2,6 Pearls. 



a statement which must probably be accepted with 

 some hesitation. His description is chiefly taken 

 from the Periplus of India by Androsthenes. 



Italy. 

 Pearls were probably among the merchandise 

 brought to Italy from the East, in the very earliest 

 times. We first hear of them in Rome, during the Ju- 

 gurthan wars in the second century, B.C. Pliny tells us 

 that the taste for Pearls dated from the return of 

 Pompey, after his successful expedition against Mi- 

 thridates, in whose palace a priceless collection of 

 Pearls was found, which being carried off, formed the 

 nucleus of a Museum in Rome. The same writer 

 informs us that Pearls took precedence over all other 

 gems, and commanded a higher price than even 

 diamonds. 



Perhaps one of the grandest displays recorded 

 in ancient history was that presented in the triumph 

 of Pompey after the third Mithridatic war (B.C. 6i). 

 The victor exhibited, among other rich trophies, 

 thirty- three crowns made of Pearls ; a temple of 

 the Muses surmounted with a dial ; a portrait of 

 himself in Pearls, probably a kind of Mosaic, and 

 thirty head-bands of Pearls, which were deposited 

 in the Temple of Venus. In the same temple was 

 also suspended, as an offering by the great Caesar, 

 a . shield studded with British Pearls ; and indeed, 



