T. Petronius,[2928] a personage of consular rank, intending, from his hatred of Nero, to disinherit the table of that prince, broke a murrhine basin, which had cost him no less than three hundred thousand sesterces. But Nero himself, as it was only proper for a prince to do, surpassed them all, by paying one million of sesterces for a single cup: a fact well worthy of remembrance, that an emperor, the father of his country, should have drunk from a vessel of such costly price! CHAP. 8.—THE NATURE OF MURRHINE VESSELS. Murrhine vessels come from the East, in numerous localities of which, remarkable for nothing else, they are to be found. It is in the empire of the Parthians, more particularly, that they are met with, though those of the very finest quality come to us from Carmania.[2929] It is generally thought that these vessels are formed of a moist substance, which under ground becomes solidified by heat.[2930] In size they never exceed a small waiter,[2931] and, as to thickness, they rarely admit of being used as drinking-cups, so large as those already[2932] mentioned. The brightness of them is destitute of strength, and it may be said that they are rather shining than brilliant.[2933] But the chief merit of them is the great variety of their colours, and the wreathed veins, which, every here and there, present shades of purple and white, with a mixture of the two; the purple gradually changing, as it were, to a fiery red, and the milk-white assuming a ruddy hue. Some persons praise the edges of these vessels more particularly, with a kind of reflection in the colours, like those beheld in the rain-bow. Others, again, are more pleased with them when quite opaque, it being considered a demerit when they are at all transparent, or of a pallid hue. The appearance, too, of crystals[2934] in them is highly prized, and of spots that look like warts; not prominent, but depressed, as we mostly see upon the human body. The perfume,[2935] too, of which they smell, is looked upon as an additional recommendation. CHAP. 9—THE NATURE OF CRYSTAL.