This, certainly, would not have
been the case, if there had been silk-worms so near Constantinople as the
island of Cos is. All the authors whom we have quoted, (with the exception
of Aristotle, Pliny, and Pausanias,) including a period of six centuries,
supposed that silk was made from fleeces growing upon trees, from the bark
of trees, or from flowers. These mistakes, may, indeed, have arisen from
the Romans having heard of the silk being taken from the mulberry and other
trees, on which the worms feed; but, however they originated, they plainly
prove that the native country of the silk-worm was at a very great distance
from Rome, and one of which they had very little knowledge.
Having thus brought the history of this most valuable import into Rome,
down to the period, when, in consequence of the Romans having acquired the
silk-worm, there existed no longer any necessity to import the raw
materials; we shall next proceed to investigate the routes by which it was
brought from the Seres to the western parts of Asia, and thence to Rome. It
is well ascertained, that the silk manufacture was established at Tyre and
Berytus, from a very early period; and these places seem to have supplied
Rome with silk stuffs. But, by what route did silk arrive thither, and to
the other countries, so as to be within the immediate reach of the
Romans?--There were two routes, by which it was introduced to Europe, and
the contiguous parts of Asia: by land and sea.
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