CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF THE SILK MANUFACTURE CONTINUED TO THE FOURTH 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.)

The next Authors, who make mention of silk, are the Latin poets of the Augustan age, Tibullus and Propertius, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid. The Parthian war, and the increased intercourse between the Roman empire and the kingdoms of the East, had been the means of recently introducing every kind of silken goods into more general use, although these manufactures were still so rare as to be the objects of curiosity and admiration, and were therefore well adapted to be brought in among the embellishments of poetical imagery.

The appearance of the silken flags attached to the gilt standards of the Parthians (Florus iii. 11.) must have been a very striking sight for the army of Crassus, contributing both to inflame their cupidity and to alarm them with a sense of the power of their opponents. The conflict here referred to took place in the year 54 B. C. In about 30 years after this date the Roman empire obtained its greatest extension. In the language of Petronius Arbiter (c. 119.),

Th’ insatiate Roman spread his conquering arms O’er land and sea, where’er heaven’s light extends.

After these words he says, that among the richest productions of distant climates the Seres sent their “new fleeces.” The remotest countries thus contributed to increase the luxury of Rome, and we shall now see how silk, one of the most costly and the most admired of its recent acquisitions, was used by its poets to represent the polish of elevated life and to adorn their language with rich and beautiful allusions. The webs, which they mention, are either those still obtained from Cos, or those imported from the country of the Seres.

TIBULLUS.

A Coan vest for girls. L. ii. 4.

She may thin garments wear, which female Coan hands Have woven, and in stripes dispos’d the golden bands. L. ii. 6.

The latter of these two passages is remarkable as showing that the Coan women practised the elegant art of interweaving gold thread in their silken webs. The gold was no doubt displayed in transverse stripes.

PROPERTIUS.

Why thus, my life, display thy braided hair, And heave beneath thin Coan webs thy bosom fair? L. i. 2.

In the next passage Propertius is speaking of his own Poetry, and alludes to his frequent mention of Coan garments.

If bright she walk in Coan vest array’d, Through all this book will Coan be display’d. L. ii. 1.

ON A STATUE OF VERTUMNUS.

My nature suits each changing form: Turn’d into what you please, I’m fair. Clothe me in Coan, I’m a decent lass, Put on a toga, for a man I pass. L. iv. 2.

The texture of the Coan Minerva. L. iv. 5.

Who gives no Coan robe, but verse instead, Artless shall be his lyre, his verses dead. _Ibid._

The same poet (L. iv. 8. 23.) mentions “Serica carpenta,” chariots with silk curtains; and the following line (L. i. 14. 22.) shows, that couches with ornamented silk covers were then in use:

Quid revelant variis Serica textilibus?

Propertius also mentions silk under the name of the animal, which produced it:

Shines with the produce of th’ Arabian worm. L. ii. 3. 15.

In this line, as well as in some of those before quoted, he alludes to the use of silk by females of indifferent character. He probably uses the epithet _Arabian_, because the Roman merchants obtained silk from the Arabs, who received it from Persia.

VIRGIL.

Soft wool from downy groves the Æthiop weaves, And Seres comb their fleece from silken leaves. _Georg._ ii. 120, 121.--Sotheby’s Translation.

The poet is here enumerating the chief productions of different countries, and therefore mentions cotton and silk. The idea, that silk webs were manufactured from thin fleeces obtained from trees, will be found recurring in many of the subsequent citations. It may have been founded on reports brought by the soldiers of Crassus, or by others who visited the interior of Asia about the same period.

HORACE.

Nor Coan purples, nor the blaze Of jewels can bring back the days, Which, fix’d by time, recorded stand, By all, who read the Fasti, scann’d. _Od._ _l._ iv. 13. (_ad Lycen._) 13-16.

As if uncloth’d, she stands confess’d In a translucent Coan vest. _Sat._ i. 2. 101.

These passages allude to the fineness and transparency of silken webs, which in the time of Horace were worn at Rome only by prostitutes, or by those women who aimed at being as attractive and luxurious as possible in their attire.

The former passage shows, that the silks manufactured in Cos were dyed with the murex, “Coæ purpuræ.”

The expression “Sericos pulvillos” (_Epod._ 8. 15.) has been supposed to denote small cushions covered with silk. But the epithet “Sericos” implies nothing more than that they were obtained from the Seres, who supplied the Romans with skins as well as silk[26]; and leather seems to have been a more proper substance than silk for making cushions.

[26] Plin. xxxiv. cap. 24.

OVID.

Sive erit in Tyriis, Tyrios laudabis amictus, Sive erit in Cois, Coa decere puta. Aurata est: ipso tibi sit pretiosior auro; Gausapa si sumsit, gausapa sumta proba. _Ars Amat._ ii. 297-300.

Whatever clothing she displays, From Tyre or Cos, that clothing praise: If gold shows forth the artist’s skill, Call her than gold more precious still: Or if she choose a coarse attire, E’en coarseness, worn by her, admire.

In another passage (_Amores_ i. 14. 5.) Ovid compares the thin hairs of a lady to the silken veils of the Seres,

Veils such as color’d Seres wear.

We now proceed to the testimonies of authors who wrote either in Greek or Latin at the latter part of the Augustan age, or immediately after it.

DYONISIUS PERIEGETES.

Καὶ ἔθνεα βάρβαρα Σηρῶν, Οἵτε βοὰς μὲν ἀναίνονται καὶ ἴφια μῆλα, Αἰόλα δὲ ξαίνοντες ἐρήμης ἄνθεα γαίης, Εἵματα τεύχουσιν πολυδαίδαλα, τιμήεντα, Εἰδόμενα χροιῇ λειμωνίδος ἄνθεσι ποίης· Κείνοις οὔτι κεν ἔργον ἀραχνάων ἐρίσειεν. (_l._ 755.)

And the barbarous nations of the Seres, who renounce the care of sheep and oxen, but comb the variously colored flowers of the desert land to make precious figured garments, resembling in color the flowers of the meadow, and rivalling (in fineness) the work of spiders.--Yates’s Translation.

It is worthy of observation that Dyonisius speaks expressly not only of the fineness of the thread, but of the _flowered texture_ of the silk.

STRABO.

Τοιαῦτα δὲ καὶ τὰ Σηρικὰ, ἔκ τι νων φλοιῶν ξαινομένης βύσσου. L. xv. 695. (v. vi. p. 40. _Tzschucke._)

This is repeated by Eustathius on Dyonisius Periegetes[27]. The account seems to have been taken by Strabo, perhaps inaccurately, from Nearchus. It is doubtful, whether Σηρικὰ denoted silken webs in this passage. But whatever Strabo meant, he supposed the raw material to be scraped from the bark of trees[28].

[27] L. 1107. p. 308, Bernhardy.

[28] Book ii. ch. 3. p. 307.

As contemporary with the authors last quoted, Dyonisius and Strabo, we may here mention the law passed by the Roman Senate early in the reign of Tiberius, “Ne vestis Serica viros fœdaret.” _Taciti Annales_, ii. 33. _Dion. Cass._ _l._ 57. p. 860. _Reim. Suidas in v._ Τιβέριος[29]. Silk was to be worn by women only.

[29] Dio Cassius (l. 43. p. 358. Rheim.) mentions as a report, that Julius Cæsar employed silk curtains (παραπετάσματα Σηρικὰ) to add to the splendor of his triumph.

The next emperor Caligula had silk curtains to his throne (_Dion. Cass. l._ 59. p. 915. _Reim._), and he wore silk as part of his dress, when he appeared in public. Dio Cassius particularly mentions, that, when he was celebrating a kind of triumph at Puteoli, he put on what he alleged to be the _thorax_ of Alexander, and over that a silken chlamys, dyed with the murex, and adorned with gold and precious stones. On the following day he wore a tunic interwoven with gold[30]. The use of shawls and tunics of silk was, however, except in the case of the extravagances of a Caligula, still confined to the female sex. Under the earlier emperors it is probable, that silk was obtained in considerable quantities for the wardrobe of the empress, where it was preserved from one reign to another, until in the year 176 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the philosopher, in consequence of the exhausted state of his treasury, sold by public auction in the Forum of Trajan the imperial ornaments and jewels together with the golden and silken robes of the Empress[31].

[30] In describing the effeminate dress of the emperor Caligula, Suetonius tells us (_cap._ 52), that he often went into public, wearing bracelets and long sleeves, and sometimes in a garment of silk and a cyclas.

[31] Jul. Capitol. c. xvii. p. 65. Bip.

FIRST CENTURY.

SENECA, THE PHILOSOPHER.

Posse nos vestitos esse sine commercio Serum.--_Epist._ 91.

We may clothe ourselves without any commerce with the Seres.

Video Sericas vestes, si vestes vocandæ sunt, in quibus nihil est, quo defendi aut corpus aut denique pudor possit: quibus sumtis mulier parum liquidò nudam se non esse jurabit. Hæc ingenti summâ ab ignotis etiam ad commercium gentibus accersunter, ut matronæ nostræ ne adulteris quidem plus sui in cubiculo quam in publico ostendant.--_De Beneficiis, L._ vii. _c._ 9.

I see silken (Seric) garments, if they can be called garments, which cannot afford any protection either for the body or for shame: on taking which a woman will scarce with a clear conscience deny, that she is naked. These are sent for at an enormous price from nations, to which our commerce has not yet extended, in order that our matrons may display their persons to the public no less than to adulterers in their chamber!--Yates’s Translation.

The Seres must be supposed to have dwelt somewhere in the centre of Asia. Perhaps those geographers who represent Little Bucharia as their country[32], are nearest the truth, and thus far neither Greeks nor Romans had penetrated. Silk was brought to them “from nations, to which even their commerce had not yet extended.” Hence their inaccurate ideas respecting its origin[33].

[32] The position of Serica is discussed by Latreille in his paper hereafter cited. See also Mannert. iv. 6. 6, 7. Brotier, Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscrip. tom. 46. John Reinhold Forster (_De Bysso_, p. 20, 21.) thinks that Little Bucharia was certainly the ancient Serica. Sir John Barrow (_Travels in China_, p. 435-438.) thinks the Seres were not the Chinese.

[33] The first author who speaks of the Seres as a distinct nation, is Mela, iii. 7. He describes them as a very honest people, who brought what they had to sell, laid it down and went away, and then returned for the price of it. The same account is given by Eustathius, on Dyonisius, l. 752. p. 242, Bernhardy.

SENECA, THE TRAGEDIAN.

Nec Mæonià distinguit acu, Quæ Phœbeis subditus Euris Legit Eois Ser arboribus. _Herc. Œtæus_, 664.

Nor with Mæonian needle marks the web, Gather’d by Eastern Seres from the trees.

Seres, illustrious for their fleece.

_Thyestes_, 378.

Remove, ye maids, the vests, whose tissue glares With purple and with gold; far be the red Of Tyrian murex, and the shining thread, Which furthest Seres gather from the boughs. _Hyppolitus_, 386. (_Phædra loquitur._)

At a very early period the art of dyeing had been carried to a very great degree of perfection in Phœnicia. The method of dyeing woollen cloths purple was, it is said, first discovered at Tyre. This color, the most celebrated among the ancients, appears to have been brought to a degree of excellence, of which we can form but a very faint idea:

“In oldest times, when kings and hardy chiefs In bleating sheep-folds met, for purest wool Phœnicia’s hilly tracts were most renown’d, And fertile Syria’s and Judæa’s land, Hermon, and Seir, and Hebron’s brooky sides, Twice with the murex, crimson hue, they ting’d The shining fleeces--hence their gorgeous wealth; And hence arose the walls of ancient Tyre[34].”

[34] Old Tyre was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar in the second year after the destruction of Jerusalem, or 584 B. C.

LUCAN.

Candida Sidonio perlucent pectora filo, Quod Nilotis acus percussum pectine Serum Solvit, et extenso laxavit stamina velo. L. x. 141. Her snowy breast shines through Sidonian threads, First by the comb of distant Seres struck, Divided then by Egypt’s skilful toil, And with embroidery transparent made.

The poet is describing the dress of Cleopatra. He supposes her to have worn over her breast a piece of silk, woven by the Seres, imported through Sidon into Egypt, and then embroidered. By the last process, in which the Egyptians greatly excelled, the threads were in part separated, so as to exhibit the appearance of lace, and to allow the white breast of the queen to be visible through the texture.

Amidst the braidings of her flowing hair, The spoils of orient rocks and shells appear: Like midnight stars, ten thousand diamonds deck The comely rising of her graceful neck; Of wondrous work, a thin transparent lawn O’er each soft breast in decency was drawn, Where still by turns the parting threads withdrew, And all the panting bosom rose to view. Her robe, her every part, her air confess The power of female skill exhausted in her dress. _Pharsalia_, x.

In glowing purple rich the coverings lie, Twice had they drunk the noblest Tyrian dye Others, as Pharian artists have the skill To mix the party-color’d web at will, With winding trails of various silks were made, Whose branching gold set off the rich brocade. _Ibid._

With this description we compare that of Seneca, which represents silk as embroidered in Asia Minor, with the “Mæonian needle.”

PLINY

speaks copiously and repeatedly of the manufacture of silk. Nevertheless we learn from him scarce anything, which we did not know from the earlier authorities. His accounts are taken from Aristotle, from Varro, and probably also from persons who accompanied the Parthian expeditions, or who engaged in the trade with inner Asia. But according to his usual manner, when he speaks of what he has not himself seen, he confounds accounts from different witnesses, which are inconsistent with one another. He asserts that the bombyx was a native of Cos; but it is not probable that the women of that island would, in such case, have recourse to the laborious operation of converting foreign finished goods into threads for their own weaving. It is, therefore, only reasonable to suppose that whatever manufacture was carried on from the raw material, was, like that of Tyre or Berytus, composed of unwrought silk imported from the East. It is mentioned both by Theophanes and Zonares, the Byzantine historians, that before silk-worms were brought to Constantinople in the middle of the sixth century, no person in that capital knew that silk was produced by a worm; a tolerably strong evidence that none were reared so near to Constantinople as Cos.

Pliny’s account of the Coan bombyx is evidently a cloud of fable and absurdity, in which, however, we may discern a few lines of truth, probably derived from the accounts of the silk-worm of the Seres.

JOSEPHUS

says, that the emperors Titus and Vespasian wore silk dresses[35], when they celebrated at Rome their triumph over the Jews.

[35] De Bello Jud. vii. 5. 4.

SAINT JOHN.

Silk (Σηρικὸν) occurs but once in the New Testament, Rev. xviii. 12. It is here mentioned in a curious enumeration of all the most valuable articles of foreign traffic.

SILIUS ITALICUS.

Seres lanigeris repetebant vellera lucis. _Punica._ vi. 4. Seres took fleeces from the woolly groves.

Munera rubri Præterea Ponti, depexaque vellera ramis, Femineus labor. _Ib._ xiv. 664.

The produce of the Erythræan seas, And fleeces comb’d by women from the trees[36].

Videre Eoi (monstrum admirabile!) Seres Lanigeros cinere Ausonio canescere lucos. _Ib._ xvii. 595, 596.

The Seres’ woolly groves, O wondrous sight! In the far East, were with Italian ashes white.

[36] See latter part of Chapter viii. Part First.

In the last passage Silius is describing the effects of the recent eruption of Mount Vesuvius, A. D. 79. That its ashes should reach the country of the Seres, whether it was in Persia or China, would indeed have been “Monstrum admirabile!”

STATIUS.

Seric (i. e. _silken_) palls. _Sylvæ_, iii. 4. 89.

PLUTARCH

dissuades the virtuous and prudent wife from wearing silk[37]. He mentions, that webs of silk and fine linen were at the same time thin and compact or close[38].

[37] Conjugailia Præcepta, tom. vi. p. 550. ed. Reiske.

[38] De Pythiæ Orac. c. iv. p. 557. Reiske.

JUVENAL

speaks of women,

Quarum Delicias et panniculus bombycinus urit. _Sat._ vi. 259. Whose beauty e’en a silken veil o’erheats.

MARTIAL.

Nec vaga tam tenui discursat aranea tela, Tam leve nec bombyx pendulus urget opus. _L._ viii. 33.

The spider traces not so thin a line, Nor does the pendent silk-worm spin so fine.

Fœmineum lucet sic per bombycina corpus, Calculus in nitida sic numeratur aqua. _L._ viii. 68.

Thus through her silk a lady’s body looks, Thus count we pebbles in the sparkling brooks.

De Pallatinis dominæ quod Serica prelis. _L._ xi. 9.

Here Martial alludes to the employment of presses (_prela_) for preserving the garments of silk and other precious materials, belonging to the Empress, in the same way, in which we now use presses to keep table-linen. He says to a lady (L. ix. 38.),

Nec dentes aliter, quam Serica, nocte reponas. Your teeth at night, like silks, you lay aside.

In another passage (L. xi. 27.) he speaks of silken goods (_Serica_) as procurable in the Vicus Tuscus at Rome: and lastly in L. xiv. _Ep._ 24, he mentions ribbons or fillets of silk as used for adorning the hair.

Tenuia ne madidi violent bombycina crines, Figat acus tortas, sustineatque comas.

Lest your moist hair defile the ribbons thin, Twist it in knots, and fix it with a pin.

PAUSANIAS,

a native of Asia Minor, and an inquisitive traveller in the second century, gives the following distinct account of Sericum according to the ideas received among the Greeks in his time.

The threads from which the Seres make webs, are not the produce of bark, but are obtained in the following manner. There is an animal in that country, which the Greeks call _Ser_, but which _they_ call by some other name. Its size is twice that of the largest beetle. In other respects it resembles the spiders, _which weave under the trees_. It has also the same number of feet as the spider, namely, eight[39]. In order to breed these creatures, the Seres have houses adapted both for summer and winter. The produce of the animal is a fine thread twisted about its legs. The Seres feed it four years on “panicum.” In the fifth year they give it green reed, of which it is so fond as to eat of it until it bursts, and after this the greatest part of the thread is found within its body[40].

[39] This does not apply to the silk-worm, which has sixteen legs, in pairs: six proper legs before, and ten holders behind. (See Figure 1. Plate iii.)

[40] _L._ vi. 26. p. 125. ed. Siebel.

The most interesting circumstance, mentioned by Pausanias, is the breeding of the silk-worms within doors in houses adapted both for summer and winter. There seems no reason to doubt the truth of this fact; and, if admitted, it proves, that their country, the Serica of the ancients, lay so far North, or was so elevated, as to have a great difference of temperature in summer and in winter. It is remarkable, that in China the worms are now reared in small houses, and this practice has long prevailed in that country[41].

[41] Barrow’s Travels in China, p. 437, &c. Résumé des Traités Chinois, &c. traduit par Julien, p. 70-72. 77-80. The practice is here shown to have prevailed as early as the fifth century B. C.

GALEN

recommends silk thread for tying blood-vessels in surgical operations, observing that the opulent women in many parts of the Roman empire possessed such thread, especially in the great cities[42]. He also mentions cloths of silk and gold in his treatise, c. 9. (_Hippocratis et Galeni Opp. ed. Chartier_, tom. vi. p. 533.):

[42] Methodus Medendi, l. xiii. c. 22.

“Of this kind are the shawls _interwoven with gold_, the materials of which are brought from afar, and which are called Seric or silk.”

CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS,

dissuading the Christian convert from luxury in dress, thus speaks:

Εἰ δὲ συμπεριφέρεσθαι χρὴ, ὀλίγον ἐνδοτέον αὐταῖς μαλακωτέροις χρῆσθαι τοῖς ὑφάσμασιν· μόνον τὰς μεμωρημένας λεπτουργίας, καὶ τὰς ἐν ταῖς ὑφαῖς περιέργους πλοκὰς ἐκποδὼν μεθιστάντας· νῆμα χρυσοῦ, καὶ σῆρας Ἰνδικοὺς, καὶ τοὺς περιέργους βόμβυκας χαίρειν ἐῶντας, ὃς σκώληξ φύεται τὸ πρῶτον· εἶτα ἐξ αὐτοῦ δασεῖα ἀναφαίνεται κάμπη. μεθ’ ἣν εἰς τρίτην μεταμόρφωσιν νεοχμοῦται βομβύλιον· οἱ δὲ νεκύδαλον αὐτὸ καλοῦσιν· ἐξ οὗ μακρὸς τίκτεται στήμων, καθάπερ ἐκ τῆς ἀράχνης ὁ τῆς ἀράχνης μίτος.--_Pædag._ ii. 10.

But, if it is necessary to accommodate ourselves to the women, let us concede to them the use of cloths, which are a little softer, only refusing that degree of fineness, which would imply folly, and such webs as are _excessively labored_ and _intricate_; bidding farewell to gold thread, and to the Indian Seres, and that industrious bombyx, which is first a worm, then puts on the appearance of a hairy caterpillar, and hence passes, in the third place, into a Bombylius, or, as some call it, a Necydalus; and out of which is produced a long thread, in the same manner as the thread of the spider. --_Yates’s Translation._

The use of the epithet “Indian” in this passage may be accounted for from the circumstance, that in the time of the writer silken goods were brought to Alexandria and other cities of Egypt from India. Clemens has evidently borrowed this description from Aristotle.

SECOND CENTURY.

TERTULLIAN.

thus describes the Bombyx:

Vermiculi genus est, qui per aërem liquando aranearum horoscopis idoneas sedes tendit, dehinc devorat, mox alvo reddere; proinde si necaveris, animata jam stamina volves.

It is a kind of worm, which extends abodes like the _dials of spiders_ by floating them through the air. It then devours them so as to restore them to its stomach. Therefore, if you kill it, you will roll living threads. (See chap. ix.)

In the same treatise (_De Pallio_, c. 4.) we find the following notice:

Such as Hercules was in the silk of Omphale.

Soon after, the same author, speaking of Alexander the Great, says,

Vicerat Medicam gentem, et victus est Medicâ veste:----pectus squamarum signaculis disculptum, textu pellucido tegendo, nudavit: et anhelum adhuc ab opere belli, ut mollius, ventilante serico extinxit. Non erat satis animi tumens Macedo, ni illum etiam vestis inflatior delectâsset.

He had conquered the Medes, and was conquered by a Median garment. When his breast exhibited the sculptured resemblances of scales, he covered it with a pellucid texture, which rather laid it bare; panting from the work of war, he cooled and mollified it by the use of silk, exposing it to the wind. It was not sufficient for the Macedonian to have a tumid mind; he required to be delighted also with an inflated garment.

He afterwards says of a philosopher,

He went wearing a garment of silk, and sandals of brass.

Again he says of a low character, “_She exposes her silk to the wind_.”

In his treatise on Female Attire he mentions silk in relation to Milesian wool, and he concludes that treatise in the following terms:

Manus lanis occupate, pedes domi figite, et plus quam in auro placebitis. Vestite vos serico probitatis, byssino sanctitatis, purpurâ pudicitiæ.

Employ your hands with wool; keep your feet at home. Thus will you please more than if you were in gold. Clothe yourselves with the silk of probity, with the fine linen of sanctity, and with the purple of modesty.

Lastly, this author says (_Adv. Marcionem_, _l._ i. p. 372.),

Imitare, si potes, apis ædificia, formicæ stabula, aranei retia, bombycis stamina.

Imitate, if thou canst, the constructions of the bee, the retreats of the ant, the nets of the spider, the threads of the silk-worm.

APULEIUS.

Prodeunt, mitellis, et crocotis, et carbasinis, et bombycinis injecti. * * * Deamque, serico contectam amiculo, mihi gerendam imponunt. _Metamorphoseon_, _l._ viii. _p._ 579, 580. _ed. Oudendorpii._

They came forward, wearing ribbons, and cloths of a saffron color, of cotton, and of silk, loosely thrown over them. * * * And they place on me the Goddess covered with a small silken scarf, to be carried by me.

Hic incinctus baltheo militem gerebat; illum succinctum chlamyde, copides et venabula venatorem fecerant; alius soccis obauratis, indutus serica veste, mundoque pretioso, et adtextis capite crinibus, incessu perfluo feminam mentiebatur. _Ibid._ _l._ xi. _p._ 769.

One performed the part of a soldier, girt with a sword; another had his chlamys tucked up by a belt, and carried scimitars and hunting-poles, as if engaged in the chace; another, wearing gilt slippers, a silken tunic, precious ornaments, and artificial hair, by his flowing attire represented a woman.

ULPIAN.

Vossius, in his _Etymologicum Linguæ Latinæ_, in the learned and copious article SERICUM, says, “Inter _sericum_ et _bombycinum_ discrimen ponit Ulpianus, l. xxiii. de aur. arg. leg. ‘Vestimentorum sunt omnia lanea, lineaque, vel serica, vel bombycina.’”

JULIUS POLLUX.

The Bombyces are worms, which emit from themselves threads, like the spider. Some say, that the Seres collect their webs from animals of this kind. L. vii. 76. p. 741.--_Kühn._

JUSTIN

evidently refers to the use of silken garments in his account of the customs of the Parthians, where he says,

They formerly dressed after their own fashion. After they became rich, they adopted the pellucid and flowing garments of the Medes. L. xli. c. 2.

All doubt, whether the transparent garments, mentioned by Justin, were of silk, must be removed by the authority of Procopius, from whom we shall hereafter cite ample and important testimony in reference to the time when he lived, and who in the two following passages expressly states, that the webs, called by the Greeks in his time _Seric_, were more anciently denominated _Median_.

Among the valuable and curious effects of the emperor Commodus, which after his death (A. D. 192.) were sold by his successor Pertinax, was a garment with a woof of silk, of a bright yellow color, the appearance of which was more beautiful than if the material had been interwoven with threads of gold[43].

[43] Vestis subtegmine serico, aureis filis insignior.--Jul. Capitolini Pertinax, c. 8. in Scrip. Hist. Augustæ.

THIRD CENTURY.

The authorities now quoted supply evidence respecting the use of silk among the Greeks and Romans down to the end of the second century. It is rarely mentioned by any writer belonging to the following century[44]; so far as we have discovered, only by the three historians now to be quoted, by Cyprian, and by Solinus. But we have from these historians some remarkable accounts of the regard paid to it by the emperors Heliogabalus, Alexander Severus, Aurelian, Claudius II., Tacitus, and Carinus, all of whom reigned in the third century.

[44] Mannert (Geogr. iv. 6. 7. p. 517.) attributes the excessive dearness of silk in the third century to the victories of the Persians, which at that time cut off all direct communication between Serica and the western world.

ÆLIUS LAMPRIDIUS says (c. 26.), that the profligate and effeminate emperor Heliogabalus was the first Roman, who wore cloth made wholly of silk, the silk having been formerly combined with other less valuable materials, and, in consequence of his example, the custom of wearing silk soon became general among the wealthy citizens of Rome. He mentions (c. 33) among the innumerable extravagances of this emperor, that he had prepared a silken rope of purple and scarlet colors to hang himself with.

Of the emperor Alexander Severus he says (c. 40), that he himself had few garments of silk, that he never wore a tunic made wholly of silk, and that he never gave away cloth made of silk mixed with less valuable materials.

The following is the testimony of Flavius Vopiscus in his life of the emperor Aurelian.

Aurelian neither had himself in his wardrobe a garment wholly of silk, nor gave one to be worn by another. When his own wife begged him to allow her to have a single shawl of purple silk, he replied, Far be it from us to permit thread to be reckoned worth its weight in gold. For a pound of gold was then the price of a pound of silk. c. 45.

Although the above mentioned restrictions in the use of silk may be partly accounted for from the usual severity of Aurelian’s character, yet the facts here stated abundantly show the rarity and high value of this material in that age.

Flavius Vopiscus further states, that the emperor Tacitus made it unlawful for men to wear silk unmixed with cheaper materials. Carinus, on the other hand, made presents of silken garments, as well as of gold and silver, to Greek artificers, and to wrestlers, players, and musicians.

TREBELLIUS POLLIO, in his life of Claudius II. (c. 14 _and_ 17.), twice mentions white garments of silk mixed with cheaper materials, which were destined for that emperor.

CYPRIAN,

Bishop of Carthage in the third century, inveighs in the following terms against the use of silk:

Tu licet indumenta peregrina et vestes sericas induas, nuda es. Auro te licet et margaritis gemmisque condecores, sine Christi decore deformis es. _De Lapsis_, _p._ 135. _ed. Fell._

Although thou shouldest put on a tunic of foreign silk, thou art naked; although thou shouldest beautify thyself with gold, and pearls, and gems, without the beauty of Christ thou art unadorned.

Also in his treatise on the dress of Virgins he says,

Sericum et purpuram indutæ, Christum induere non possunt: auro et margaritis et monilibus adornatæ, ornamenta cordis et pectoris perdiderunt.

Those who put on silk and purple, cannot put on Christ: women, adorned with gold and pearls and necklaces, have lost the ornaments of the heart and of the breast.

In the same place he gives us a translation of the well-known passage of Isaiah enumerating the luxuries of female attire among the Jews: “In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the head-bands, and the tablets, and the ear-rings, the rings, and nose-jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils.” Isaiah in. 18-23.

SOLINUS,

Primos hominum Seres cognoscimus, qui, aquarum aspergine inundatis frondibus, vellera arborum adminiculo depectunt liquoris, et lanuginis teneram subtilitatem humore domant ad obsequium. Hoc illud est sericum, in quo ostentare potius corpora quàm vestire, primò feminis, nunc etiam viris persuasit luxuriæ libido. _Cap._ 1.

The Seres first, having inundated the foliage with aspersions of water, combed down fleeces from trees by the aid of a fluid, and subdued to their purposes the tender and subtile down by the use of moisture. The substance so prepared is silk; that material in which at first women, but now even men, have been persuaded by the eagerness of luxury rather to display their bodies, than to clothe them.

AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS.

This historian describes the Seres as “a quiet and inoffensive people who, avoiding all quarrels with their neighbors, are exempt from the distresses and alarms of war, and not being under the necessity of using offensive arms, do not even know their use, and occupy a fertile country under a delicious and healthy climate. He represents them as passing their happy life in the most perfect tranquillity and the most delicious repose amidst shady thickets refreshed by pleasant zephyrs, and where the soil furnishes so soft a wool, that after having been sprinkled with water and combed, it forms cloths resembling silk.”

Marcellinus proceeds to describe the Seres as being content with their own felicitous condition, and so reserved in their intercourse with the rest of mankind, that when foreigners venture within their boundaries for wrought and unwrought silk, and other valuable articles, they consider the price offered in silence, and transact their business without exchanging a word; a mode of traffic which is still practised in some eastern countries.

Macpherson, in the Annals of Commerce, a very valuable work, thinks that according to all appearances, the Seres were themselves the authors of this story, in order to make strangers believe that their country enjoyed all these benefits by the peculiar blessing of heaven, and that no other nation could participate in them.

The remarks of Solinus and Ammianus conspire to show, how much more common silk had become about the end of the third century, being then worn, at least with a warp of cheaper materials, by men as well as by women, and not being confined to the noble and the wealthy. These authors likewise dilate upon the use of showers of water to detach silk from the trees on which it was found. According to Pliny and Solinus, water was also employed after the silk was gathered from the trees[45]: and probably the fact was so. Silk, as it comes from the worm, contains a strong gum, which would be dissolved by the showers of water dashed against the trees, and thus the cocoons, being loosened from the leaves and twigs, would be easily collected. In the subsequent processes, water would be further useful in enabling the women to spin the silk or to wind it upon bobbins.

[45] “The remaining shores are occupied by savage nations, as the Melanchlæni and Coraxi, Dioscurias, a City of the Colchians, near the river Anthemus, being now deserted, although formerly so illustrious, that Timosthenes has recorded that _three hundred nations_ used to resort to it _speaking different languages_; and that business was afterwards transacted on our part through the medium of _one hundred and thirty_ interpreters.”

It may be observed that in this use of water art only follows nature. When the moth is ready to leave its cell, it always softens the extremity of it by emitting a drop of fluid, and thus easily obtains for itself a passage. In the third volume of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society (p. 543.), Colonel Sykes gives the following account of the process by which the moth of the Kolisurra silk-worm liberates itself from confinement. “It discharges from its mouth a liquor, which dissolves or loosens that part of the cocoon adjoining to the cord which attaches it to the branch, causing a hole, and admitting of the passage of the moth. The solvent property of this liquid is very remarkable; for that part of the cocoon, against which it is directed, although previously as hard as a piece of wood, becomes soft and pervious as wetted brown paper.”

In the seventh volume of the Linnæan Transactions, is an account by Dr. Roxburgh of the Tusseh silk-worm. Both species are natives of Bengal. The cocoons require to be immersed in cold water before the silk can be obtained from them. In the latter species it is too delicate to be wound from the cocoons, and is therefore spun like cotton. Thus manufactured it is so durable, that the life of one person is seldom sufficient to wear out a garment made of it, and the same piece descends from mother to daughter. (See Chap. VIII. of this Part.)