As soon as the fish perceives the hand, it shuts its shell and covers up its treasures, being well aware what is sought; if it happens to catch the fingers it cuts them off with the sharp edge of the shell. No punishment could be more justly inflicted. There are other penalties as well, for while the greater part of the pearls are only to be found among rocks and crags, the others which lie out in the main sea are generally accompanied by sea-dogs.[143] And yet, for all this, the women will not banish these gems from their ears! Some writers say, that these animals live in communities, or swarms like bees, each of them being governed by one remarkable for its size and venerable age; while at the same time it is possessed of marvellous skill in taking all due precautions against danger; the divers take special care to find these, because when once they are taken, the others stray to and fro, and are easily caught in their nets. When the pearl-fish are taken they are placed under a thick layer of salt in earthen-ware vessels; as the flesh is gradually consumed, the pearls are disengaged and fall to the bottom of the vessel.
There is no doubt that pearls wear out with use, and will change their color, if neglected. All their merit consists in their whiteness, large size, roundness, polish, and weight; qualities which are not easily to be found united in the same. Indeed no two pearls are ever found perfectly alike; and it was from this circumstance, no doubt, that our Roman luxury first gave them the name of “unio,” or the unique gem: for a similar name is not given them by the Greeks; nor among the barbarians by whom they are found are they called anything else but “margaritæ.” Even in the very whiteness of the pearl there is a great difference to be observed. Those are of a much clearer water that are found in the Red Sea, while the Indian pearl resembles in tint the scales of the mirror-stone, but exceeds all the others in size. The color that is most highly prized of all is that of the alum-colored pearls. Long pearls have their peculiar value, especially those called “elenchi,” which are of a long tapering shape, resembling our alabaster[144] boxes in form, and ending in a full bulb. Our ladies quite glory in having these suspended from their fingers, or two or three of them dangling from their ears. For the purpose of ministering to these luxurious tastes, there are various names and wearisome refinements which have been devised by profuseness and prodigality; for after inventing these ear-rings, they have given them the name of “crotalia,” or castanet pendants, as though quite delighted even with the rattling of the pearls as they knock against each other; and, at the present day, the poorer classes are affecting them, as people are in the habit of saying, that “a pearl worn by a woman in public, is as good as a lictor walking before her.”[145] Nay, even more than this, they put them on their feet, and that, not only on the laces of their sandals, but all over the shoes; it is not enough to wear pearls, but they must tread upon them, and walk with them under foot as well.
Pearls used formerly to be found in our sea, but more frequently about the Thracian Bosporus; they were of a red color, and small, and enclosed in a shell-fish known by the name of “myes.” In Acarnania there is a shell-fish called “pina,” which produces pearls; and Juba states that on the shores of Arabia a shell-fish is found which resembles a notched comb, covered all over with hair like a sea-urchin, and the pearl lies imbedded in its flesh, bearing a strong resemblance to a hailstone. No such shell-fish, however, as these are ever brought to Rome. The Acarnanian pearl is shapeless, rough, and of a marble hue; those are better which are found in the vicinity of Actium.
It is quite clear that the interior of the pearl is solid, as no fall is able to break it. Pearls are found in various places in the body of the animal. Indeed, I have seen some which lay at the edge of the shell, just as though in the very act of coming forth, and in some fishes as many as four or five. Up to the present time, very few have been found which exceeded half an ounce in weight, by more than one scruple.[146] It is a well-ascertained fact, that in Britannia pearls are found, though small, and of bad color; for the deified Julius Cæsar wished it to be distinctly understood, that the breast-plate which he dedicated to Venus Genetrix, in her temple, was made of British pearls.
I once saw Lollia Paulina, the wife of the Emperor Caligula—it was not at any public festival, or any solemn ceremonial, but only an ordinary wedding entertainment—covered with emeralds and pearls, which shone in alternate layers upon her head, in her hair, in her wreaths, in her ears, upon her neck, in her bracelets, and on her fingers, and the value of which amounted in all to forty millions of sesterces ($1,525,000); indeed she was prepared at once to prove the fact, by showing the receipts and acquittances. Nor were these any presents made by a prodigal potentate, but treasures which had descended to her from her grandfather, and obtained by the spoliation of the provinces. Such are the fruits of plunder and extortion! It was for this reason that Marcus Lollius was held so infamous all over the East for the presents which he extorted from the kings; as a result of which he was finally denied the friendship of Caius Cæsar, and took poison; and all this was done, I say, that his granddaughter might be seen, by the glare of lamps, covered all over with jewels to the amount of forty millions of sesterces! Now let a person only picture to himself, on the one hand, what was the value of the habits worn by Curius or Fabricius in their triumphs, let him picture to himself the objects displayed to the public on their triumphal litters, and then, on the other hand, let him think upon this Lollia, this one bit of a woman, the head of an empire, taking her place at table, thus attired; would he not much rather that the conquerors had been torn from their very chariots, than that they had conquered for such a result as this?
Yet even these are not the most supreme evidences of luxury. There were formerly two pearls, the largest that had been ever seen in the whole world: Cleopatra, the last of the queens of Egypt, came into possession of them both, by descent from the kings of the East. When Antony had been sated by her, day after day, with the most exquisite banquets, this queenly woman, inflated with vanity and disdainful arrogance, affected to treat all this sumptuousness and all these vast preparations with the greatest contempt; upon which Antony enquired what there was that could possibly be added to such extraordinary magnificence. To this she made answer, that on a single entertainment she would expend ten millions of sesterces. Antony was extremely desirous to learn how that could be done, but looked upon it as a thing quite impossible; and a wager was the result. On the following day, upon which the matter was to be decided, in order that she might not lose the wager, she had an entertainment set before Antony, magnificent in every respect, though no better than his usual repast. Upon this, Antony joked her, and enquired what was the amount expended upon it; to which she made answer that the banquet which he then beheld was only a trifling appendage to the real banquet, and that she alone would consume at the meal to the ascertained value of that amount, she herself would swallow the ten millions of sesterces; and so ordered the second course to be served. In obedience to her instructions, the servants placed before her a single vessel, which was filled with vinegar, a liquid, the sharpness and strength of which is able to dissolve pearls. At this moment she was wearing in her ears those choicest and most unique productions of Nature; and while Antony was waiting to see what she was going to do, taking one of them from out of her ear, she threw it into the vinegar, and as soon as it was melted, swallowed it. Lucius Plancus, who had been named umpire in the wager, placed his hand upon the other at the very instant that she was making preparations to dissolve it in a similar manner, and declared that Antony had lost—an omen, which, in the result, was fully confirmed. The fame of the second pearl is equal to that which attends its fellow. After the queen, who had thus come off victorious on so important a question, had been seized, it was cut asunder, in order that this, the other half of the entertainment, might serve as pendants for the ears of Venus, in the Pantheon at Rome.
Antony and Cleopatra, however, will not bear away the palm of prodigality in this respect, and will be stripped of even this boast in the annals of luxury. For before their time, Clodius, the son of the tragic actor, Æsopus, had done the same at Rome; having been left by his father heir to his ample wealth and possessions. Let not Antony then be too proud, for all his triumvirate, since he can hardly stand in comparison with an actor; one, too, who had no wager to induce him—a thing which adds to the regal munificence of the act—but was merely desirous of trying, by way of glorification to his palate, what was the taste of pearls. As he found it to be wonderfully pleasing, that he might not be the only one to know it, he had a pearl set before each of his guests for him to swallow. After the surrender of Alexandria, pearls came into common and, indeed, universal use at Rome; but they first began to be used about the time of Sylla, though but of small size and of little value, Fenestella says—in this, however, it is quite evident that he is mistaken, for Ælius Stilo tells us, that it was in the time of the Jugurthine war, that the name of “unio” was first given to pearls of remarkable size.
CHAPTER XII.
THE NATURE OF THE MUREX AND THE PURPLE.
And yet pearls may be looked upon as pretty nearly a possession of everlasting duration—they descend from a man to his heir, and they are alienated from one to another just like any landed estate. But the colors that are extracted from the murex and the “purple” fade from hour to hour; and yet luxury, which has similarly acted as a mother to them, has set upon them prices almost equal to those of pearls.
Purples commonly live seven years. Like the murex, they keep themselves in concealment for thirty days, about the time of the rising of the Dog-star; in the spring season they unite in large bodies, and by rubbing against each other, produce a viscous saliva, from which a kind of wax is formed. The murex does the same; but the purple has that exquisite juice which is so greatly sought after for the purpose of dyeing cloth, situated in the middle of the throat. This secretion consists of a tiny drop contained in a white vein, from which the precious liquid used for dyeing is distilled, being of the tint of a rose somewhat inclining to black. The rest of the body is entirely destitute of this juice. It is a great point to take the fish alive; for when it dies, it ejects this juice. From the larger ones it is extracted after taking off the shell; but the small fish are crushed alive, together with the shells, upon which they eject this secretion.