that
waited at her trencher (as they had in charge before) set before her
one onely crewer of sharpe vinegar, the strength whereof is able to
resolve Pearles. Now she had at her eares hanging those two most
precious Pearles, the singular and onely jewels of the world, and even
Nature's wonder. As Antonie looked wistfully upon her, and expected
what she would doe, shee tooke one of them from her eare, steeped it in
vinegar, and so soon as it was liquified, dranke it off. And as she was
about to do the like by the other, L. Plancius, the judge of that
wager, laid fast hold upon it with his hand, and pronounced withall
that Antonie had lost the wager. Whereat the man fell into a passion of
anger."
The
other Pearl of Cleopatra's pair which was thus preserved from a like
fate, passed into the possession of the Roman emperor, and was
afterÂwards sawn asunder and made into earrings, by Agrippa, for the
statue of the goddess Venus, in the Pantheon. Pliny remarks that the
statue was satisfied with one half of Cleopatra's banquet.
With
reference to the solution of Pearls, we may add that Cleopatra was not
the only personage who performed the costly experiment, but that the
Emperor Caligula is likewise said to have drunk Pearls dissolved in
vinegar. It is related too that Clodius, the son of AEsop, the tragic
actor, a man
