Great Cameo of France

The interpretation of the family group alters with the date given to the gem. In the upper level are its deceased or deified members including Divus Augustus. The surrounding figures may be Drusus the Younger (son of Tiberius), and Drusus the Elder (brother of Tiberius) flying on Pegasus. In the middle level appear the emperor Tiberius flanked by his mother Livia; standing in front of them are Germanicus, Tiberius's designated heir, together with his wife Agrippina the Elder, behind them the future emperor Nero and the figure of Providentia (Foresight); behind Livia and Tiberius are Claudius, emperor if the cameo was made in –54 AD, and his wife Agrippina the Younger. Agrippina the Younger's hairstyle seems to confirm a date for the cameo between her marriage to Claudius in 49 AD and the accession of her son Nero as Rome's fifth emperor in 54 AD. Alternatively, the cameo was commissioned to celebrate Tiberius's adoption of his grandchildren, the sons of Germanicus, as heirs in 23 AD, and the dynastic stability it ensured, comparable to the earlier adoption of Germanicus by Tiberius in 4 AD, also referenced on the cameo and in the Gemma Augustea. In the lowest level are captive barbarians. ==History==

It appears to have come to France from the treasury of the Byzantine Empire, and is first attested in the first inventory of the treasure of the Sainte Chapelle before 1279. It was then known as the Triumph of Joseph at the Court of the Pharaoh. It was sold by Baldwin II, emperor of the Latin Empire, to Louis IX of France. It is then mentioned in the 1279 inventory list of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Philip VI of France consecutively sent it to Pope Clement VI in Avignon in 1342 or 1343 possibly as collateral for financial support. In 1363, Antipope Clement VII then returned it to the Dauphin, the later Charles V of France. ==References==

• Exp. 1789, Le Patrimoine libéré : 200 trésors entrés à la Bibliothèque nationale de 1789 à 1799. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, 1989, n° 83.