With such a fiery relationship, it's no wonder that the emperor would want her portrait on his ring. Caligula and Caesonia had a passionate affair and its said that he even occasionally showed her off, naked, to friends. Roman historian Suetonius described her as “a woman of reckless extravagance and wantonness” and even claimed that she gave birth to their daughter on their wedding day. So who is this beautiful woman etched into stone? Appropriately, it appears to be a portrait of Caligula's fourth-and last-wife, Caesonia. ![]() It would have taken quite a bit of skill to not only cut and polish the sapphire but to carve the delicate portrait on the front of the ring. Sapphires are exceptionally hard, ranking just below diamonds on the Mohs scale of hardness. This sapphire ring, which was put up for sale by Royal jeweler Wartski, is a testament to the opulence of the time.
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