During the Roman Republic, several workshops specialized in making colorful glass gems, usually green with bands of white and blue, with the designs cast from stone intaglios. On this example, Achilles takes pity on the dying Amazon Queen Penthesileia. Her arm is over his shoulder and his around her waist. Both are nude, with the hero wearing a crested helmet and a chlamys over his shoulders. Their shields, his circular, hers pelta-shaped, are at their feet. As Boardman and Wagner inform, the subject was popular on Etruscan and Italic gems. Another glass example in Vienna may be cast from the same stone (no. 670 in E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Die antiken Gemmen des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Wien. Band II).