancient jewelry, rings

The armour of Neoptolemus, presented by Helenus to Æneas, is described by Virgil (Æn. iii. 466) as being “Lorīcam consertam hamis auroque trilicem.” Again, in much the same terms, but fortunately somewhat more explicit, the poet mentions the armour of which his hero had stripped Demoleos, as “Lævibus—hamis consertam auroque trilicem—loricam” (v. 261). Servius explains the first passage by making “hamis auroque” merely a poetical equivalent for “hamis aureis;” adding, “hamis autem catenis vel circulis significat,” and “trilicem” he interprets by “terno textam intextam.” But this loose explanation of a technical term, which the accurate Virgil may be supposed to use here in a definite sense, strikes me as very unsatisfactory; and I think a more correct notion of what he had in view may be derived from the consideration of existing specimens of the same manufacture. But in the first place it is necessary to understand the primary meaning of the term itself before proceeding to consider its application to a different material. “Licia,” now called “leashes,” are certain threads with nooses at the ends used for “decussating” the threads of the warp in weaving, and upon the number of which leashes the fineness of the web depends: thus a “tela bilix” is one where two leashes have been used; “tela trilix” where three, and so on.