Home › Magic Stones and Electric Gems › Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Rome

Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Rome

At an early date amber was brought from the Baltic coast to Rome, and Tacitus states that those who collected it called it glaesum, a name later applied to the glass introduced into that region by Roman traders. The natives knew nothing of the nature or growth of amber, and had no use for the material, only collecting it for export to Rome, where it commanded such a high price as to excite their astonishment. Tacitus gives in the following words his theory of the origin and character of amber-his chief error being due to his belief that the substance was of very recent formation.

Now you must know that amber is a juice of trees, since various creatures, some of them winged, are often found in it. They have become entangled in the liquid and then inclosed when the matter hardened. Therefore I believe that, as incense and balsam are exuded in the remote East, so in the luxuriant groves and islands of the West are juices which are forced out by the sun close to them. These flow into the neighboring sea and are washed up by the tempestuous waves on the opposite shore. If you test the quality of amber with fire, it may be lighted like a torch and burns with a small, well-nourished flame; then it is resolved into a glutinous mass resembling pitch or resin. Both Juvenal and Martial relate that effeminate Romans used to hold balls of amber in their hands to cool them during the summer heat. If any such agreeable sensation was really experienced, it must have been due to the well-known electric properties of this substance. It is stated that the Chinese often place pieces of amber on or in their pillows, a use that may have been suggested by the same considerations.

As a proof of the extravagant value set upon amber by the Romans of the first century, Pliny notes that a very diminutive figure of a man, cut out of this substance, sold for a higher figure than did a healthy, vigorous slave. The popularity of this material was also attested by the fact that in the gay world of Rome the term "amber hair" was used to designate a rare and peculiar shade that became fashionable in this period. It seems probable that this modish shade was somewhat lighter than the "Titian hair" once so much favored, although the difference may not have been very great. A change of hue in amber was thought to portend a waning of love on the part of the giver, as is shown by the following not especially melodious lines from "The Fruits of Jealousy" published by Richard Tofte in 1615: Thy tokens which to me thou sent In time may make thee to repent; Thy gifts do groan (bestow'd on me) For grief that they thee guilty see. The amber bracelet thou me gave (For fear thou shouldst shortly wave) From yellow turned is to pale, A sign thou shortly will be stale.