These delicate earrings are simple but fabulous, and are based on several Roman examples dating to the first century AD. Here, a beautiful round cabochon stone is set into a sleek bezel setting, and is the star of the show. "Atia" was none other than the mother of the first emperor of Rome, Augustus! The niece of Julius Caesar, Atia was thus an indelible part of the early empire, for she was related to all of the emperors who succeeded Augustus throughout the period of the Julio-Claudians. Atia was admired for her beauty, dignity, and morality. She was also considered one of the most honorable matrons and revered mothers in the history of Rome. Of her, the historian Tacitus says, "Thus it was, as tradition says, that the mothers of the Gracchi, of Cæsar, of Augustus, Cornelia, Aurelia, Atia, directed their children's education and reared the greatest of sons. The strictness of the discipline tended to form in each case a pure and virtuous nature which no vices could warp, and which would at once with the whole heart seize on every noble lesson." - A Dialogue on Oratory, 28
