When they returned, they
communicated their information to Justinian; and were induced, by his
promises, to undertake the transportation of the eggs of the silk-worm,
from China to Constantinople. Accordingly, they went back to Serindi, and
brought away a quantity of the eggs in a hollow cane, and conveyed them
safely to Constantinople. They superintended and directed the hatching of
the eggs, by the heat of a dunghill: the worms were fed on mulberry leaves:
a sufficient number of butterflies were saved to keep up the stock; and to
add to the benefits already conferred, the Persian monks taught the Romans
the whole of the manufacture. From Constantinople, the silk-worms were
conveyed to Greece, Sicily, and Italy. In the succeeding reign, the Romans
had improved so much in the management of the silk-worms, and in the
manufacture of silk, that the Serindi ambassadors, on their arrival in
Constantinople, acknowledged that the Romans were not inferior to the
natives of China, in either of these respects. It may be mentioned, in
further proof of the opinion already given, that the silk manufactures of
Cos were not supplied from silk-worms in that island, that we have the
express authority of Theophanes and Zonaras, that, before silk-worms were
brought to Constantinople, in the reign of Justinian, no person in that
city knew that silk was produced by a worm.
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