Pliny informs us, that the
Roman world was exhausted by a drain of 400,000_l_. a year, for the
purchase of luxuries, equally expensive and superfluous; and in another
place, he estimates the rate of profit made at Rome, by the importation and
sale of oriental luxuries at 100 per cent.
Arabia furnished diamonds, but these were chiefly of a small size, and
other gems and pearls. At Rome the diamond possessed the highest value; the
pearl, the second; and the emerald, the third. Nero used an emerald as an
eye-glass for short sight. But though large and very splendid diamonds
brought a higher price at Rome than pearls, yet the latter, in general,
were in much greater repute; they were worn in almost every part of the
dress, by persons of almost every rank. The famous pearl ear-rings of
Cleopatra were valued at 161,458_l_., and Julius Caesar presented the
mother of Brutus with a pearl, for which he paid 48,457_l_.
Frankincense, myrrh, and other precious drugs, were also brought to Rome
from Arabia, through the port of Alexandria. There was a great demand at
Rome for spices and aromatics, from the custom of the Romans to burn their
dead, and also from the consumption of frankincense, &c. in their temples.
At the funeral of Sylla 210 bundles of spices were used. Nero burnt, at the
funeral of Poppaea, more cinnamon and cassia than the countries from which
they were imported produced in one year.
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