Roman Hand-Blown Glass Bead Pendant pius

Roman Hand-Blown Glass Bead Pendant piusFormed nearly two millennia ago, this hand blown glass bead dates to the height of the Roman Empire, when glassmaking reached extraordinary levels of refinement. Buried for centuries, its surface has developed a natural iridescence, a rainbow patina created as minerals slowly interacted with the glass. The result is not decoration applied by hand, but color authored by time itself.

and the fierce myths of the Amazons

when Caracalla was still Caesar under Septimius Severus

Struck in Cochin in South India between the 17th and 18th centuries

The reverse depicts a victorious figure driving a four-horse chariot—a quadriga—while holding a laurel branch

Struck in the years following the death of Constantine I

Struck under Antoninus Pius

Trajan was remembered by the Romans as the greatest emperor who ever ruled

The radiate portrait presents Augustus not as a living ruler

Each bead is a fragment of Roman daily life

when glassmaking reached extraordinary levels of refinement

A perfect coin for a five-year anniversary (Roman emperors took vows (VOTA) promising to do something for the gods if the gods did something the emperor wanted

This example preserves especially fine detail