Affected
doubtless by the splendor of Asiatic courts, the rude soldiers of Rome
learned to regard the pearl as a royal luxury, and therefore adopted it
as a sign of great wealth and power. Enormous sums were paid for pearls
of rare size and beauty. Great leaders of men vied with each other in
the effort to add to their colÂlections. It is said that Julius
Caesar's chief incentive for pushing his conquests into the west so
far, was his desire to obtain the pearls to be found in the streams of
the British Isles. The Emperor Caligula decked his favorite horse with
a necklace of pearls. Pliny says of Lollia Paulina, Caligula's wife,
that he had seen her so bedecked with pearls and precious stones that
"she glittered and shone like the sun as she went." Clodius, the
glutton, claiming for them a very delicate flavor, placed one by the
plate of each guest at a great banquet to be mixed with the wine. This
same profligate, either setting the example or emulating Cleopatra,
swallowed in a cup of wine one worth eight thousand pounds that he
might have the pleasure of consuming so much value at once.
If in the intrigues so common then, a woman's
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