MYTILID^. PEARLS. 
57 
that she might say she had expended on a single enter- 
tainment ten millions of sesterces_, is too well known to 
require repeating here ; suffice it to say that Pliny in- 
forms us^ that before the time of Antony and Cleopatra, 
Clodius, the son of the tragic actor ^sopus, had done the 
same at Rome ; he, having dissolved in vinegar (or at 
least attempted to do so) a pearl worth about £8000, 
which he took from the earring of Csecilia Metella/^'^ 
Pliny further adds that, by way of glorification to his pa- 
late, Clodius ^sopus was desirous of trying what was the 
taste of pearls, and as he found it wonderfully pleasing, 
that he might not be the only one to know it, he had a 
pearl set before each of his guests for him to swallow/^f 
It was not unusual for the Romans to adorn their horses, 
and other favourite animals, with splendid necklaces 
and we are told that Incitatus, the favourite horse of 
the Emperor Caligula, wore a pearl collar. The Roman 
ladies even wore pearls at night, that in their sleep they 
might be conscious of the possession of these valuable 
gems. Julius Caesar prohibited the use of purple and 
pearls to all persons who -were not of a certain rank, and 
the latter also to unmarried women. § From the twelfth 
to the sixteenth centuries, extravagance in jewellery was 
carried to an unlimited extent at the Courts in Europe ; 
and from the reign of Francis I. to that of Louis XIII., the 
greater part of the jewels worn were set with pearls, and 
these latter were worn in preference to all other orna- 
ments until the death of Maria Theresa of Austria. || The 
French call irregular-shaped pearls Perles barroques,^^ 
* Hor. ii. Sat. iii. 239. f Pliny, Nat. Hist. vol. ii. b. ix. ch. 59. 
X Smith’s Diet, of Grreek and Roman Antiquities : Monile,” p. 768. 
§ ‘ Grems and Jewels,’ p. 27, Madame de Barrera. 
II ‘ Grems and Jewels,’ p. 58. 
