ecimens which still exist--among which we may
notice, as pre-eminently beautiful, that torment of antiquaries, the
Portland vase, preserved in the British Museum. We have already
adverted to another vase of the same kind, and of almost equal beauty,
found in one of the tombs near the Gate of Herculaneum.

A remarkable story is told by Dion Cassius, of a man who, in the time
of the Emperor Tiberius, brought a glass cup into the imperial
presence and dashed it on the ground. To the wonder of the spectators,
the vessel bent under the blow without breaking, and the ingenious
artist immediately hammered out the bruise, and restored it whole and
sound to its original form; in return for which display of his skill,
Tiberius, it is said, ordered him to be immediately put to death.

The story is a strange one, yet it is confirmed by Pliny, who both
mentions the discovery itself, and gives a clue to the motives which
may have urged the emperor to a cruelty apparently so unprovoked. He
speaks of an artificer who had invented a method of making flexible
glass, and adds that Tiberius banished him, lest this new fashion
should injure the workers in metal, of whose trade the manufacture of
gold, silver, and other drinking-cups, and furniture for the table,
formed an extensive and important branch.

The Romans were also well acquainted with the art of coloring glass,
as appears, among other proofs, from the glass mosaics, of which
mention has been made. Pliny speaks of a blood-red sort, called
haematinum, from blood, of white glass, blue glass, etc. The most
valuable sort, however, was the colorless crystal glass, for two cups
of which, with handles on each side, Nero gave 6,000 sesterces, about
$240.

Under this head we may speak of the vases called _murrhina_, since one
theory respecting them is, that they were made of variegated glass.
Their nature, however, is doubtful; not so their value. Pliny speaks
of 70 talents being given for one holding three sextarii, about four
and a half pints. Titus Petronius on his death-bed defrauded the
avarice of Nero, who had compelled him, by a common piece of tyranny,
to appoint the crown his heir by breaking a murrhine trulla, or flat
bowl, worth 300 talents. Nero himself, as became a prince, outdid all
by giving 100 talents for a single capis, or drinking-cup, "a
memorable circumstance, that an emperor, and father of his country,
should have drunk at so dear a rate." Pliny's description of t