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

SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 37
only by llie three historians now to be quoted, by Cyprian, and
by Solinus. But we have from these historians some remark-
able accounts of the regard paid to it by the emperors Heliogab-
alus, Alexander Severus, Aurelian, Claudius 11., Tacitus, and
Carinus, all of whom reigned in the third century.
iELius Lampridius says (c. 26.), that the profligate and
effeminate emperor Heliogabalus was the first Roman, who
wore cloth made wholly of silk, the silk having been formerly
combined with other less valuable materials, and, in consequence
of his example, the custom of wearing silk soon became gen-
eral among the wealthy citizens of Rome. He mentions (c. 33)
among the innumerable extravagances of this emperor, that
he had prepared a silken rope of purple and scarlet colors to
hang himself with.
Of the emperor Alexander Severus he says (c. 40), that he
himself had few garments of silk, that he never wore a tunic
made wholly of silk, and that he never gave away cloth made
of silk mixed with less valuable materials.
Tiie following is the testimony of Flavius Vopiscus in his Ufe
of the emperor Aurelian.
Aurelian neither had himself in his wardrobe a garment wholly of silk, nor
gave one to be worn by another. When his own wife begged him to allow her to
have a single shawl of purple silk, he replied, Far be it from us to permit thread
to be reckoned worth its weight in gold. For a pound of gold was then the price
of a pound of silk. c. 45.
Although the above mentioned restrictions in the use of silk
may be partly accounted for from the usual severity of Aure-
lian's character, yet the facts here stated abundantly show the
rarity and high value of this material in that age.
Flavius Vopiscus further states, that the emperor Tacitus made
it unlawful for men to wear silk unmixed with cheaper mate-
rials. Carinus, on the other hand, made presents of silken
garments, as well as of gold and silver, to Greek artificers, and
to wrestlers, players, and musicians.
Trebellius Pollio, in his life of Claudius II. (c. 14 and
17.), twice mentions white garments of silk mixed with cheaper
materials, which were destined for that emperor.