National Geographic History - 03.2019 - 04.2019

DAILY LIFE

stone of the East proved the success of

Pompey’s conquering armies and helped

elevate his profile as a strong command-

er. The pearls themselves—“the richest

merchandise of all,”as Pliny wrote—filled

the coffers of Rome’s treasury, their abun-

dance strengthening its economy. Rome’s

elite fell in love with the gemstones, and

a fashion trend was born.

The Pearl Trade

This unprecedented interest in pearls

gave rise to a rich trade with the four

pearl-producing regions known in

antiquity: the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf,

India and Sri Lanka, and some areas of

China. The pearl trade in Rome began

presented as gifts to Chinese royalty

as early as 2300 B.C., and a fragment of

pearl jewelry found in the sarcophagus

of a Persian princess from about

420 B.C. indicates that they were also

worn as adornment.

Treasures From the East

The Roman pearl craze began after

Pompey the Great’s military campaigns

in Asia Minor and Armenia (66-63 B.C.).

During Pompey’s triumphal return to

Rome in 61 B.C., his procession includ-

ed 33 crowns encrusted with pearls, a

pearl-decorated shrine, and a portrait of

the general made entirely of pearls. Rec-

ollecting the latter treasure, writer and

philosopher Pliny the Elder scoffed: “To

think that it is of pearls, Great Pompey,

those wasteful things meant only for

women... which you yourself cannot and

must not wear, that your portrait is made!”

The extravagant display of this precious

S

atirical Roman writer Mar-

tial, remarking upon imperial

Rome’s captivation with pearls,

described a woman named Gel-

lia who “swears, not by... our

gods or goddesses, but by her pearls.

These she embraces; these she covers with

kisses; these she calls her brothers and

sisters; these she loves more ardently than

her two children. If she should chance to

lose these, she declares she could not live

even an hour.”

Martial’s words would be the first

of many commentaries from moralists

and satirists on the Roman nobility’s

fashion obsession with pearls. In the

beginning of the first centuryB.C. these

precious baubles became the ultimate

symbol of wealth, power, and prestige

in Rome. Many ancient civilizations,

from India and Israel to Assyria and

pharaonic Egypt, had long considered

the pearl a precious gem. Pearls were

Rome’s Passion

for Pearls

Scorned by moralists and coveted by the nobility, the gems of

the sea became Rome’s must-have extravagance that fed the

republic’s economic boom in the first century B.C.

TWO WOMEN peruse the

wares in a jeweler’s shop in

Pompeii. 19th-century oil

painting by Ettore Forti

PEARL HUNTERS

ARDUOUS AND RISKY,harvesting pearls from the ocean floor was a job

often performed by prisoners. Divers had to carry weights to descend

down to the seafloor to search for the mollusks holding the precious

pearls. Ropes were tied around their bodies to tether them to boats

above. They tugged on the rope when ready to ascend.

SWIMMER.GLASS FIGURE USED TO DECORATE A PIECE OF FURNITURE

CHRISTIE’S IMAGES/SCALA, FLORENCE

BRIDGEMAN/ACI

10 MARCH/APRIL 2019