"There have been two pearls that were the largest in the whole of history; both were owned by Cleopatra, the last of the Queens of Egypt--they had come down to her through the hands of the Kings of the East....In accordance with previous instructions the servants placed in front of her only a single vessel containing vinegar, the strong rough quality of which can melt pearls. She was at the moment wearing in her ears that remarkable and truly unique work of nature. Antony was full of curiosity to see what in the world she was going to do. She took one earring off and dropped the pearl in the vinegar, and when it was melted swallowed it....With this goes the story that, when that queen who had won on this important issue was captured, the second of this pair of pearls was cut in two pieces, so that half a helping of the jewel might be in each of the ears of Venus in the Pantheon at Rome."
Pliny, Natural History (IX.59.119-121)
Already treasured in the East, by the first century BC pearls had become fashionable in Rome, a craze that Pliny (XXXVII.12) says was introduced by the victory of Pompey over Mithridates, whose third triumph was celebrated in 61 BC and included, much to Pliny's disapprobation, a portrait of Pompey rendered in pearls. Indeed, Pliny criticizes all such ostentatious display, whether by women dangling two or three pearls from their ears so they could hear them rattle as they moved (IX.114) or the vulgar presentation by Lollia Paulina (IX.117), who was to become the third wife of Caligula. Once, at what was to have been a modest engagement party, Pliny actually met Lollia, who arrived wearing emeralds and pearls on her head, neck, ears, wrists, and fingers. They cost forty million sesterces and she carried the receipts to prove it.
There were other critics of such ostentatious luxury. Seneca (On Benefits, VII.9) complains that the ears of women are trained to carry pearls in pairs, with another fastened above, and are not content unless the value of two or three estates hang from each lobe. Martial (Epigrams, VIII.81) chides a Roman matron who swears, not by the gods, but by her pearls, which she loves more than her own sons. And Tibullus (Elegies, II.4) bemoans his lover's greediness for emeralds and pearls.
Suetonius relates that Caesar had attempted to restrict the wearing of pearls, a symbol of wealth and prestige, only "to those of a designated position and age" (XLIII). His invasion of Britain was said to have been for the fresh-water pearls found there and that, "in comparing their size he sometimes weighed them with his own hand" (XLVII). Indeed, a breastplate dedicated to the goddess in the Temple of Venus Genetrix was made of pearls from Britain (Pliny, IX.116). The temple was dedicated by Caesar in 46 BC, as part of his triumphal return from Egypt. Next to the cult statue, in a position of honor, was placed a gilded statue of Cleopatra, herself (Dio, LI.22.3; Appian, The Civil Wars, II.102).
The value of the pearl that Cleopatra dropped in her cup was said by Pliny to be worth ten million sesterces (a hundred thousand gold aurei). Horace tells of a similar incident in his Satires (II.3.239), where an expensive pearl was impetuously dropped in vinegar, a word that derives from the Latin vinum (wine) and acer (sour). Mostly calcium carbonate, a pearl is susceptible to a weak acid solution. Wine, if it still is to be drinkable, is not more than 0.1% acetic acid and not sufficiently acidic to dissolve a pearl, at least not quickly enough to have impressed Antony. Wine vinegar, on the other hand, is approximately 5-6% acetic acid, a concentration necessary if the calcium carbonate is to be readily dissolved. The crystals of calcium carbonate are converted by acetic acid into calcium acetate, which dissolves in the residual water, and carbonate that effervesces as bubbles of carbon dioxide, the formula for which is CaCO3 + 2CH3COOH --> Ca(CH3COO2)+ H2O + CO2.
How Cleopatra could manage to drink her vinegar-and-pearl concoction can be explained by the acid-base reaction that takes place, the acid being neutralized by the calcium carbonate, much like an antacid. Intriguingly, there is a name for the residue obtained from the precipitate of an acid solution: magistery. Cleopatra’s magistery of pearl, offered in toast to Antony, was thought to be an aphrodisiac, probably because pearls were associated with Venus and both were born of the ocean.
Pearls are created when an irritant, trapped in the fleshy mantle of a mollusk such as a pearl oyster or fresh-water mussel, becomes coated with the same nacre or mother-of-pearl that lines the shell, itself. This nacreous secretion is composed of alternating layers of aragonite (a crystalline form of calcium carbonate) and conchiolin (an organic protein that binds the crystals together). It is the concentric layers of translucent aragonite that both reflect light to give a pearl its luster, and refract or disperse light to produce its shimmering iridescence or orient. A pearl is approximately 85-90% calcium carbonate; the remainder, conchiolin and a small percentage of water. Although not very hard, pearls are strong, and their composition and shape make them difficult to break. For a pearl to be readily soluble in vinegar, it likely would have to be crushed.
A student of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and second-place winner of the Prix de Rome, Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889) was among the most successful academic painters of the later nineteenth century, known both for his lush renderings of the female nude, such as The Birth of Venus (1863), as well as classical subjects. Compare his Cleopatra above with this detail from his Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners (1887).
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Pliny (XXI.7.9) relates how Cleopatra played on Antony's fear of being poisoned. Refusing to take any food that had not been tasted, she instead laid a garland of poisoned flowers on his head, suggesting, as the revelry grew wilder, that they all drink their chaplets. As Antony began to drink from the cup into which he had scattered his flowers, she stopped him. A prisoner was brought in and commanded to drink, dying on the spot. Dio relates, in his discussion of Cleopatra's preparation for her suicide, that "she kept at hand fire to consume her wealth, and asps and other reptiles to destroy herself, and she had the latter tried on human beings, to see in what way they killed in each case" (LI.11.2). |
References: Pearls: A Natural History (2001) by Neil H. Landman, Paula M. Mikkelsen, Rüdiger Bieler, and Bennet Bronson; The Book of the Pearl (1908) by George Frederick Kunz and Charles Hugh Stevenson.
