White on brown layered sardonyx. Cameo. Two busts of a Julio-Claudian couple side-by-side; they are carved in very high relief. The man is wreathed and garbed in a toga, the edge of which is pulled over his head in an attitude of piety. He resembles portraits of the descendants (known as the “Julio-Claudians”) of the first Roman emperor, Augustus. The woman is garbed in the stola and under-tunic. Her hair is arranged in waves spreading from a central part; small curls appear below the wave on her forehead. Heavy ringlets fall over her shoulders. She also wears a wreath. The exact identities of these Imperial family members are not certain, but possibilities include Nero and Octavia, Claudius and Messalina or Agrippina, or Caligula and Drusilla. There is a chip in the lower edge of the gem, below the woman’s right shoulder.