‘The object under discussion is a roundel consisting of a two-layer glass cameo, white over black, imitating onyx; it is backed in gold, which forms a flat surround framing it. It has been fractured in several places, but although none of the image is lost; a small part of the dark background has been restored. The mount is supplied with three holes, one at the top and two centrally on either side, which would have enabled the roundel to be suspended as a pendant.The device of the cameo depicts the well-known scene from Homer’s Iliad, Book XXIV, in which Priam begs Achilles for the body of Hector. This scene was a favourite subject in Roman art-its prototype was probably the Sarcophagus Borghese (Louvre, S.Rogge, Die Attischen Sarkophage, I, 1995); and another well-known Roman work is the Hoby Cup in Copenhagen. A sardonyx cameo of the subject, depicting the same figures with the addition of a sphinx in the field, is in St Petersburg, Hermitage Museum (O. Neverov, Antichyne Kamei, 1988, no.140).

Antiquities
Ancient Jewelry