392 PLiinr's natueal histoet. [BookXXXVU, 



But in other respects, how truly befitting the hero was this 

 triumph ! To the state, he presented two thousand millions of 

 sesterces ; to the legati and quaestors who had exerted them- 

 selves in defence of the sea coast, he gave one thousand millions 

 of sesterces ; and to each individual soldier, six thousand ses- 

 terces. He has rendered, however, comparatively excusable 

 the Emperor Caius,'^ who, in addition to other feminine lux- 

 uries, used to wear shoes adorned with pearls ; as also the 

 Emperor Nero, who used to adorn his sceptres with masks 

 worked in pearls, and had the couches, destined for his pleasures, 

 made of the same costly materials. I^ay, we have no longer any 

 right, it would seem, to censure the employment of drinking- 

 cups adorned with precious stones, of various other articles in 

 daily use that are similarly enriched, and of rings that sparkle 

 with gems : for what species of luxury can there be thought of, 

 that was not more innocent in its results than this on the part of 

 Pompeius ? 



CHAP. 7. AT WHAT PEEIOD MITREHINE VESSELS WERE FIEST IN- 



TEODUCED AT EOME. INSTANCES OF LUXUEY IN EEFE.EENCE TO 

 THEM. 



It was the same conquest, too, that first introduced murrhine^^ 

 vessels at Eome ; Pompeius being the first to dedicate, at 

 the conclusion of this triumph, vases and cups, made of this 

 material, in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus : a circumstance 

 which soon brought them into private use, waiters, even, and 

 eating-utensils made of murrhine being in great request. 

 This species of luxury, too, is daily on the increase, a single 

 cup, which would hold no more than three sextarii, having 

 been purchased at the price of seventy thousand sesterces. A 

 person of consular rank, who some years^^ ago used to drink 

 out of this cup, grew so passionately fond of it, as to gnaw its 



36 Caligula. 



2' Modern writers differ as to the material of which these vessels were 

 composed. Some think that they were of variegated glass, and others of 

 onyx ; but the more general opinion is, that they were Chinese porcelain, 

 and we have the line in Propertius, B, iv. El. 5, 1. 26. "And murrhine 

 vessels baked on ParthiaH hearths." Ajasson is of opinion, from the de- 

 scription given by Phny, that these vessels were made of Fluor spar, or 

 fiuate of lime. " Myrrhine " is another reading of the word. 



'^ " Ante hos annos." Sillig is of opinion that the reading here should 

 be " L. Annius," and that L. Annius Bassus, who was Consul suffectus in 

 the year 70 a.d., is the person referred to ; or possibly, T. Arrius Antoninus, 

 who was Consul suffectus, a.d. 69. 



