Lucilla Earrings – crescent moon, volutes, and clinking gold at a glance
The Lucilla Earrings are a handcrafted brass replica of a Roman drop earring from the 2nd–3rd century AD, based on an original in the British Museum. The earring combines the apotropaic crescent motif (Latin lunula) with three gilded pendants ending in river pearls, and belongs to the crotalia type, attested by finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum. This jewelry style gained modern fame through Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000), in which similar earrings were worn for the character of Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla.
What lies behind it, briefly unraveled
The Lucilla Earrings are a modern brass replica based on a Roman original earring in the British Museum. The earring consists of a crescent-shaped upper section (lunula) with an inserted pearl, a delicately rolled volute bar as the central element, and three conical pendants made of golden-shimmering brass, each ending in a river pearl. Total length: 5 cm.
What does a single earring reveal about the life of a Roman woman?
Rome, sometime between AD 150 and 250. A woman stands before a bronze hand mirror, holds an earring between thumb and forefinger, and hooks it in. The crescent catches the lamplight, the three pearls sway briefly, softly touching one another. A delicate clinking sound. That was exactly the intention.
The Romans called these earrings crotalia, after the Greek word for rattle or castanet. Not because they were loud, but because the gentle clinking of pearls while walking was considered sensual, a sign of movement and presence. In his Naturalis Historia (9, 114), Pliny the Elder rolls his eyes at the fact that Roman women loved pearls so passionately that they literally wore them while sleeping. He meant it as criticism. The women wore the earrings anyway.
The crescent motif, the lunula, already appeared in Rome as an independent amulet in the late 2nd century BC, with Hellenistic roots in Asia Minor and Etruria. As an earring head combined with a volute bar and hanging pendants, this type is characteristic of the 2nd–3rd century AD and shows the influence of West Asian goldsmithing, which spread throughout the Empire during this period.
Here lies a stubborn misunderstanding that runs through many museum texts: pearl earrings were supposedly imperial jewelry, exclusive and unaffordable. That is not true. Fayum mummy portraits from the 1st–3rd century AD, now in the Egyptian Museum Cairo and the Metropolitan Museum New York, show women of all affluent social classes wearing exactly this type of earring. Pearls were a luxury, yes, but not a court privilege. Crotalia were found in Pompeii’s villas just as much as in more modest town houses. Whoever could afford them wore them, and that was more than a handful of empresses.
This jewelry style received a modern boost in fame through Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000): the earrings worn by Connie Nielsen as Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla are strikingly similar to this type in both structure and motif. Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla was historically the daughter of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, sister of Commodus, and lived from around AD 148 to 182. She truly was an Augusta and one of the most powerful women of her time, before being exiled and eventually executed for involvement in a conspiracy against Commodus. Rewritten by Ridley Scott as a sympathetic heroine, judged by history itself a little more complexly.
What the earring is before it becomes history
The bare numbers:
Anyone who takes the Lucilla Earrings in hand is first holding two identical pieces: an upward-open, matte crescent of golden-shimmering brass, at whose apex sits a cream-white river pearl. Below it follows a flat, symmetrically curved volute bar, whose tendrilwork rolls outward on both sides. From there hang three pendants: two conical golden tubes on the outside, one in the middle, all three tapering to a point and each ending in a rosé-white river pearl. The pearls swing freely, touch one another while being worn, and create precisely that soft clinking sound the Romans appreciated in crotalia. The weight is low enough that you forget them after a few minutes, while the total length of 5 cm is clearly present on the ear without seeming theatrical.
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Total length: 5 cm
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Material: golden-shimmering brass and freshwater pearls (river pearls)
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Type: crotalia / lunula-pendant earring, Roman Imperial period
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Date of the model: 2nd–3rd century AD
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Comparable object: British Museum London
What effect does an earring have when it is historically accurate?
As a reenactor, one regularly faces the same question: what is documented, what is wishful thinking, and what can be defended before an informed audience? After years at events, in museums, and in the patient study of specialist literature, one thing can be said: jewelry is among the first things visitors notice, and the first thing they ask about.
The Lucilla Earrings pass this test. The model in the British Museum is documented, the type is archaeologically attested many times over, and the choice of materials is plausible.
The conversation anchor. Anyone wearing the earrings and able, on request, to explain what a lunula means, what crotalia means, and why Pliny complained about pearls, has within two minutes a public conversation that works. The earring becomes a ticket into the 2nd century.
The portrayal element for civilian female roles. For a wealthy Roman woman, a merchant’s wife, or a member of the urban upper class in the middle Imperial period, this type of earring is richly supported by sources. It works just as well with a stola as with more elaborate festive clothing.
The point of comparison on museum visits. Anyone who visits the British Museum or the Archaeological National Museum of Naples with a photo of the BM object in their pocket experiences the showcases differently. Not “there is an old earring,” but “I know this, I wear this, I understand this.”
If the interest lies less in reenactment than in the everyday wearing of jewelry with historical depth, this earring, at 5 cm in length, is present enough to be noticed, yet so well proportioned that it does not appear costume-like outside events. Brass and river pearls are materials that can be combined with modern clothing without conflict.
For everyone who counts Gladiator (2000) among the films they have seen more than once: the earrings worn by Connie Nielsen as Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla resemble this type in structure and motif. Anyone who knows and appreciates that connection receives here not a cheap movie souvenir, but an archaeologically grounded piece with its own historical weight.
A genuine piece of advice: river pearls react sensitively to perfume and sweat. Anyone wearing the earrings at events should briefly wipe them afterward with a dry cloth; that way they retain their sheen noticeably longer.
Roman jewelry exists at every price level and in every quality range. The decisive question is not whether an earring looks beautiful, but whether it keeps what it promises.
What did Rome write about women, pearls, and the art of possessing both?
Pliny the Elder was no friend of restraint, at least not in others. In his Naturalis Historia, written around AD 77, he devotes an entire chapter to pearls and strikes a tone that oscillates between admiration and feigned outrage. His most famous sentence about women’s use of jewelry reads:
“Ut sentirent et dormientes se locupletiores esse, in auribus margaritas ponunt.”
“So that even while sleeping they might still feel wealthier, they place pearls in their ears.”
Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, IX, 121 (c. AD 77)
Pliny meant this as a rebuke. What he unintentionally documented with it: pearl earrings were so commonplace in Rome of the 1st–3rd century AD that a woman did not even take them off before going to sleep. The earring was not a jewel for special occasions, but an everyday companion, a quiet expression of status, taste, and identity. That this status is still perceptible in the replica made of brass and river pearls lies less in the material than in the form. Some proportions simply work for two thousand years.
Romans, pearls, and open questions – fact check on the Lucilla Earring
What does lunula mean, and why does the earring have this shape?
Lunula is Latin and means “little moon.” The crescent was regarded in the Roman Empire as an apotropaic symbol, that is, as protection against the evil eye and misfortune. As an earring head combined with pendants, this form is documented in the 2nd–3rd century AD throughout the Empire, from Egypt to Britain. The form is therefore not merely decorative, but carries a layer of meaning that every wearer knew.
Are the Lucilla Earrings source-based and correct for reenactment events?
Yes. The comparable object in the British Museum is documented and publicly accessible. The crotalia type with lunula head, volute bar, and pearl pendants is attested by finds from Pompeii, Herculaneum, and other excavation contexts of the 2nd–3rd century AD. For a civilian female portrayal of the middle to late Imperial period, this earring is entirely defensible before an informed audience.
What are crotalia, and why do the earrings sound while being worn?
Crotalia derives from the Greek word for rattle or castanet. What is meant is the gentle clinking that arises when the pearls of the pendants lightly strike one another while walking. In the Roman Imperial period, this sound was regarded as sensual and was consciously understood as part of the jewelry experience, not as a side effect but as an intentional acoustic signal of movement and presence.
How do I properly care for the Lucilla Earrings?
Since these are made of golden-shimmering brass and river pearls, a soft, dry cotton cloth is entirely sufficient after wearing. Perfume, sweat, and aggressive cleaning agents attack both the brass surface and the delicate pearls. Anyone who puts the earrings on before applying cosmetics and then briefly wipes them afterward will preserve the natural shimmer of the brass for the long term.
Do similar earrings actually have a connection to the film Gladiator?
A direct connection is not documented, but the similarity is striking. The earrings worn by Connie Nielsen in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000) as Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla strongly resemble the crotalia type with lunula head in both structure and motif. Costume designer Janty Yates, who won an Oscar for Gladiator, demonstrably drew inspiration from museum originals. The film costume and this piece share the same historical source.
The hidden clue in the pearl
The original in the British Museum contains a pearl that is not a pearl. One of the pendants ends in a hollow glass bead, made in imitation of a real pearl. That sounds like a cheap substitute, but it was not. Roman glassmakers of the 1st–3rd century AD mastered the production of hollow glass pearls with a mother-of-pearl-like shimmer at a remarkably high technical level. Pearl imitation was not a sign of poverty, but a deliberate craft. Glass pearls were made in the same workshops that also produced colored gemstone imitations for the upscale market, and they circulated throughout the Empire. The earring in the British Museum therefore carries both at once: genuine pearls and a crafted imitation, side by side, without this apparently posing any problem for its original wearer. What this says about Roman ideas of authenticity is something one can reflect on for a long time.
List of sources
Title: Greek and Roman Jewellery
Author: Reynold A. Higgins
Publication: Methuen & Co. Ltd., London Date: 1980 (2nd edition)
Title: Catalogue of the Jewellery, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman, in the Departments of Antiquities, British Museum
Author: F. H. Marshall
Publication: Printed by Order of the Trustees, London Date: 1911
Title: Roman Jewellery from Augst and Kaiseraugst
Author: Emilie Riha
Publication: Roman Museum Augst Date: 1990
Title: Naturalis Historia, Liber IX
Author: Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder)
Publication: Ancient primary source, c. AD 77. Modern reference edition: Rackham, H. (ed.), Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press Date: 1938 (Loeb edition)
Further links
Updated on: 02/04/2026
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