pearls for venus

Pearls for VenusAuthor(s): Marleen B. FlorySource: Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 37, H. 4 (4th Qtr., 1988), pp. 498-504Published by: Franz Steiner VerlagStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4436082 .

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PEARLS FOR VENUS

After his triumph in 46 B.C. Julius Caesar dedicated a cuirass made of pearls in the temple of Venus Genetrix in Rome. In his chapters on gemstones Pliny describes pearls from Britain, which he illustrates by Caesar's cuirass: "in Britannia parvos atque decolores nasci certum est, quoniam divus lulius thoracem, quem Veneri Genetrici in templo eius dicavit, ex Britannicis margaritis factum voluerit intellegi" (NAT. 9.116)1. I will show that Caesar dedicated this pearl cuirass to recall the famous pearls displayed by Pompey in his triumph of 61 B.C. so that he could claim a greater achievement for himself. Caligula knew of this breastplate and understood its symbolic significance. His allusions to it help to corroborate my interpretation of the cuirass' meaning. Finally, this paper turns to Augustus, who also made a gift of pearls to Venus. Although inspired by Caesar's dedication of 46 B.C., Augustus used these pearls, once the property of Cleopatra, to illustrate his opposition to luxuria.

Gossip, reported by Suetonius (lul. 47), snidely interpreted Julius Caesar's expedition to Britain as a treasure hunt for pearls, i.e., riches: "Britanniam petisse spe margaritarum."2 The remark, listed by Suetonius as an example of Caesar's luxurious tastes, could have another interpretation. Pompey's triumph of 61 B.C. was so famous for its spectacular display of pearls and gemstones that Pliny even attributes the introduction of the fashion for these to Pompey: "Victoria tamen illa Pompei primum ad margaritas gemmasque mores inclinavit" (NAT. 37.12). The censorious Pliny compares Pompey with earlier triumphatores who also introduced new forms of luxury to Rome. Pompey, like L. Scipio, Cn. Manlius, and L. Mummius, brought not only victoria but a taste for the extravagance that accelerated moral decline.3 Pompey exhibited thirty three pearl crowns, and he also had artists fashion images from pearls, including a portrait of his own face: "erat et imago Cn. Pompei e margaritis" (NAT. 37.14). Thus the gossip could also have maliciously implied that Caesar had gone to Britain to seek a conquest to rival Pompey's.

Caesar chose to dedicate an object made of pearls because he had Pompey's display in mind.4

I The only other reference to the cuirass is in Solinus, who virtually quotes Pliny: "dat et India margaritas, dat et litus Britannicum: sicus divus lulius thoracem, quem Veneri genetrici in templo eius dicavit, ex Britannicis margaritis factum subiecta inscriptione intellegi voluit" (53.28). We have no direct evidence about the date of the dedication, but we can deduce it from the date of Caesar's triumph (46 B.C.) in conjunction with the date of dedication of the temple of Venus Genetrix in the same year.

2 Cf. Cat. 29.1.-A; Cic. Att. 4.16.7, 4.18.5; Cic. Fam. 7.7.1; Plut. Caes. 23.3; Caesar gives his own motives in BG 4.20. Suetonius says Caesar carefully examined the pearls he found (lul. 47). Caesar was famous for an extravagant pearl he gave his mistress Servilia (Suet. lul. 50.2) and, according to Suetonius (43), limited the public display of pearls along with litters and purple.

I See too Plin. NAT. 33.148 (L. Scipio), 34.14 (Cn. Manlius), 35.24 (L. Mummius). 4 Pliny (NAT. 37.11) tells us that after his triumph of 61 B.C. Pompey dedicated a collection of

rings on the Capitoline, and Caesar followed his example: "hoc exemplo Caesar dictator sex dactyliothecas in aede Veneris Genetricis consecravit." Caesar's choice of rare and costly substances for the apparatus of each of his five triumphs is attested by Velleius Paterculus (2.56: "Gallici apparatus ex citro, Pontici ex acantho, Alexandrini testudine, Africi ebore, Hispaniensis argento rasili constitit") and Suetonius (lul. 37). Pompey had displayed great wealth and extraordinary exotica like the balsam tree (Plin. NAT. 12.111), the first agate tableware (Plin. NAT. 37.18) and ebony (Plin. NAT. 12.20). Caesar could not match these wonders and so apparently had the fercula built of extraordinarily expensive and exotic materials. Citron, ivory, tortoise, and chased silver were used only for the extravagant dining tables favored by the Romans. Thus Caesar turned the commonplace litter itself into an object of spectacle. On ferculum, see TbLL, s.v. 491. 19-52. Cf. M. E. Deutsch, "The Apparatus of Caesar's Triumphs,"

Historia, Band XXXVII/4 (1988) ? Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH, Sitz Stuttgart



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While some scholars assume the breastplate was decorated with pearls, Pliny's words, quoted above, make clear that the cuirass, just like the imago of Pompey's face, was totally formed from pearls.5 The quality of the pearls from Britain was far inferior to the large and lustrous specimens from the Eastern regions conquered by Pompey. Tacitus (Agr. 12) called pearls from Britain subfusca and liventia in echo of Pliny's term decolores.' Thus, the purpose of the cuirass was not a display of magnificent and precious jewels. The form of the offering - a cuirass - answers the question of its meaning. Soldiers stripped weapons from enemies killed in battle, and commanders regularly offered spolia in temples in gratitude to the gods who had helped bring victory. Caesar thus presented the cuirass of his defeated enemy as a thank offering to Venus Genetrix. This was a brilliant piece of propaganda, for the conquered enemy was the Ocean, which had produced the pearls.7 This gift was not Caesar's only boast of such a victory, for Florus tells us that in the triumph Caesar celebrated over the Gauls a gold statue of "captivus Oceanus" was carried along with statues of the Rhine and Rhone (2.13.88).

Alexander the Great had marched to the "end of India" (Diod. 17.89.5) in search of the Ocean, and his exploits inspired other world conquerors. Pompey the Great hoped to reach the Red Sea in order to "arrive at Ocean that encircles the world" (Plut. Pomp. 38.2). While he did not get so far in the East, he could still claim to have extended the borders of Roman territory to the Atlantic Ocean in the north and west. Still later Augustus included himself in the same tradition by a voyage "per Oceanum ab ostio Rheni ad solis orientis regionem usque ad fines Cimbrorum navigavit, quo neque terra neque mari quisquam Romanus ante id tempus adit" (ResGest. 26.4). The claim to have reached or travelled some part of the Ocean had become a commonplace.9 In his account of Caesar's expedition to Britain, Florus rhetorically casts Caesar as the adversary of the Ocean: "omnibus terra marique peragratis respexit Oceanum et, quasi hic Romanis orbis non sufficeret, alterum cogitavit" (1.45.16). Florus personifies the Ocean, first in stormy anger at Caesar's fleet but then, at Caesar's second crossing, calm and tranquil as if "to confess it was unequal to Caesar" (1.45.19). Cicero remarked that preliminary reports showed there was no

PhilQuart. 3 (1924) 257-66. On Caesar's references to Pompey's triumphs, see S. Weinstock, Divus lulius (Oxford 1971) 35-9, 76-7.

5 See, e.g. S.B. Platner and T. Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (London 1949) 226: "a thorax adorned with British pearls." The pearls were probably sewn or fastened to a cloth corselet to give the appearance of a composition made wholly of pearls.

6 Tacitus continues: "quidam artem abesse legentibus arbitrantur; nam in rubro mari viva ac spirantia saxis avelli, in Britannia, prout expulsa sint, colligi: ego facilius crediderim naturam margaritis deesse quam nobis avaritiam." Cf. Plin. NAT. 9.106; Rommel, "margaritai," RE 14.2, 1682-1702. M. E. Deutsch ("Caesar and the Pearls of Britain," CJ 19[1924] 503-5) says Caesar hoped to find fine pearls and failed, thus his offering represented a failure and was merely a sea trophy for a goddess of the sea and "not a pearl is mentioned in connection with his triumphs" (504).

7 Cf. Tacitus' remarks (Agr. 12): "gignit et Oceanus margarita". Other sources on pearls from Britain are Auson. Mos. 68-71; Ael. HA 15.8; Plin. NAT. 9.116; Pomp. Mela 3.6.5; Ammian. 23.6.88; Solin. 53.28.

8 We can even speculate that the statue of the captive enemy wore the breastplate of pearls. 9 For a discussion of the significance of Ocean in the conquests of Alexander, see N.G.L.

Hammond, Alexander the Great, King, Commander, and Statesman (Park Ridge, N.J., 1980) 202-27. On its significance in the Republican period, M. Gelzer, Pompeius (Munich 1959, 2nd ed.) 125-6 Cf. Caesar, BG 3.9.7. See too Servius on Virgil, Aen. 1.287, who believes the lulius of 288 ("nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Caesar/imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris/ lulius") is Caesar and writes: "re vera enim et Britannos qui in oceano sunt vicit." On the motif of Alexander the Great and his voyage across the Ocean in Roman rhetoric, see esp. Sen. Suas. 1.



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silver or "any expectation of booty except slaves" for Caesar in Britain (Att. 4.16.7), but Caesar recognized the psychological worth of his conquest: Not only had he extended the limits of the known world, he had celebrated a triumph over the Ocean itself. Thus he claimed a more spectacular achievement than his rival Pompey, who had boasted of reaching the Ocean as a significant achievement.

Pompey had built a temple to Venus Victrix, and Geizer has speculated that he set up an inscription there that listed the victories and spoils he had obtained in the East.10 Caesar's dedication of the temple of Venus Genetrix was not only to publicize the founding mother of the gens Islia but also Venus Victrix, the deity who had helped Caesar win battles. One was closely related to the other, for Venus' particular gift to her family line was invincibility in war. Thus Appian tells us that "Venus Victrix" was his password in war (e.g., 'AWqeo&rqv VLXqo6QV, BCiv. 2.76) while Servius says it was 'Venus Genetrix" (ad Aen. 7.637). Appian writes, moreover, that Caesar built the shrine in Rome which he had vowed on the eve of Pharsalus to Venus - rv tavuoO ne6yovov - who was vtxTj06XQ( (2.68). " The cuirass of pearls, a symbol of the world he had conquered with Venus' help, aptly suited Venus as the patron deity of successful generals.'2

In A.D. 40 Caligula arrived with his troops on the shore of Gaul facing the British Isles. Apparently his admiration for Julius Caesar had influenced him to cross the channel. Suddenly and capriciously, according to our sources, he changed his mind and ordered his troops to pick up sea shells on the beach. Balsdon has plausibly argued that Caligula's men, in fear of crossing into a strange and wild land, refused to follow him. Three years later Roman troops, faced with a similar expedition across the channel, rebelled against Aulus Plautius.13 Considerable scholarly con- troversy has focused on the command to pick up sea shells, apparently, to accept the most plausible interpretation, it was Caligula's attempt to humiliate his recalcitrant soldiers.14

10 See above n. 9, 122. " For a discussion, C. Koch, "Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der romischen Venus-

Verehrung," Hermes 73 (1955) 1-55, esp. 44-51. 12 The pearls were also appropriate as a jewel particularly identified with Venus. The seashell

was a convenient artistic motif to depict the birth of Venus from the sea, although we have only one literary reference to Venus' birth from the seashell (Plaut. Rud. 704). Often the seashell was the chariot that carried Venus over the waves. See, e.g., Stat. Silv. 1.2.118; Tib. 3.3.34; Fest. P52M. A terracotta statuette in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts shows Venus emerging from a shell as if a "lebendige Perle," (E. Simon, Die Geburt der Aphrodite [Berlin 1959] 42, ill. 27). Since pearls were the offspring of shells ("partumque concharum . . . margaritas:" Plin. NAT. 9.107) and both the pearl and Venus were born from the sea, Venus' identification with the pearl was obvious. For other artistic representations, M. Brickoff, "Afrodite nella conchiglia," BollArte 9 (1929/30) 563-69; "Aphrodite in der geoffneten Muschel," in LIMC. 2.1, 103-4. Thus shells could be associated with the worship of Venus e.g., at Cnidos, Plin. NAT. 9.80. Propertius (3.13.6 "et venit e Rubro concha Erycina salo") specifically says the pearl belongs to Venus. Pearls were given to a variety of deities, e.g., to Isis in Spain (CIL. 2.3386). See 0. Keller, Die antike Tierwelt (Leipzig 1913) 2. 552-60 for discussion. The identification with Venus was hardly exclusive but it was common, although standard reference works overlook it. See, e.g., E. Babelon, "margarita", Dar.-Sag. 3.2, 1595-96.

13 For a discussion of this incident by Balsdon, see The Emperor Gaius (Oxford 1934) 88-95. 14 Balsdon (above n. 13.92), suggested that the command to pick up seashells was an insult. He

is supported by P. Bicknell, "The Emperor Gaius' Military Activities in A.D. 40", Historia 17 (1968) 496-505. But attempts have been made to rationalize the incident. Balsdon suggested ("Notes Concerning the Principate of Gaius," JRS 24 [1934] 18) that there could have been a misunderstanding in our sources of the technical term "musculi," "sappers' huts." Bicknell convincingly argues that the source for this story was probably Cluvius Rufus, whose military



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There are three accounts of the incident. Suetonius writes: postremo quasi perpetraturus bellum derecta acie in litore Oceani ac ballistis machinisque dispositis, nemine gnaro aut opinante quidnam coepturus esset, repente ut conchas legerent galeasque et sinus replerent imperavit, "spolia Oceani," vocans "Capitolio Palatioque debita" (Cal. 46). Cassius Dio, in Xiphilinus' excerpt, writes that Caligula set sail along the shore for a while, then put in, mounted a platform to give the signal for battle, had the trumpeters sound the battle tune, and then suddenly ordered his soldiers to collect sea shells (59.25.1-3). Cassius Dio goes on to say that the emperor became conceited, just as if he had conquered the Ocean: XaPf0v Te T& cxfUXa raiYrca . .. .tya -E

qp(6vroe^ v bw xai 6Xv xecavbv a'Tlbv bebovXxwRvog. Aurelius Victor, whose account is based on Suetonius, gives us the most colorful, if confused, narrative. He begins with a description of how Caligula liked to dress in the costumes of the gods and then goes on to claim that he ordered his men to pick up "conchas umbilicosque in ora maris Oceani" while he dressed as Venus but also appeared in military gear: "cum ipse, nunc fluxo cultu Venereoque interesset, nunc armatus" (Lib.de Caes. 3.10-13). Caligula, according to Victor's account, claimed that the spolia (i.e., shells) were not taken from men but from the gods. Victor, at a loss for the meaning of this remark, suggests that the emperor found a type of fish along this shore called "Nympharum lumina". We can in fact supply the meaning here from the other accounts. Ocean is the divinity from whom the spoils are taken. All three accounts share one important point: the collection of the sea shells inspired Caligula to claim a victory over the Ocean and to call the sea shells spolia.

The emperor was obviously aware of - and playing on - a potential second meaning for concha as "pearl." Propertius, for example, writes that the girl he loves prefers his poetry to gold or pearls - "Indis conchis (1.8.39)." Tibullus also uses concha to mean pearl ("e rubro lucida concha mari" [2.430]) as does Manilius: "censibus aequantur conchae" (5.404). Caligula must, therefore, have been punning on the meaning to increase the soldiers' humiliation .5 If they were to demand booty, he could point to the "pearls" they had collected. Caligula had attempted the crossing in emulation of Caesar. He certainly had seen the dedication of pearls in the temple of Venus Genetrix, a trophy of a conquest over the Ocean. His statement that the conchae were "spolia Oceani" (Suet. Cal. 46), which represented a victory over the Ocean, can only be an allusion to Caesar's dedication. We may imagine that the sight of the sea shells and the potential for a wry joke inspired this impromptu command. 16 Caligula had a reputation for a sardonic sense of humor that often revealed itself in inappropriate and embarrassing ways. Here Caligula was not merely making an historical allusion to Caesar's victory and trophy but also mocking this expedition by comparing the sea shells that symbolized its failure with the pearls that represented his deified ancestor's dazzling victory. 17

experience made such a mistake unlikely. R. W. Davies has also attempted to find a rational explanation for the shells as objects for the soldiers to practice throwing. Yet the sources make it clear they are spolia and even are displayed in Rome, acc. to Cass. Dio (59.25.3). See "The 'Abortive Invasion' of Britain by Gaius," Historia 15 (1966) 124-28. Other discussion in P. Bicknell, "Gaius and the Sea Shells," Acta Class. 5 (1962) 72-74; E. J. Phillips, "The Emperor Gaius' Abortive Invasion of Britain," Historia 19 (1970) 369-74. Most recent bibliography in J. P. V. D. Balsdon, "Tiberius and Gaius," ANRW 2.2, 92-94.

15 Concha means "pearl" only in poetry. See ThLL s.v. "concha" col. 28.41-47 and Rommel (above n. 5) 1684-85. After giving a small donative to his troops, Caligula, according to Suetonius, said: "abite . . . laeti, abite locupletes" (Cal. 46).

16 Suetonius repeatedly characterizes Caligula as taking action suddenly or unexpectedly. Such was the irrational fickleness of the tyrant. See, e.g., 23.3, 24.2, 25.2, 32.1, 32.3, 35.1, 35.2, 45.2, 46, 51.1, 54.2.

17 See Suet. Cal. 29 for examples of Caligula's (in)famous &dbLaTQFVCa, shameless impudence, the quality Caligula most admired in himself: "nihil magis in natura sua laudare se ac probare



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Finally I would speculate that Suetonius' quotation of Caligula's words - "spolia Oceani" - may be a direct quotation from the inscription plaque under the breastplate. The phrase perfectly explains the significance of Caesar's pearl cuirass. Pliny tells us that in the incription Caesar wanted it known that the cuirass was made "ex margaritis Britannicis." Obviously this phrase does not contain the whole text of the dedicatory inscription but only that portion relevant to the pearls, which were Pliny's subject.

In 25 B.C. Augustus decorated the statue of Venus in the recently dedicated Pantheon in the Campus Martius with a pair of pearl earrings. 1 The single pearl of extraordinary size, cut in two to create these earrings, had, so our sources claim, belonged to Cleopatra. According to Pliny the original two pearls, of which this was the survivor, were the largest examples ever known: "duo fuere maximi uniones per omne aevum" (9.119-121). Pliny, who is closely followed by Macrobius (3.17.14-18), tells the famous story of the disappearance of the first pearl. Cleopatra bet Antony that she could spend "ten million" on a single feast. He, in disbelief, took her bet. At an appropriately dramatic moment during the banquet, Cleopatra pulled off one of her earrings, dropped it in a phial of vinegar, and drank it down. 9 L. Munatius Plancus, the judge of the wager, intervened to stop her from dissolving and swallowing the second pearl: "iniecit alteri manum L. Plancus, iudex sponsionis eius, eum quoque parante simili modo absumere" (NAT. 9.121). Pliny ends his story with a description of the earrings made for Venus: "comitatur fama unionis eius parem, capta illa tantae quaestionis victrice regina, dissectum, ut esset in utrisque Veneris auribus Romae in Pantheo dimidia eorum cena" (NAT. 9.121; cf. Cass. Dio 51.22.3). The statue stood with those of Mars and Divus lulius in a temple which proclaimed the divine ancestry of Augustus' family line and connected him with the gods (Cass. Dio. 53.27.2-4). 2

Pliny's account, an illustration of the luxuria he continually attacks, tells us the source of the story in Rome - the infamous L. Munatius Plancus. First a follower of Antony, with whom he spent some years in the East and at Cleopatra's court, Plancus deserted to Octavian just before Actium and brought incriminating evidence against Antony that helped Octavian to win support in Rome.2' Octavian may well have circulated this story in the late 30's as part of the intense propaganda campaign against Antony. Becher has declared, probably with justice, that the story

dicebat." Discussion of this character trait in Balsdon (above n. 13) 215-18. Suetonius, painting

the portrait of a monstrum (Cal. 22.1), does not give many examples of Caligula's ability to laugh

at himself, but Cassius Dio (59.26.9) tells the story of how a shoemaker called the emperor "a big

absurdity" and suffered no harm. Cassius Dio says that he did not punish him because of the man's low rank, yet the incident also shows that Caligula did not always take himself seriously.

Caligula's knowledge of Caesar and thoughts about Caesar during this expedition were mentioned

by Balsdon in the first article cited in n. 14 above, p. 18. But the interpretation of the incident as a

joke is my own. 18 On the date of the Pantheon, see W. L. MacDonald, The Pantheon: Design, Meaning, and

Progeny (London 1976) 13. 19 The swallowing of pearls as a topos of the prodigality of the rich is also illustrated in Hor.

Sat. 2.3.239-42; Val. Max. 9.1.2; Suet. Calig. 37. For a delightful account of a scientific test of the

possibility of dissolving pearls and the idea that this was a rich man's form of bicarbonate of soda,

see B. L. Ullman, "Cleopatra's Pearls," CJ 52 (1957) 193-201. 20 Augustus' statue was not placed, as Agrippa first wished, in the temple but in the vestibule to

indicate clearly that Augustus was of human not divine stature. See Cass. Dio. 53.27.3 On this

location as a symbol of modesty, cf. Suet. Tib. 26. 1; Plin. Pan. 52.3. Discussion in T. Pekary, Das

romische Kaiserbildnis in Staat, Kult und Gesellschaft (Berlin 1985) 42-65. Augustus also refused

to have the temple named after him. 21 On his career, R. Hanslik, "L. Munatius Plancus," RE 16.1, 545-551.



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was apocryphal, a doublet for a similar tale in circulation about the son of Asopus, attacked in a satire by Horace, datable to 33 B.C.22

Whether or not the pearls used to decorate the Pantheon statue had once belonged to Cleopatra, Octavian claimed they had. Pliny tells the story of the surviving pearl as if it were well known - "comitatur fama unionis eius parem" (NAT. 9.121) - and Octavian surely increased the pearl's fame by displaying it in his triumphal parade of 29 B.C. One feature of the triumph was an effigy of Cleopatra laid out on a bier: i KkEo3&rQCa tni tx%CVs V T{v T10 oi avctv6tou tLulUlQaTL

Jtaeexo[iLLmS (Cass Dio 51.21.8). Perhaps the pearl was displayed with the statue. Augustus' dedication referred back to Caesar's, for the pearls symbolized here too an

extraordinary conquest. The pearls, as Pliny wrote, were a posession handed down from one generation of the kings of the East to the next: "utrumque possedit Cleopatra, Aegypti reginarum novissima, per manus orientis regum sibi traditos" (NAT. 9.119). Thus their ownership was the prerogative of the ruling king or queen of Egypt. Augustus had conquered Egypt, a victory he advertised as a great one for himself and the Roman people.23 Venus, the patron divinity of Augustus and Rome, wore these pearls because Egypt now owed fealty to Rome.

Yet a greater significance to the dedication lay in Augustus' own preoccupation with public morality. Augustus meant the Romans to remember the origin of the pearls and the woman who wore them; otherwise, he would not have chosen to recreate the earrings as his dedication. The pearls symbolized the superbia of an oriental queen, who wore jewels too large and splendid for a mortal. Cleopatra's pearl could never decorate the ears of a woman at Rome, not merely because of its origins but because it represented the luxuria Augustus was determined to check. A much later account of the dedication of pearls to Venus by Severus Alexander aptly illustrates the implicit moral exemplum. This emperor received two valuable pearls as a gift and attempted to sell them, but no buyer could afford the price. Severus dedicated them as earrings for Venus, refusing to allow his wife to wear such jewels, for she would set a "malum exemplum" by wearing objects too valuable to find a purchaser.24

Pliny, in his last chapter of the Historia Naturalis (37.204-205) lists the most expensive products of nature. In the sea it is pearls: "rerum autem ipsarum maximum est pretium in mari nascentium margaritis." The most expensive substance that could be taken from the surface of the land is crystal. We know of a massive piece of crystal which Livia dedicated on the Capitoline: "magnitudo amplissima adhuc visa nobis erat quam in Capitolio Livia Augusti dicaverat, librarum circiter CL" (Plin. NAT. 37.27; cf. Solin. 15.31). The crystal, like the pearl taken from Cleopatra, was notable as "the biggest example ever seen." The crystal, was undoubtedly a gift to the Imperial household, for such were the extravagant gifts usually given to kings. These two dedications, I believe, are connected.25 Both illustrate Augustus' efforts to demonstrate his

22 I Becher, Das Bild des Kleopatra in der griechischen und lateinischen Literatur (Berlin 1966) 135-37.

23 E.g., ResGest. 27.1; V. Ehrenberg and A. H. M. Jones, Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius (Oxford 1955), 2nd. ed., 14,37.

24 The story may have had its roots in the story of Cleopatra's pearls and Augustus' dedication of them, for the similarities are obvious.

25 Curiosities, "firsts" (e.g., the first tiger seen in Rome, cf. Cass. Do 54.9.8), as well as lavish presents were carried by legates from foreign countries to the emperor, beginning with Augustus. Examples and discussion in F. Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World (London 1977) 139-44. That the "largest" of any commodity or substance belongs by right to a king is inherent in the story of Polycrates and the fish of extraordinary size that swallowed his ring. The fisherman naturally offred the fish to Polycrates. See Herod. 3.42. Pliny (NAT. 37.4) makes the same point: "piscis, eximia magnitudine regi natus," Cf. Juv. 4.37-69. We have only random references to dedications made by Augustus and his family. If better records survived, we might find other such



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disapproval of private extravagance. In his own villa he eschewed statues and art objects in favor of the bones of heroes and animals, a symbolic statement of his adherence to the values of the past. When Augustus inherited the palatial mansion of Vedius Pollio, a notorious profligate, he tore the house down because he wanted no association between himself and such a man. On the land he built a public portico with a gallery of art treasures to illustrate his belief that such treasures belonged to the public.26 His and Livia's dedication to the gods of objects that had come to symbolize personal extravagance made the same point. He publicly rejected an opulent style of life for himself and expected others to follow. Yet political reasons also influenced his actions. Cleopatra's pearls or the great one hundred and fifty pound weight of crystal were the trappings of royalty. If Augustus had taken these as his own possessions, he would have admitted to his own royal standing. This Augustus obviously did not care to do. Instead he gave them to the only kings and queens whom the Romans acknowledged in their own city - their gods.

Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minn. Marleen B. Flory

cases as the gigantic pearl and mass of crystal. Of related interest is the ring of Polycrates set in a

golden cornucopia, a symbol of fortuna, dedicated by Livia in the shrine of Concordia (Plin.

NAT. 37.3-4). The ring, once famous, had been surpassed by more sumptuous jewels, and Pliny

said it had "novissimum prope locum" in the collection in the temple. But as a symbol of "nimia

felicitas" (Plin. NAT. 37.3), which could only lead to invidia (Val. Max. 6.9 ext. 5), it clearly could

not belong to a member of Augustus' family. 26 Augustus smashed Vedius' crystal dinnerware to save a slave boy, who was threatened with

death because he had dropped a valuable cup. Vedius made Augustus his heir and asked him to

build a memorial to him, but Augustus, as Cassius Dio explicitly says, did not build the

monument because he did not want any association between their names. Instead he built the

porticus Liviae on the land where Vedius' house had been. See Cass. Dio 54.23.1-6. On the

complex built here, M. B. Flory, "Sic Exempla Parantur: Livia's Shrine to Concordia and the

Porticus Liviae", Historia 34 (1984) 309-30. Agrippa gave a speech in favor of making private art

collections national property (Plin. NAT. 35.26). On the relation between private luxury and

political aspirations, J. J. Pollitt, "The Impact of Greek Art on Rome", TAPA 108 (1978) 155-74.

DIE LEGIO V ALAUDAE IN MOESIEN Eine Phantomtruppe der romischen Militargeschichte

Trotz der in den letzten Jahrzehnten immer intensiveren Erforschung der moesischen

Legionsstandorte und des gesamten romischen Balkanraumes ist es bis heute nicht moglich

gewesen, den angeblichen Aufenthalt der Legio V Alaudae in Moesien zwischen 70 und 86 n.

Chr., also in einem Zeitraum von 17 Jahren, durch Funde zu belegen'. Ja es fehit bis heute jeder

I Das Zeugnis der Grabinschrift eines Veteranen der Legio V Alaudae aus Morane bei Skopje

(N. Vuli, Spomenik 98, 1941-1948, 224 Nr. 441 = Inscr. Mes. Sup. VI 41), der nach Ableistung

einer Dienstzeit von 35 Jahren im Alter von ca. 60 Jahren in Scupi starb, ist fur diese Frage ohne

Aussagekraft; vgl. J. J. Wilkes, in: Rome and her Northern Provinces. Festschrift S. Frere, hg. v.

B. Hartley -J. Wacher, Gloucester 1983, 265 mit Anm. 42; E. Birley, ZPE 64, 1986, 209-216, der

auf die Grundung der Veteranenkolonie Scupi durch Vespasian bald nach 71 n. Chr. hinweist. In

Sopiste bei Skopie fand sich der Grabstein eines Veteranen der Legio IIII Macedonica (= Inscr.

Mes. Sup. VI 39), der wohl bei der Auflosung der 69 n. Chr. mit Vitellius nach Italien gezogenen

Vexillation der Truppe in Illyrien entlassen worden war. Der fur den Veteranen M'. Epidius Pudes

Historia, Band XXXVII/4 (1988) ?) Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH, Sitz Stuttgart

