The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

FELT BY THE ANCIENTS. 417
note the act of compressing-, or forcing the separate hairs to-
gether, gave origin to the participle coactus^ and its derivative
coact'dis. Pliny (H. N. viii. 48. s. 73.), after speaking of
woven stuffs, mentions in the following terms the use of wool
for making felt : " Lajia> et per se coacta3 {al. coactam) vestem
ficiunt,*' i. e. " Parcels of wool, driven together by themselves,
make cloth." This is a very exact, though brief description of
the process of felting. The following monumental inscription
(Gruter, p. 648, n. 4.) contains the title Lanarius coactiliarius,
meaning a manufacturer of icoollen felt
M. Ballorius M. L. Lariseus, Lanarius coactiliarius,
CONJUGA CARISSIM.E B. M. FEC.
Helvius Successus, the son of a freed man, and the father
of the Roman emperor Pertinax, was a hatter in Liguria
[tahernani coactiliariam in Liguria exercuerat, Jul. Cap.
Pertinax, c. 3.). Pertinax himself, being fond of money, hav-
ing the perseverance expressed by his agnomen, and having
doubtless, in the course of his expeditions into the East, made
valuable observations respecting the manufacture which he
had known from his boyhood, continued and extended the
same business, carrying it on and conveymg his goods to a dis-
tance by the agency of slaves. The Romans originally receiv-
ed the use of felt together with its name* from the Greeks
(Plutarch, Numa, p. 117, ed. Steph.). The Greeks were ac-
quainted with it as early as the age of Homer, who lived about
900 B. C. (7Z. X. 265), and Hesiod {Op. et Dies, 542, 546).
The principal use of felt among the Greeks and Romans
was to make coverings of the head for the male sex, and the
most common cover made of this manufacture was a simple
skull-cap, i. e. a cap exactly fitted to the shape of the head, as
is showai in Plate VIII. fig. 1. taken from a sepulchral bas-relief
which was found by Mr. Dodwcll in Boeotiat. The original is
as large as Ufe. The person represented appears to have been
a Cynic philosopher. He leans upon the staff {baculus,
* Pileiis or Pileutn (Non. IMarc. iii., pilea vironim sunt, Sen'iuii m Virg.jEn.
:
—
ix. 616.), dim. Pileolus or Pileolum (Coliim. de Arbor. 25).
+ Tour through Greece, vol. i. pp. 242, 243.
53