Collection of Remarkable Facts

Since the annotations of Ammianus and Solinus agree almost word for word, it is apparent that some things are specific to Ammianus and others to Solinus. Finally, what each reports regarding the Neuri is clearly different. Therefore, neither does Ammianus depend on Solinus, nor Solinus on Ammianus; rather, both drew these things from a lost commentary, which had already presented Pliny and Mela in a contaminated state—appearing as they do in Solinus—and established nearly the same order of things which both Ammianus and Solinus have closely followed. — I will add another passage from many, which confirms that two different epitomes of the same book survive in these works of Ammianus and Solinus:

PLINY 9, 107—116:
When the hour of the year’s procreation stimulates them (the shellfish), they open themselves with a certain yawning and are filled with a dewy conception,

afterwards, they are pregnant and give birth to pearls, which are the offspring of the shellfish, according to the quality of the dew received:

if it flowed in pure, the whiteness is seen,

if turbid, the offspring also becomes soiled: the same conception pales when the sky threatens.

For it is certain that there is a greater partnership between the quiet sky and the sea,

AMMIANUS 23, 6, 85—88:
Pearls are found in marine shells, robust and white, conceived at the appointed time of the year by a mixture of dew. Desiring, as it were, a certain coitus, they take in moisture from the lunar spray by yawning more densely.

From there, they are pregnant and bring forth small ones, two or three at a time, or "unions" a term for large, singular pearls, so called because the eviscerated shells sometimes give birth to individual ones, but larger.

And this is the indication that these fetuses arise and are nourished by a heavenly derivation rather than by the fatness of the sea,

SOLINUS 53, 23—28:
There are shells in which this kind of stone (pearls) is sought, which at a certain time of year, with a luxurious conception, thirst for dew as if it were a husband, for whose desire they gape. And when the lunar rain is falling, they draw in the desired moisture by a certain yawning.

Thus they conceive and become pregnant.

They yield the character of the pearls according to the quality of the nourishment:

for if what they have received is pure, the little orbs of the stones shine,

if turbid, they either languish in pallor or are clouded with red.

Thus, they have their birth more from heaven than from sea.