392 PLINY'S JTATUBAL HISTORY. 



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

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

 sesterces; to the logati 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 lias rendered, however, comparatively excusable 

 the Emperor Gains, 8 * who, in addition to other feminine lux- 

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

 Emperor Xero, 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. Kay, 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 PERIOD MUR1UI1NE VESSELS WERE FIRST IN- 

 TRODUCED AT ROME. INSTANCES OF LUXURY IN REFERENCE TO 

 THEM. 



It was the same conquest, too, that first introduced murrhinc" 

 vessels at Itomc ; Pompeius being the finst 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 singlo 

 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 38 ago used to drink 

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



M Calisrula. 



37 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 murrhinc 

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

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

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



'* Ante hos annos." Silliir is of opinion that the reading here should 

 be " L. Anuius," and tint L. Annius liussus, who was Consul sulTectus in 

 the year 70 A.D., is the person referred to ; or possibly, T. Ariius Antoniiius, 

 who was Consul sulfcctus, A.D. 69. 



