Murrhinas, Mopium, in Antiquity, an appellation given to a delicate sort of ware brought from the East, of which were made cups and vases, that added not a little to the splendour of the Roman banquets. Critics are divided concerning the matter of the pocala or rather rasa murrhina, murrina, or murrea. Certain persons conceive them to have been the same with our porcelain or china ware. But the commonly received opinion is, that they were made of some precious kind of stone, which, according to Pliny, was found chiefly in Parthia, but more especially in Carmania. Arrian tells us, that there was a great quantity of them made at Diospolis, in Egypt. This he considers as another sort of murrhine work; and it is evident, from all accounts, that the murrhine of Diospolis was a sort of glass ware, made in imitation of the porcelain or murrha of India. There is some difference in the accounts given by Pliny and Martial of the murrhina vasa. The former says, that they would not bear hot liquors, and that only cold ones were drank out of them. The latter, on the other hand, tells us that they bore hot liquors very well. If we credit Pliny's account, their porcelain was much inferior to ours in this particular. Some conjecture them to have been of agate, others of onyx, and others of coral. Baro- nius, doubtless, was farthest out of the way, when he took them to be of myrrh congealed and hardened. Some suppose these vessels to have been made of crystal, but this is contrary to the account of all the ancients. Pompey was the first who brought from the East murrhine vessels, which he exhibited in his triumph, and dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus. But private persons were not long without them; and so fond did the Roman gentry become of these vessels, that a cup which held three sextaries was sold for seventy talents.