Servilia's pearl

It was described by imperial biographer Suetonius to be a lone (uniones, meaning "singleton")[1] large black pearl[2] worth six million sesterces (approximately 1.5 billion dollars in 2019 value), making it perhaps the most valuable gem of all time.

Unmarried women were not allowed to own them (this resulted in a surge in weddings in Rome)[5] and people who were not affluent enough to acquire them safely without risking their financial security were banned from purchasing them.

[6] 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.

[19][20] It has also been observed that when Caesar himself was held hostage by pirates as a young man, his ransom of 20 talents (approximately $250,000)[21] was a mere fraction of the worth of the pearl he acquired for his mistress.

[40] In the novel The Written Script by Annalita Marsigli it is portrayed that Caesar gifted Servilia the pearl to make her boast publicly that he had seduced her, which was a move by him to get back at her half-brother Cato.

[39][47][48][49] In The Field of Swords the pearl is meant as a wedding proposal and Servilia initially rejects it, throwing it back at Caesar, because she believes she is infertile and does not want to make him enter a marriage which has no chance of conceiving children.

[50][51] In the novel Cleopatra: Whispers from the Nile, by Lorraine Blundell, Servilia looks at and thinks of the pearl, reflecting on how it is the most extravagant gift she had ever received by her love.