ANCIENT ROMAN GOLD RING WITH SCORPION CARNELIAN INTAGLIO
Ca. 100-200 AD.
A gold ring with a circular band, flared shoulders, and an oval bezel set with a carnelian gem depicting a scorpion. The ring is in excellent condition and it is suitable for modern wear. The scorpion was the emblem of the Praetorian Guard, the Roman emperor's personal army elite unit. The praetorian scorpion has long been recognised as a reference to Tiberius, who was born under the astrological sign of the Scorpio, and who first concentrated the praetorian guard in its own camp in Rome, thus giving it full corporate identity (Russell and Hellström 2020, 135). Hence, it is not inconceivable that this ring might have belonged to a praetorian guard. Cf. Russell, A., Hellström, M. (2020). The social dynamics of Roman imperial imagery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cf. Gisela M. A. Richter, Catalogue of Engraved Gems Greek, Etruscan, Roman; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Plate LXII, 533.
Size: D: 16.71mm / US: 6 1/4 / UK: M; 12g
Provenance: Property of a London collector; formerly in a Japanesse collection formed in the 1990s.
Estimate: GBP 2000 - 4000