[145]The pearls as fully bespoke the importance of the wearer, as the lictor did of the magistrate whom he was preceding. The honor of being escorted by one or two lictors, was usually granted to the wives and other members of the imperial family.
[146]Tavernier speaks of a remarkable pearl, that was found at Catifa, in Arabia (the fishery alluded to by Pliny), and which he bought for the sum of $500,000, of our money. It is pear-shaped, the elenchus of the ancients, regular, and without blemish. The diameter is .63 of an inch, at the largest part, and the length from two to three inches. It is now in the possession of the Shah of Persia.
[147]The Roman consuls were clothed with the toga prætexta, the color of which was Syrian purple. All children of free birth wore the prætexta, edged with purple, and the purple laticlave or broad hem of the senator’s toga distinguished him from the eques, who wore a toga with an angusticlave, or narrow hem.
[148]“Xerxen togatum,” or “the Roman Xerxes,” in allusion to Xerxes cutting a canal through the Isthmus, which connected the Peninsula of Mount Athos with Chalcidice.
[149]An absurd tradition, invented to palliate the disgrace of his defeat.
[150]If there was any foundation at all for the story, there can be little doubt that a trick was played for the purpose of imposing upon Caligula’s superstitious credulity, and that the rowers as well as the diving sailors were in the secret.
[151]“Delay.”
[152]Of this work, begun by Ovid during his banishment in Pontus, and probably never completed, only a fragment of one hundred and thirty-two lines has come down to us.
[153]Martial, B. iv. Ep. 30, speaks of this being the case at the fish-ponds of Baiæ, where the Emperor’s fish were in the habit of making their appearance when called by name.
[154]“Inaures.” He probably means ornaments suspended from the gills, a thing which, in the case of eels, might be done.