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Misinformation on PearlsEnjoy misinformation on pearls that the ancients assumed. The ancients had many curious stories about pearls and didn't have the understanding of pearls that we have today. While the ancient writers were familiar with the pearl itself, they knew little of the fisheries, and related many curious stories which had come to Athens and Rome. Pliny and Ealianus quoted from Megasthenes that the pearl oysters lived in communities like swarms of bees, and were governed by one remarkable for its size and great age, and which was wonderfully expert in keeping its subjects out of danger, and that the fishermen endeavored first to catch this one, so that the others might easily be secured. Procopius, one of the most entertaining of the old Byzantine chroniclers, wrote of social relations between the pearl oysters and the sharks, and of methods of inducing the growth of pearls.
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