page_title: Servilia's pearl
section_title: Historical context
hierarchical_section_title: Servilia's pearl / Historical context
caption_attribution_description: English: A section of from The Book of the Pearl which speaks of the pearl Caesar gave Servilia
context_page_description: 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 large black pearl worth six million sesterces, making it perhaps the most valuable gem of all time. It may also be the first known individual pearl recorded in human history.
context_section_description: Caesar was said to be a great connoisseur of pearls, guessing their value just by weighing it in his palm was one of his party tricks, 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) and people who were not affluent enough to acquire them safely without risking their financial security were banned from purchasing them.
  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 the Gaul campaign, possibly in Britain, since the coasts of the island as well as Scottish lakes were prime location for harvesting pearls. 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. Robert B. Kebric reflected that Caesar may have paid with tribute money he received from Pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes.
caption: Text describing it the pearl being worn as an earing.
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