ROMAN ENGRAVING. MOUNT Argée (argeus) Red jasper Dimensions: 1.2 x 1.5 x 0.5 cm Roman art, 2nd–3rd century Provenance French private collection, acquired on the art market, before 2000 An oval-shaped intaglio carved from red jasper, depicting Mount Argée (Mons Argaeus, Greek: Ἀργαῖος), the sacred mountain of Caesarea in Cappadocia. The engraving schematically renders its conical profile, with the rocky and wooded slopes depicted by a pattern of rounded protrusions. The summit is crowned by a bird — presumably an eagle — holding a crown in its beak, a motif rendered in a highly stylised manner. Mount Argée — now known as Erciyes Dağı, the highest volcano in Anatolia — was the emblem and natural sanctuary of Caesarea in Cappadocia. The subject of a local cult identified with Zeus and associated with the sun, it features extensively on the city’s provincial coinage from the 1st to the 3rd century, and on a few intaglios. A close parallel is held at the Princeton University Art Museum (inv. y1952-115, red jasper, 1.5 × 1.1 cm), depicting the same subject, published in B. A. Forbes, Catalogue of Engraved Gems in The Art Museum (Berkeley, 1978), pl. 17:66. A Roman red jasper intaglio. Mount Argaias. 2nd–3rd century AD.