John Roberts - Venus in Pearls

"Quite so." Chloe had little grasp of the relevancies, but none of the girls showed the slightest sign of guilt. "When was the statue delivered?"

She thought a moment. "Two days before the breastplate arrived."

"And who delivered it?"

"Thyrsites the Alexandrian. He is a dealer in statuary. I believe he handled all the work on this one: commissioning the sculptor, the shipping and delivery. His men are amazingly skilled at the work. They arrived at first light and had it set up by midmorning, heavy though it is."

"And how did the pearls arrive?"

She crossed the tent and stooped over a long wooden box. This she opened, and it exuded a fragrance of fresh cedar. "It was in this box." She drew from it a long, tubular case of what appeared to be silk, a fabulous item by itself. "It was rolled up and covered with this case."

"And who handled this work?"

"The firm of Considius. He does all the finest pearl work in Rome. The women of my family deal exclusively with Considius."

"Did he perform the goldwork as well?"

"That I could not tell you. Is it important?'

"You never can tell what may prove to be important." I took one last look at the goddess as the girls readied to recover her. She truly was glorious.

The workers and dealers in precious substances were concentrated near the Forum, the pearl market being located at the northern end. The establishment of Considius seemed surprisingly modest for so great a merchant; little more than a booth crowded with beautifully crafted wooden cases. The whole place smelled sweetly of cedar. The cases were made of the same wood as the big delivery box in the goddess's tent.

"Welcome, Senator!" The man who came from the back of the tent wore citizen's clothes and the ring of an equites, but his features were subtly foreign, that Greek-Syrian mixture one encounters so often in the East. This made good sense considering the nature of his business. He was a balding, portly man perhaps forty-five years of age. "I am Considius. How may I help my distinguished guest?"

"I find that I must learn something about pearls."

His eyebrows went up. "I do hope the Senate is not considering new sumptuary laws."

"With Julius Caesar in charge? Not likely."

"Ah, excellent. How, then, may I enlighten you?"

"I know very little about pearls, and I've avoided learning lest my wife acquire too great a taste for them. How do they come to Rome?'

"Pearls come from the seas of the world, Senator, most of them from far, far to the east. Observe." He went to a long, narrow case, a miniature of the one I had seen in the tent, opening it to reveal a stunning series of pearls graded by color, from the common white on one end to silvery black on the other. They lay in a single row, nestled in silk and none of them was smaller than the tip of my smallest finger.

"Here," Considius explained, "we have black pearls from the Euxine Sea, rose-tinted ones from the Red Sea, yellow pearls from Arabian waters. The greatest number come from India and its numerous islands."

"I never knew there could be so many shades of white alone," I admitted. "Yours is a great and far-flung business."

"The trade is very ancient and very extensive," he said. 'Perhaps the only trade to compare is that in frankincense."

"Even among the white pearls," I commented, "I see here great differences not only in color but in- in brightness."

He smiled. "We refer to this quality as luster. Yes, there are wide differences. There is great art in matching the pearls in even an ordinary necklace because they must be matched not only in color and luster but also in size. All must be of the same size or very evenly graded." He opened a standing case to reveal at least a hundred neck-laces, from a tiny choker suitable for the neck of a girlchild to a massive rope that would have gone several times around the neck of a giantess. I made a mental note to keep Julia away from this place.

"That being the case," I said, "it must be a Herculean task to match a huge number of pearls as in the breastplate of Venus Genetrix, which I understand you undertook."

"Not truly," he said. "You see, in a very large piece such precision is not really necessary. Each pearl should be as close a match as possible to the adjacent pearls, but a small divergence from those farther away is scarcely noticeable. With a truly huge item like the pearl aegis Caesar commissioned, it is hardly necessary at all. The human eye cannot take in so many pearls at once. We graded them by size, with the largest at the collar, diminishing toward the hem. Differences in shade and luster were only roughly considered. With thirty thousand pearls, greater precision than that is not possible. Besides, these were freshwater pearls he brought back from Britannia."

"Is there a difference?" I wanted to know.

"Yes. Freshwater pearls are rarer than sea pearls, and Britannia is a faraway, exotic land, so people expect them to be extraordinary. Sadly, they are rather inferior to sea pearls, usually smaller, indifferent in color and luster."

"I see. And thirty thousand seems to me a rather great number for the pearl fisheries of Britannia."

He lowered his voice as if that were necessary. "Actually, and I tell you this in strictest confidence, Caesar returned with fewer than five thousand Britannic pearls. He did not actually conquer the island, you know."

"Then I take it you were forced to make up the difference."

"I was," he said with some satisfaction. "It was the largest single order I've ever had. If Caesar wants a thing, Caesar must have it. I had to assemble the pearls, and my craftsmen had to work day and night to pierce them all and string them on the golden chains."

"I take it you did not perform that task here."

"No, here I have only finished pieces on display. The actual work is performed in my establishment in the Trans-Tiber. I have twenty slaves under a freedman supervisor, all of them marvelously trained and skilled."

"And you do your own goldwork?"

"Oh no. That would be frowned upon by the guilds. Gemstones, precious metals, and pearls are separate trades. My chains and other goldwork are made by Demaratus. He's an Alexandrian Greek, and his craftsmen are the best gold-workers in the world. These are his." He threw open another case, this one containing samples of golden chain, some so fine they could scarcely be seen. They were graded by thickness, but none was too thick to go through a pearl.

"These also are his work," Considius raised a lid, revealing perhaps a hundred rings, all designed to have pearls set in them. There were also pierced golden beads of many shapes. "These beads are meant to be strung together with the pearls on necklaces and earrings. The customer may choose to match up pearls and settings and beads, but I provide what guidance I can. Some of my customers have the most ghastly taste."

"Did Caesar take a personal hand in designing the breastplate for Venus?"

"He let me know precisely what he needed, but he left the details of construction to me. Even a man like Caesar can't be expert at everything." He closed the cases. "Might I know why you are inquiring about these matters?'

"Just curious," I said, taking my leave. One of the best things about my position was that I didn't have to explain myself to anybody.

The goldsmiths' quarter lay in a block of houses and shops on the Via Nova, opposite the ancient Mugonia Gate, near the eastern end of the Forum. A bit of asking took me to a shop considerably larger than that of Considius. This one featured armed guards, for which the goldsmiths' and jewelers' guilds had special licenses. These men, who looked like retired Greek mercenaries, let me through without questioning. Apparently they thought a senator must be too dignified to steal. A fat lot they knew about it.