Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 255 



Tacitus, like Pliny, moralizes over pearls. To 

 both writers they were the fymbol of unbounded 

 luxury. " The ocean round Britain produces 

 pearls, but they are duiky and of a livid - hue. 

 Some think that thofe who collect them are want- 

 ing in art, for, in the Red Sea, pearls are taken 

 out from their mells while living and yet breath- 

 ing ; in Britain they are collected juft as they have 

 been expelled by the pearl-oyfter. I would fooner 

 believe that fine properties were wanting to the 

 pearls than avarice in us." 1 



Among the gifts which Ovid feigns Pygmalion 

 to have heaped on the ftatue of the nymph 

 whom he loved, are gems for the fingers and 

 necklaces for her (lender neck: 



" Aure leves baccas, redimicula peftore pendent, 

 Cunfta decent." 



Virgil, too, when fpeaking of the blifsful life of 

 the fhepherd, fays, what if he has none of the 

 refinements of luxury : 



" Nee Indi 



Conchea bacca maris pretio eft ; at peclore puro 

 Saepe fuper tenero profternit gramine corpus." 



Indeed, " bacca " or " berry," with fome poetic 

 addition, was a ufual defignation for a pearl. 

 " Variis fpirat Nereia bacca figuris," fays Claudian ; 

 fometimes by itfelf: 



" Quin et Sidonias chlamydes, et cingula baccis 

 Afpera, gemmatafque togas 

 Dividis ex aequo." 



1 Tac. "Ag.," 12. Britifli pearls with Pliny are " parvos 

 atque decolores $" with Tacitus, " fubfufca ac liventia." 



