Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, John C. Rolfe (Translator), 23.6.85

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[85] It remains for me to speak briefly about the origin of this gem.¹ Among the Indians and the Persians pearls are found in strong, white sea-shells, being conceived at a definite time of the year by mixture with dew. For at that time they desire, as it were, a kind of copulation, and by often opening and shutting quickly they take in moisture by sprinkling with moonlight. Thereby becoming pregnant, they each bear two or three small pearls, or else uniones,² so called because the shell-fish, when opened, sometimes yield only one pearl, but in that case they are of greater size.

Res Gestae. Ammianus Marcellinus. John C. Rolfe (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1935-1940.

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Current edition Perseus

History (English) (Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Res Gestae Perseus (Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., editor. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).) — 23.6.85 focus

[85] Restat ut super ortu lapidis huius, pauca succinctius explicentur. Apud Indos et Persas, margaritae reperiuntur in testis marinis robustis et candidis, permixtione roris anni tempore praestituto conceptae. Cupientes enim velut coitum quendam, humores ex lunari aspergine capiunt, densius oscitando. Exindeque gravidulae, edunt minutas binas aut ternas, vel uniones, ideo sic appellatas quod evisceratae conchulae singulas aliquotiens pariunt, sed maiores.

Notes on the current edition

History

1. I.e. pearls.

2. Uniones is applied to large pearls, of which only one is found in a single shell. Pliny, N.H. ix. 112, says that they are called uniones because one never finds two pearls of such similarity that they cannot be told from each other. Solinus, 53, 27, end, says it is because one never finds two of them together. But Aelian, Hist. Anim. x. 13, says that in one shell sometimes one such pearl is found, sometimes two, sometimes as many as twenty. Cf. Shakespeare, Hamlet, V. ii. 253, And in the cup a union shall he throw.

Ammianus Marcellinus Res Gestae 23.6.85

John C. Rolfe (Translator)

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