Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/405

 *complished with some success by cutting the surface of the pyramid over with a tracery of vegetable foliage, in the midst of which simple monograms were often interspersed. As such shapes are not produced in any strict conformity of outline, they are usually imitated with facility, and a measured or geometrical treatment is, in general, satisfactory to the eye.

In the sixth decade of this century, three incidents occurred, which were of more or less importance in connection with the subject of this section. In 551 some Asiatic monks introduced themselves to Justinian, and informed him that it was in their power to solve the difficulties which oppressed him with respect to the silk trade. Having resided long in China, they had become familiar with the method of rearing the silkworm, and they explained that if the eggs were transported to Europe they could be hatched in dung, so that a native manufacture of silk could be established. The Emperor promised to reward them liberally if they should succeed in the enterprise; and the next year they again presented themselves, furnished with a stock of the eggs, which, as some say, they had been obliged to carry away furtively concealed in hollow canes. Successful incubation followed; the worms were fed on mulberry leaves; and from this beginning dates the active propagation of the insects throughout Southern Europe, from whence nearly half the quantity of silk in commercial demand is supplied to the markets of the world. In 554 a severe earthquake occurred, the violence of which was chiefly operative along the Syrian coast. The city of Berytus was totally wrecked, and many persons, including numbers of law students, perished in the