The mysterious Lycurgus Cup is convincing evidence that ancient Romans used nanotechnology, or at least knew how to get the desired effects, long before the availability of modern technology.
The cup is made of a special type of glass known as dichroic, meaning “two-colored” in Greek, which changes hue when held up to the light. It is opaque green but turns to glowing translucent red when light shines through it.
The Lycurgus Cup owes its unusual properties to the use of tiny quantities of colloidal gold and silver. The rim of the cup is mounted with a silver-gilt band of leaf ornament. Its type is known as a “cage cup,” as it consists of a cage around the glass.
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