commonplace, as on the Palmyrene funerary reliefs, they were by no means primarily indications of the wearer's wealth and love of luxury. In Republican Roman usage the right to wear the gold ring went with certain distinctions of civic and military rank or was specially conferred upon the wearer. In the Near East there were traditions about the conferring of his gold ring by the king upon certain of his associateswho by token of that fact were authorized to act for him. In a very simple transaction and for the obvious purpose of serving to affixhis seal, Ahasuerus in the story of Esther gives his own ring successivelyto Haman and to Mordecai. More interesting as the suggestion of a symbolic act is what Diodorus tells us about Alexander the Great handing his signet ring to Perdiccas just prior to his death. More interesting still, because it reflects procedure in Hellenistic Syria, is what we learn from I Maccabees about Antiochus Epiphanes giving his ring to a certain Philip, one of his "first friends," when asking him to undertake the education of his son. The ring goes with a court costume as an indication of special authority and presumably stays with the wearer as long as he is entrusted with the care of the king's son. Coming back to the rings of the Chicago collection with these facts in mind, it will be obvious that we have two possibilities as to the identity of the man represented on the portrait gem. The first is that the portrait carved on the gem represents the owner of the ring. The second possibility is that the likeness on the gem is that of another person, who conferred the ring upon the wearer to indicate that the wearer was empowered to represent him and act for him. In this case the ring expresses the wearer's status in civic affairs quite as the Zeus-Serapis ring may betoken its wearer's standing in a cult group. It is possible that the Chicago jewelry comes from the grave of a man and his wife who were residents of Syria in the second half of the third century B.c. They were persons of wealth and prominence and were probably associated with the cult of Isis. In any case there is no doubt that this group of gold jewelry is the most interesting and important recent addition to the material available in this country for the knowledge of the goldsmith's and the gem cutter's art in the Hellenistic Orient. 8. Ptolemaiccoin with jugate head of Zeus-Serapisand Isis. (Courtesyof the AmericanNumismaticSociety) 259