Julius Caesar’s Obsession With Pearls Motivated His Invasion of Britain in 55 BC

When Julius Caesar led the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC, Scottish pearls were on his mind.

Pearls were a symbol of wealth and power in Ancient Rome, and at that time the world’s very finest natural freshwater pearls came from the riverbeds of Scotland.

Legend states that natural pearls held more value than diamonds. They were held in such high esteem that Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC) passed a law where only aristocrats could wear pearls within Rome’s borders.

One of the key goals for his military expedition to Britain in 55 BC was to gain control of the freshwater pearls of Scotland and acquire significant wealth.

The Roman general had a long-standing appreciation of pearls. During his consulship in 59 BC, he famously spent 6 million sesterces on a large black pearl for his mistress, Servilia Caepionis. That price tag would be equivalent to about $3 million in today’s dollars.

The “Servilia” pearl has been featured in several works of fiction, including The Field of Swords (2005), Cleopatra: Whispers from the Nile (2016), and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).

Trivia: Servilia was also the mother of Marcus Brutus, who later assassinated Caesar.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Caesar honored the pearl’s connection to Venus (he considered the Roman goddess of love and beauty to be his ancestor) and even adopted pearl as his personal symbol.

In mythology, Venus was born from the sea, similar to how a pearl is formed within an oyster. She was often portrayed in artwork as emerging from an oyster shell.

The British Isles, particularly regions such as Scotland and Wales, continued to produce natural freshwater pearls all the way until the end of the 20th century, when over-harvesting, illegal fishing and the degradation of the habitat brought that industry to its knees.

According to the Financial Times, efforts are being made to reverse the trend.

“Freshwater pearl fishing has been banned in Scotland since 1998, as well as in the European Union, with several programs desperately trying to help populations [of mollusks] recover and ensure the species’ viability,” noted the publication.

The largest natural freshwater pearl ever found in Scotland measured 10.5 mm in size and weighed 10.91 carats. Called the Abernethy Pearl, the specimen was harvested in 1967 and was sold at auction in August 2024 for £93,951 ($117,200).

Credits: AI-generated battle image by The Jeweler Blog using ChatGPT and DALL-E 3. Julius Caesar painting by Clara Grosch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Freshwater pearls by James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.