Servilia's pearl

Last updated
Servilia's pearl
Type of stone Pearl
Color Black
Country of origin Roman Republic
DiscoveredPossibly Gaul
Original owner Julius Caesar
Owner Servilia

Servilia's pearl was a pearl given by Julius Caesar to his favourite mistress Servilia. It was described by imperial biographer Suetonius to be a lone (uniones, meaning "singleton") [1] large black pearl [2] worth six million sesterces (approximately 1.5 billion dollars in 2019 value), making it perhaps the most valuable gem of all time. It may also be the first known individual pearl recorded in human history. [3]

Contents

Historical context

Text describing the pearl being worn as an earring. Suetonius on Servilia's pearl.png
Text describing the pearl being worn as an earring.
Servilia's pearl is described as a large black gem. Woman with pearl earring in light.jpg
Servilia's pearl is described as a large black gem.

Caesar was said to be a great connoisseur of pearls; guessing their value just by weighing them in his palm was one of his party tricks, [4] and during his consulship he had restricted the buying of pearls based on age, marital status and wealth. Unmarried women were not allowed to own them (this resulted in a surge in weddings in Rome) [5] and people who were not affluent enough to acquire them safely without risking their financial security were banned from purchasing them. [6]

There are conflicting reports on when exactly Caesar gave Servilia the pearl; some sources claim it happened during his first consulship in 59 BC while others state it was when he returned from the war in Gaul. If it was after the war it is possible that Caesar had acquired the pearl as a spoil of war during his campaign in Gaul, [7] or possibly during his invasions of Britain, [lower-alpha 1] [6] since the coasts of the island as well as Scottish lakes were prime location for harvesting pearls. [10] [11] Adrian Goldsworthy speculated in his book Caesar, Life of a Colossus that Caesar may have paid for the pearl with money he had gotten from a bribe from Pompey. [12] Robert B. Kebric reflected that Caesar may have paid with tribute money he received from Pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes. [13]

Value

Caesar spent 6 million sesterces [lower-alpha 2] on the pearl, which is about 1.5 billion American dollars in 2019 currency, [14] although exact calculations of its value is impossible due to the difference in purchasing power, and economist Gilles Jacoud notes that for ridiculously expensive objects the actual value would become arbitrary for someone like Caesar who could afford anything. [15] He expresses that Roman readers of Suetonius would likely have had a much better understanding for its actual exceptional value. [16] Similarly Mary Saul, an expert of pearls and gastropod shells, states that: "we do not need to know the equivalent in today's currency to appreciate that he paid an enormous price [for it]". [17] A contemporary comparison would be that 900 sesterces was the average yearly salary for an infantryman in one of Caesar's legions, [18] or that it could pay for a year's rent for 3000 Roman tenants. [19] [20]

It has also been observed that when Caesar himself was held hostage by pirates as a young man, his ransom of 20 talents (approximately $250,000) [21] was a mere fraction of the worth of the pearl he acquired for his mistress. [22] [23] During the turn of the 19th century it was noted that it is unlikely that any individual pearl of such value would appear again. [24]

Analysis

Caesar's motives for giving the pearl to Servilia have been the subject of debate among historians. [25]

Historically it has been popularly suggested that the pearl was an apology by Caesar to Servilia after an engagement between her son Brutus and Caesar's daughter Julia fell apart, [26] [13] [27] but since later research has all but confirmed that no such engagement existed [lower-alpha 3] (the marriage was likely supposed to be between Julia and a man by the same name) [lower-alpha 4] [28] this explanation has been largely abandoned. An alternative related theory put forth by Ramon L. Jiménez is that the pearl was indeed gifted to make up for Julia's broken engagement, but not to Servilia's son, but to Servilia's brother who did bear the same name as her son at the time. [lower-alpha 5] [30]

Other interpretations range from that of Friedrich Münzer and his followers who believed that the pearl was an earnest marriage proposal by Caesar, [lower-alpha 6] [31] that he used it to overshadow the pearls famously displayed by Pompey in his 61 BC triumph, [32] that it was simply a present meant to soothe Servilia after Caesar had agreed to marry the younger Calpurnia, [33] [34] to that of the majority of modern historians who just see it as Caesar feeling he was able to spend any money he wanted on his beloved mistress without any ulterior motives. Robert B. Kebric mused that "the pearl may only indicate the first opportunity that the previously debtridden Caesar had to give his mistress a gift worthy of his love for her". [13]

Cultural depictions

Servilia wearing the pearl as a necklace. Servilia portrait.jpg
Servilia wearing the pearl as a necklace.

Servilia and the pearl are the subject of poems by Hafiz [35] and John Dryden. [36] In the 1916 story "War" from The Drama magazine a pearl which is on sale is stated to perhaps be Servilia's pearl. [37] In the play Marcus Brutus and Silver Queen Saloon the titular Brutus becomes enraged at Caesar and his mother due to her accepting the pearl. [38]

In Thornton Wilder's 1948 novel The Ides of March the pearl is given to Servilia in gratitude because Caesar suspects that Brutus is his natural son. Here the pearl is described as "rose" in color. [39] In his foreword to the book Wilder also made sure to note that the event of Caesar giving Servilia the extravagant pearl is indeed historical. [40] In the novel The Written Script by Annalita Marsigli it is portrayed that Caesar gifted Servilia the pearl to make her boast publicly that he had seduced her, which was a move by him to get back at her half-brother Cato. [41] In Love is a Pie: Stories and Plays the gifting of the pearl causes Caesar's wife Pompeia to be enraged with him. [42] In Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland, Caesar compares buying the outrageously expensive pearl for Servilia to his decision to pay for 3000 Romans rents, both being moves to seduce his fellow citizens, he expresses that he thinks nothing of it. [43] In Prepare Them for Caesar, by Mary Louise Mabie, Servilia's brother Cato comments that the pearl is too valuable to actually wear. [44] Many novels have depicted the outdated perception that the pearl was a consolation for the broken engagement between their respective children, [45] such as in Respublica: A Novel of Cicero's Roman Republic by Richard Braccia, [46] and in Caesar: Let the Dice Fly by Colleen McCullough's (from the Masters of Rome series) in which it is described as pink (perhaps inspired by Wilder). [39] [47] [48] [49] [50] In The Field of Swords the pearl is meant as a wedding proposal and Servilia initially rejects it, throwing it back at Caesar, because she believes she is infertile and does not want to make him enter a marriage which has no chance of conceiving children. [51] [52] In the novel Cleopatra: Whispers from the Nile, by Lorraine Blundell, Servilia looks at and thinks of the pearl, reflecting on how it is the most extravagant gift she had ever received by her love. [53]

The pearl is mentioned in Jules Verne's classical novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea as an example of an extraordinarily valuable pearl. [54] Commercial pearls named after Servilia have been sold. [55]

The pearl is the plot device in the story The Eye of the Minotaur of the Franco-Belgian comic Alix , in this story it is shown that the pearl is cursed and slowly poisoning Servilia, prompting Caesar to send Alix, his companion Enak and Brutus on a journey to find the merchant who sold it to him. [56]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ A common point of speculation among historians has been that Caesar was partially motivated to invade Britain because of its supply of pearls. That Caesar would have done so specifically to obtain a pearl just for Servilia has been proposed but has not gained any wide support. [8] [9]
  2. ↑ Sesterces were silver coins issued only on rare occasions in the Roman Republic.
  3. ↑ Had it in fact been true then the disappointment for Servilia and Brutus would have been very extreme since Julia's engagement was broken off so she could marry Pompey, the man who had killed Brutus father. [26]
  4. ↑ Possibly a maternal uncle or cousin of Brutus.
  5. ↑ Brutus had been adopted by his mother's brother Quintus Servilius Caepio, likely because Quintus did not have a living son, thus Brutus started going by the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus . Adoption of a sororal nephew was rather common in Rome if a man did not have any legitimate sons, since it continued on the name within the same bloodline. [29]
  6. ↑ Servilia's second husband Decimus Junius Silanus had died in 60 BC and Caesar had recently divorced Pompeia after the Bona Dea scandal. [31] This would have been the first time since their childhood that both of them were not married.

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References

  1. ↑ Treggiari, Susan (2019). Servilia and her Family. Oxford University Press. p. 121. ISBN   9780192564641.
  2. ↑ Luisa Dillner; The Complete Book of Mothers-in-Law: A Celebration
  3. ↑ Streeter, Edwin William (1886). "The Servilia Pearl". Pearls and Pearling Life. University of Michigan: G. Bell & Sons. p. 280. ISBN   9781298034748 . Retrieved 2019-10-13– via Archive.org. Alt URL
  4. ↑ The Atlantic. Vol. 7. University of Illinois i Urbana-Champaign: Atlantic Monthly Company. 1861. p. 369.
  5. ↑ Brewer, Emma. "Precious Stones; Their Homes, Histories, and Influence" (PDF). Victorian Times : 30–31 – via Victorianvoices.net. Chapter 1: “The Pearl”. Published online January 2017.
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  21. ↑ McKnight, Terry; Hirsh, Michael (2012). "7: To Pay or Not to Pay". Pirate Alley: Commanding Task Force 151 Off Somalia. Naval Institute Press. ISBN   9781612511351.
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  30. ↑ Jiménez, Ramon L. (2000). Caesar Against Rome: The Great Roman Civil War. University of Michigan: Praeger. ISBN   9780275966201.
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  34. ↑ Carcopino, Jérôme (1951). Cicero, the Secrets of His Correspondence. Vol. 2. Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 352.
  35. ↑ "Poems and Pearls... Long Time Companions". Karipearls.com.
  36. ↑ Hopkins, David (1995). Hammond, Paul (ed.). The Poems of John Dryden: 1693–1696. Vol. 4. Pearson Education. p. 128. ISBN   9780582423848.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  37. ↑ ? (24 ed.). University of California: Dramatic Publishing Company. 1916. p. 650.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  38. ↑ Foster, Paul (1977). Marcus Brutus and Silver Queen Saloon. Playscripts Series. Vol. 77. Riverrun Press. pp. 33–34, 68. ISBN   9780714535708.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  39. 1 2 Treggiari, Susan (3 January 2019). Servilia and her Family. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780192564658.
  40. ↑ Wilder, Thornton (2014). "Historical". The Ides of March: A Novel. Perennial fiction library (new ed.). Harper Collins. ISBN   9780062232670.
  41. ↑ Annalita Marsigli. 1998; The Written Script – page: 310
  42. ↑ Hutchins, McVeigh (1944). Love is a Pie. Pennsylvania State University: 18055. p. 147.
  43. ↑ Holland, Tom (2003). Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic. University of Michigan: Doubleday. p. 193. ISBN   9780316861304.
  44. ↑ Mabie, Mary Louise (1949). Prepare Them for Caesar. University of California: Little, Brown. p. 128.
  45. ↑ Horne, Anthony (2007). In the Shadow of Caesar. University of California: Book Guild. p. 195. ISBN   9781846241482.
  46. ↑ Braccia, Richard (2009). Respublica: A Novel of Cicero's Roman Republic. p. 203. ISBN   9781449043414.
  47. ↑ McCullough, Colleen (3 December 2013). Antony and Cleopatra. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   9781476767659.
  48. ↑ McCullough, Colleen (3 December 2013). Antony and Cleopatra. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   9781476767659.
  49. ↑ George, Margaret (12 December 2011). The Memoirs of Cleopatra. Pan Macmillan. ISBN   9781447212744.
  50. ↑ Hutchins, Mcveigh (1944). "Love is a Pie".
  51. ↑ "The Field of Swords". BooksCool.com.
  52. ↑ McCullough, Colleen (2007). Antony and Cleopatra. HarperCollins. ISBN   9780007225804.
  53. ↑ Blundell, Lorraine (2016). Cleopatra: Whispers from the Nile. p. 6. ISBN   9781524632229.
  54. ↑ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – page: 200
  55. ↑ "Julius Caesar's Mistress Pearl Earrings". eBay .
  56. ↑ Staff (November 12, 2021). "The Eye of the Minotaur: Alix plunged into the abyss of dreams and mythology". The Limited Times. Archived from the original on 8 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-01-08.

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