316 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
jewels
the presents of a prodigal Emperor—they were regular family heirlooms ;
that is to say, bought with the plunder of provinces. This was the end
gained by his peculations, this the object for which M. Lollius made
himself infamous all over the East by taking bribes from its princes,
and at the last poisoned himself when C. Caesar, Augustus' adopted son,
formally renounced his friendship— all for this result, that his
granddaughter might show herself off by lamplight bedizened to the
value of forty millions of sesterces. Let any one now count up on the
one side the sums carried in triumph by a Curius or a Fabricius, let
him picture to himself their scanty display of treasure ; and on the
other side, Lollia, a wretched female, a tyrant's plaything, seated at
the feast ; would he not rather have seen them dragged down from the
triumphal car, than to have conquered for an end like this ? "
Amongst
the other mad freaks of Heliogabalus was the serving-up dishes sauced
with gold or precious stones ; for example peas with gold-pieces,
lentiles with Eubies, beans with Amber-beads, rice with seed-pearls
(Albis). The last he used, instead of pepper, with his fish and
truffles. It will be observed that in the foregoing dishes there is a
studied union of the most plebeian fare with the most precious objects
of luxury.
A notice in Lampridius (sub Maximis)
gives us a curious peep into the trousseau of a Roman princess in the
third century :—* Junia Fadilla, his betrothed bride, retained (after
his murder) the imperial betrothal-gifts (arrhœ regiee), viz.,
a necklace of nine single Pearls, a hair-net of eleven Emeralds, a
bracelet with clasp of four Hyacinths.* Her contemporary Tertullian
exclaims, with his usual energetic extravagance, in his tractate ' On
Women's Beha-
* This is certainly the true reading of the passage : but differs considerably from that found in the old editions.
