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Achates (ἀχάτης). An agate, a precious stone or gem. Theophrastus describes it as a beautiful and rare stone from the river Achates in Sicily, which sold at a high price; but Pliny tells us that in his time it was no longer in esteem, it being then found in many places, of large size and diversified appearance. The ancients distinguished agates into many species, to each of which they gave a name importing its difference from the common agate, whether it were in colour, figure, or texture. Thus they called the red, haemachates, which was sprinkled with spots of jasper, or blood-red chalcedony, and now called “dotted agate.” The white they termed leucachates; the plain yellowish or wax-coloured, cerachates
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