In his time, slight silks, flowered, seem to have been introduced
into religious ceremonies, as he describes crowns, in honour of the
deities, of various colours, and highly perfumed, made of silk. The next
author who mentions silk is Pausanias; he says, the thread from which the
Seres form their web is not from any kind of bark, but is obtained in a
different way; they have in their country a spinning insect, which the
Greeks call seer. He supposes that the insect lived five years, and fed on
green haulm: by the last particular, it is not improbable he meant the
leaves of the mulberry tree. For 200 years after the age of Pliny, the use
of silk was confined to the female sex, till the richer citizens, both of
the capital and the provinces, followed the example of Heliogabalus, the
first man, who, according to Lampridius, wore _holosericum_ that is, a
garment which was all of silk. From this expression, however, it is
evident, that previous to this period the male inhabitants of Rome had been
in the habit of wearing garments made of silk mixed with linen or woollen.
Hitherto there is no intimation in ancient authors of the price of silk at
Rome; in the time of Aurelian, however, that is towards the end of the
third century, we learn the high price at which it was rated, in an
indirect manner. For when the wife of that Emperor begged of him to permit
her to have but one single garment of purple silk; he refused it, saying,
that one pound of silk sold at Rome for 12 ounces, or its weight of gold.
Pages:
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378