"The highest prices were paid for the so-called Murrhine vases
(vasa Murrhina) brought to Rome from the East. Pompey, after
his victory over Mithridates, was the first to bring one of
them to Rome, which he placed in the temple of the Capitoline
Jupiter. Augustus, as is well known, kept a Murrhine goblet
from Cleopatra's treasure for himself, while all her gold
plate was melted. The Consularis T. Petronius, who owned one
of the largest collections of rare vases, bought a basin from
Murrha for 300,000 sestertii; before his death he destroyed
this matchless piece of his collection, so as to prevent Nero
from laying hold of it. Nero himself paid for a handled
drinking-goblet from Murrha a million sestertii. Crystal vases
also fetched enormous prices. There is some doubt about the
material of these Murrhine vases, which is the more difficult
to solve, as the only vase in existence which perhaps may lay
claim to that name is too thin and fragile to allow of closer
investigation. It was found in the Tyrol in 1837.
See
_Neue Zeitschrift des Ferdinandeums,
volume v. 1839._
Pliny describes the colour of the Murrhine vases as a mixture
of white and purple; according to some ancient writers, they
even improved the taste of the wine drunk out of them."
_E. Guhl and W. Koner,
Life of the Greeks and Romans,
section 91._
"I believe it is now understood that the murrha of the Romans
was not porcelain, as had been supposed from the line,
'Murrheaque in Parthis pocula cocta focis' (Propert. iv. 5.
26.), but an imitation in coloured glass of a transparent
stone."
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 39, foot-note._
MURSA, Battle of (A. D. 351).
See ROME: A. D. 337-361.