CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF THE SILK MANUFACTURE CONTINUED TO THE 4TH CENTURY.

SPINNING, DYEING, AND WEAVING.--HIGH DEGREE OF EXCELLENCE ATTAINED IN THESE ARTS.

Testimony of the Latin poets of the Augustan age--Tibullus--Propertius--Virgil--Horace--Ovid--Dyonisius Perigetes--Strabo. Mention of silk by authors in the first century--Seneca the Philosopher--Seneca the Tragedian--Lucan--Pliny--Josephus--Saint John--Silius Italicus--Statius--Plutarch--Juvenal--Martial--Pausanias--Galen--Clemens Alexandrinus--Caution to Christian converts against the use of silk in dress. Mention of silk by authors in the second century--Tertullian--Apuleius--Ulpian--Julius Pollux--Justin. Mention of silk by authors in the third century--Ælius Lampidius--Vopiscus--Trebellius Pollio--Cyprian--Solinus--Ammianus--Marcellinus--Use of silk by the Roman emperors--Extraordinary beauty of the textures--Use of water to detach silk from the trees--Invectives of these authors against extravagance in dress--The Seres described as a happy people--Their mode of traffic, etc.--(Macpherson’s opinion of the Chinese.)--City of Dioscurias, its vast commerce in former times.--(Colonel Syke’s account of the Kolissura silk-worm--Dr. Roxburgh’s description of the Tusseh silk-worm.) 22