The most propable supposition is, that silk was spun and wove in
Assyria and Cos, but the raw material imported into these countries from
the Seres; for the silk worm was deemed by the Greeks and Romans so
exclusively and pre-eminently the attribute of the Sinae, that from this
very circumstance, they were denominated seres, or silk worms, by the
ancients.
The next authors who mention silk are Virgil, and Dionysius the geographer;
Virgil supposed the Seres to card their silk from leaves,--_Velleraque ut
foliis depectunt tentuia Seres_.--Dionysius, who was sent by Augustus to
draw up an account of the Oriental regions, says, that rich and valuable
garments were manufactured by the Seres from threads, finer than those of
the spider, which they combed from flowers.
It is not exactly known at what period silk garments were first worn at
Rome: Lipsius, in his notes on Tacitius, says, in the reign of Julius
Csesar. In the beginning of the reign of Tiberius, a law was made, that no
man should dishonor himself by wearing a silken garment. We have already
stated the opinion entertained by Pliny respecting the native country of
the silk worm; this author condemns in forcible, though affected language,
the thirst of gain, which explored the remotest parts of the earth for the
purpose of exposing to the public eye naked draperies and transparent
matrons.
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