SECULAR USES OF PRECIOUS STONES.                  83
	The excessive use of ornaments by the women of Rome aroused the remonstrances and condemnation of the sterner sex, who, of course, had the expenses to defray, and one burdened husband declared he would cut off the ears of any daughter who might be born to him, in order to save his future son-inlaw the ruinous cost of ear-rings. Seneca said that " they " — the women—-"are not satisfied with one pearl in each ear, but they must have three." These aggrieved husbands and fathers had good reasons for remonstrance, if it was true that immense fortunes were spent on ear-rings and other jewels, as appears to have been the case with some of the Roman ladies. It is said the fair owners were liable to severe injuries from the weight of these costly pendants, and that a special vocation existed at Rome, having for its object the healing of their ears. This luxury of wearing jewels in the ears was prohibited to men by an edict of the Emperor Alexander Severus, 222-235 A. D., which proves they were worn by the male sex before his reign. Precious stones were used for architectural decoration by the nations of antiquity, as they have been by those of the Middle Ages ; the Ptolemies afford an illustration of this custom. The poet Lucan describes the luxury and splendor of the palace of Cleopatra, which would seem like a fabric of the imagination were not his narratives authenticated by contemporary history. Pavements of onyx, thresholds of doors made of tortoise-shell set with emeralds, furniture inlaid with jasper, and couches studded with various kinds of precious stones, met the bewildered gaze of the Roman soldiers who invaded Egypt under Augustus. The Goths. — The excessive use of gems indulged in by the Romans was early adopted by the swarming tribes that conquered the Empire and occupied her territories. The victors carried off an innumerable amount of beautiful vessels cut from