Great Cameo of France

The identity of some figures, and the meaning and iconographic intent of the work have been much debated, but it is clear that the piece is intended to assert the continuity and dynastic legitimacy of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

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.

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.

Louis XVI of France then claimed the cameo in 1792 and brought it to the Cabinet des médailles in order to protect it from the French revolutionaries.

[3] It was briefly stolen in 1804 but recovered in Amsterdam in 1805 without its original gold frame, which was replaced by a bronze one that in turn was lost until 1912.