Natural Hi/lory of the Ancients. 25$ 



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 dufky 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 fhells 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." * 



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 baccae, 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 : 



"Neclndi 



Conchea bacca maris pretio eft ; at peftore puro 

 Saspe 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 asquo." 



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

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



