Chapter VII.—Rarity the Only Cause Which Makes Such Things Valuable.

It is only from their rarity and outlandishness that all these things possess their grace; in short, within their own native limits they are not held of so high worth.  Abundance is always contumelious toward itself.  There are some barbarians with whom, because gold is indigenous and plentiful, it is customary to keep (the criminals) in their convict establishments chained with gold, and to lade the wicked with riches—the more guilty, the more wealthy.  At last there has really been found a way to prevent even gold from being loved!  We have also seen at Rome the nobility of gems blushing in the presence of our matrons at the contemptuous usage of the Parthians and Medes, and the rest of their own fellow-countrymen, only that (their gems) are not generally worn with a view to ostentation.  Emeralds42    Smaragdi.  Comp. Rev. iv. 3. lurk in their belts; and the sword (that hangs) below their bosom alone is witness to the cylindrical stones that decorate its hilt; and the massive single pearls on their boots are fain to get lifted out of the mud!  In short, they carry nothing so richly gemmed as that which ought not to be gemmed if it is (either) not conspicuous, or else is conspicuous only that it may be shown to be also neglected.

CAPUT VII.

1311B

Haec omnia de raritate et peregrinitate sola gratiam possident. Denique, intra terminos suos patrios non tanti habentur. Semper abundantia contumeliosa in semetipsam est. Apud barbaros quosdam, quia vernaculum est aurum et copiosum, auro vinctos in ergastulis habent, et divitiis malos onerant, tanto locupletiores, quanto nocentiores. Aliquando revera inventum est, quomodo et aurum non ametur. Gemmarum quoque nobilitatem vidimus Romae de fastidio Parthorum et Medorum caeterorumque gentilium 1312A suorum, coram matronis erubescentem , nisi quod nec ad ostensionem fere habentur. Latent in circulis smaragdi, et cylindros vaginae suae solus gladius sub sinu novit, et in peronibus uniones emergere de luto cupiunt. Nihil denique, tam gemmatum habent, quam quod gemmatum esse non debet, si non comparet; aut ideo comparet, ut neglectum quoque ostendatur.