that it was because each one was found singly in a shell,1
seems scarcely correct. Claude de Saumaise, the French classical
scholar, thought that the common name for an onion was transferred to
the pearl, owing to its laminated construction.2 According to Pliny, the Romans used the word unio to distinguish a large perfect pearl from the smaller and less attractive ones, which were called margaritœ?
It was not until the Mithridatic Wars (88-63 B-c·) and
the conquests by Pompey that pearls were very abundant and popular in
Rome, the great treasures of the East enriching the victorious army and
through it the aristocracy of the republic. In those greatest
spectacular functions the world has ever known—the triumphal
processions of the conquering Romans—pearls had a prominent part. Pliny
records that in great Pompey's triumphal procession in 61 B.c. were
borne thirty-three crowns of pearls and numerous pearl ornaments,
including a portrait of the victor, and a shrine dedicated to the
muses, adorned with the same gems.4
The
luxuries of Mithridates, the treasures of Alexandria, the riches of the
Orient were poured into the lap of victory-fattened Rome. From that
time the pearl reigned supreme, not only in the enormous prices given
for single specimens, but also in the great abundance in possession of
the degenerate descendants of the victorious Romans. The interior of
the temple of Avenus was decorated with pearls. The dress of the
wealthy was so pearl-bedecked that Pliny exclaimed in irony: "It is not
sufficient for them to wear pearls, but they must trample and walk over
them" ;5 and the women wore pearls even in the still hours
of the night, so that in their sleep they might be conscious of
possessing the beautiful gems.6
It is related that the voluptuous Caligula (12-41 a.D.)—he
who raised his favorite horse Incitatus to the consulship—decorated
that horse with a pearl necklace, and that he himself wore slippers
embroidered with pearls; and the tyrannical Nero (37-68 A.D.), not
content with having his scepter and throne of pearls, provided the
actors in his theater with masks and scepters decorated with them. Thus
wrote the observant Philo, the envoy of the Jews to the Emperor
Caligula : "The couches upon which the Romans recline at their repasts
shine with gold and pearls; they are splendid with purple coverings
interwoven with pearls and gold."
Yet
not all the men of Rome were enthusiastic over the beautiful "gems of
the sea, which resemble milk and snow," as the poet Manlius
'Lib. XXIII, c. 6.
'Ibid., Lib. IX, c. 53.
2"Plinianae Exercitationes in Solinum," 'Ibid., Lib. XXXIII, c. 3. Also Böttiger,
1629, pp. 822-4.
"Sabina oder Morgenscenen," Leipzig, 1803,
3"Historia naturalis," Lib. IX, c. 59. Vol. I, p. 158. 1 Ibid., Lib. XXXVII, c. 2.
