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Decorations: Precious

Seldom are toys and jewels mentioned by Homer, but with this additional circumstance, that they were either of Sidonian workmanship, or imported in a Phoenician ship. This exactly harmonizes with what is mentioned in Holy Writ respecting the superior skill of the Phoenicians in commerce and manufactures. Precious stones and pearls were imported to Rome from Babylonia, and the Persian and Arabian Gulfs. Although the ancients were but imperfectly acquainted with the art of cutting diamonds, still that natural production held the highest rank among gems. The Indian diamonds came, probably, from Sumbhulpoor, in Orissa. Next in value was the emerald. Nero used one as an eye-glass for short sight. But though very large and splendid diamonds brought high prices at Rome, it is questionable whether they held the same rank as pearls. We have many instances of the exorbitant prices of pearls, but none, so far as is known, of diamonds. Pliny, it is true, in his last book of Natural History, says that the diamond holds the highest value among gems. But in his ninth book he gives the preference to the pearl. It is difficult to reconcile these two passages, yet he says, in his nineteenth book, that the asbestos, or incombustible cloth, equals in price the choicest pearls, where he is speaking of the exorbitant price of that species of cloth, which seems to imply that among gems, the pearl brought the best price. It is clear that they were in higher repute than diamonds, for they were eagerly purchased by persons of every rank, and worn on every part of the dress; and such is the difference both in size and value among pearls, that while such as were large and of superior lustre adorned the great and the wealthy, such as were smaller and of inferior lustre gratified the vanity of those in more humble circumstances. Servilia, the mother of the famous Brutus, received from Julius Caesar a pearl, as a present, which cost the donor pound 50,000. The famous pearls of Cleopatra, worn as ear-rings, were in value pound 161,457. Precious stones, it is true, as well as pearls, were found not only in India, but in many other regions, and all were ransacked to gratify the vanity of the luxurious and ostentatious Romans. Though Pliny makes the excellence of pearls to consist in their whiteness, yet it is well known that those of a yellow hue are most esteemed in India at the present time, as the peninim, or red pearls, were in the days of Solomon.

Pliny says, "I have seen Lollia Paulina (once the wife of the Emperor Caligula), though it was on no great occasion, nor she in her full dress of ceremony, but at an ordinary wedding dinner--I have seen her entirely covered with emeralds and pearls strung alternately, glittering all over her head, hair, bandeau, necklaces and fingers, the value of all which put together amounted to the sum of forty millions of sesterces (pound 400,000), a value she was ready to attest by producing the receipts. Nor were these jewels the presents of a prodigal emperor; they were regular family heir-looms, that is to say, bought with the plunder of provinces. This was the end gained by his peculations--this the object for which Lollius made himself infamous all over the East, by taking bribes from its princes, and, at last, poisoned himself, when C. Caesar, the adopted son of Augustus, formally renounced his friendship. All for this end, that his granddaughter might show herself off by lamplight bedizened to the value of forty millions of sesterces." At the beginning of the third century, the extravagant luxury of the Romans was at its culminating point. An example was set by the monster Elagabalus, who styled himself "a priest of the sun." His apparel was costly in the extreme. He never wore a garment twice; his shoes were decorated with pearls and diamonds; his bed was covered with gold and purple, decorated with costly jewels. The path on which he walked was strewed with gold and silver powder, and all the vessels in his palace were of gold.

The splendour of the sun-worship at Emesa, under the name of the voluptuous emperor, was almost incredible; the black-stone, which it was believed had fallen from heaven on the site of the temple, set in precious gems, was placed on a chariot drawn by six milk-white horses richly caparisoned. The emperor presided in his sacerdotal robes of silk and gold, after the loose flowing fashions of the Medes and Phoenicians, and crowned with a lofty tiara. As an instance of the riches of Gaul at the commencement of the fifth century, we read in Gibbon that, in 412, Adolphus, the brother-in-law of Alaric the Goth, succeeded the latter on the throne of the Visigoths, and married Placidia, the daughter of Theodosius. The marriage was consummated before the Goths left Italy. The bride, attired and adorned like a Roman empress, was placed on a throne of state, and the King of the Goths, who assumed on that occasion the Roman habit, contented himself with a less honourable seat at her side. The nuptial gift which, according to the custom of his nation, was offered to Placidia, consisted of the rare and beautiful spoils of her country. Fifty beautiful youths in silken robes carried a basin in each hand, one being filled with pieces of gold, and the other with precious stones of inestimable value.

Many curious and costly ornaments of pure gold, enriched with jewels, were found in the palace of Narbonne, in Gaul, when it was pillaged in the sixth century by the Franks. There was the famous great dish for the service of the table, of massy gold, weighing five hundred pounds, and of far superior value from the precious stones, the exquisite workmanship, and the tradition that it had been presented by AEtius, the patrician, to Torismond, King of the Goths. One of the successors of Torismond, Sisenand, purchased the aid of the French monarch by the promise of this magnificent dish. When he was seated on the throne of Spain, A.D. 631, he delivered it with reluctance to the ambassadors of Dagobert, despoiled them of it on the road, stipulated, after a long negotiation, the inadequate ransom of two hundred thousand pieces of gold, and preserved the missorium as the pride of the Gothic treasury. These pieces of gold were devoted by Dagobert to the foundation of the church of St. Denis. When the Gothic treasury, after the conquest of Spain, was plundered by the Arabs, they admired another object still more remarkable--a table of considerable size, of one single piece of solid emerald, enriched with three rows of fine pearls, supported by three hundred and sixty-five feet of gems and massy gold, and estimated at the price of five hundred thousand pieces of gold. It was called the table of Solomon by the Orientals, who ascribed to that king every ancient work of knowledge and magnificence. It is believed that the stupendous pieces of what was called "emerald"--the statues and columns which antiquity has placed in Egypt, at Gades, and Constantinople--were, in reality, artificial compositions of coloured glass. The famous "emerald" dish at Genoa is supposed to countenance the supposition. In regard to the Gothic treasures mentioned, the greater part were the fruits of war and rapine, the spoils of the empire, and, perhaps, of Rome. The Anglo-Saxons appear to have been well acquainted with precious stones. In the MSS. Tib. A. 3 (British Museum) twelve sorts of them are thus described as mentioned in the Apocalypse:--"The first gemkind is black and green, which are both mingled together, and this is called giaspis; the other is saphyrus, this is like the sun, and in it appear like golden stars; the third is calcedonius, this is like a burning candle; smaragdus is very green; sardonyx is like blood; onichinus is brown and yellow; sardius is like clear blood; barillus is like water; crisoprassus is like a green leek, and green stars seem to shine from it; topazius is like gold; and carbunculus is like burning fire." The crowns of the Anglo-Saxon kings are described by the contemporary biographer of Dunstan, as made of gold and silver, and set with various gems. Their gold rings contained precious stones, and even their garments, saddles and bridles were sometimes jewelled. Among other ornaments mentioned in Anglo-Saxon documents we read of a golden fly beautifully adorned with gems. Golden head-bands, half-circles of gold, neck-bands, and bracelets, are described in wills and inventories. Amongst other female ornaments, we find earrings, golden vermiculated necklaces ornamented with precious stones. Of Wilfrid, Bishop of York (died 709), it is said that he ordered the four Evangelists to be written of purest gold, on purple-coloured parchments, for the benefit of his soul, and he had a case made for them of gold adorned with precious stones.