a
statement which must probably be accepted with some hesitation. His
description is chiefly taken from the Periplus of India by Androsthenes.
Italy. Pearls
were probably among the merchandise brought to Italy from the East, in
the very earliest times. We first hear of them in Rome, during the
Ju-gurthan wars in the second century, B.C. Pliny tells us that the
taste for Pearls dated from the return of Pompey, after his successful
expedition against Mi-thridates, in whose palace a priceless collection
of Pearls was found, which being carried off, formed the nucleus of a
Museum in Rome. The same writer informs us that Pearls took precedence
over all other gems, and commanded a higher price than even diamonds.
Perhaps
one of the grandest displays recorded in ancient history was that
presented in the triumph of Pompey after the third Mithridatic war (b.c. 61). The
victor exhibited, among other rich trophies, thirty-three crowns made
of Pearls ; a temple of the Muses surmounted with a dial ; a portrait
of himself in Pearls, probably a kind of Mosaic, and thirty head-bands
of Pearls, which were deposited in the Temple of Venus. In the same
temple was also suspended, as an offering by the great Caesar, a shield
studded with British Pearls ; and indeed,
