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SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 45
With joy elated at this proud success,
Their venerable mother now prepares
The golden trabcas, and tiie cinctures bright
With Seric fibres shorn from woolly trees
Her well-train'd thumb protracts the length'ning gold,
And makes the metal to the threads adhere.
In Probini et Olyhrii Consulatum, I. 177-182.
From these verses we learn that Proba had herself acquired
the art of covering the thread with gold, and that she then
used her gold thread in the ivoof to form the stripes or other
ornaments of the consular trabeae. These are afterwards call-
ed "stiff togas" {togce, rigentes, I. 205.), on account of the
rigidity imparted to them by the gold thread.
The same poet gives an elaborate description of a Trabea
which he supposes to have been woven by the Goddess Rome
with the aid of Minerva for the use of the Consul Stilicho.
Five different scenes are said to have been woven in this admi-
rable robe [regentia dona, graves aiiro trabeas), and certain
parts of them were wrought in gold*.
Again, Claudian supposes Thetis to have woven scarfs of gold
and purple for her son Achilles
Ipsa manu chlamydes ostro texebat et auro. {Ep. 35.)
:
The epigram in which this line occurs, seems to imply that
Serena, mother-in-law of the Emperor Honorius, wove garments
of the same kind for him.
Maria, the daughter of the above-mentioned Stilicho, was
bestowed by him upon Honorius, but died shortly after, about
A. D. 400. In February, 1544, the marble coffm, containing
her remains, was discovered at Rome. In it were preserved a
garment and a pall, which, on being burnt, yielded 3G ])ounds
of gold. There were also found a great number of glass ves-
sels, jewels, and ornaments of all kinds, which Stilicho had
given as a dowry to his daughtcrt. We may conclude, that
the garments discovered in the tomb of Maria were woven by
the hands of her mother Serena, since the epigram of Claudian
* In I. Cons. Stilichonis, L. ii. 330-.359.
t Surii Comment. Rerum Gest. ab anno 1500, &c.
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