Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/116

 CHAPTER V.

SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OF THE ANCIENTS.

HIGH DEGREE OF EXCELLENCE ATTAINED IN THIS MANUFACTURE.

Manufacture of golden textures in the time of Moses—Homer—Golden tunics of the Lydians—Their use by the Indians and Arabians—Extraordinary display of scarlet robes, purple, striped with silver, golden textures, &c., by Darius, king of Persia—Purple and scarlet cloths interwoven with gold—Tunics and shawls variegated with gold—Purple garments with borders of gold—Golden chlamys—Attalus, king of Pergamus, not the inventor of gold thread—Bostick—Golden robe worn by Agrippina—Caligula and Heliogabalus—Sheets interwoven with gold used at the obsequies of Nero—Babylonian shawls intermixed with gold—Silk shawls interwoven with gold—Figured cloths of gold and Tyrean purple—Use of gold in the manufacture of shawls by the Greeks—4,000,000 sesterces (about $150,000) paid by the Emperor Nero for a Babylonish coverlet—Portrait of Constantius II.—Magnificence of Babylonian carpets, mantles, &c.—Median sindones.

The use of gold in weaving may be traced to the earliest times, but seems to be particularly characteristic of oriental manners.

It was employed in connexion with woollen and linen thread of the finest colors to enrich the ephod, girdle, and breast-plate of Aaron. The sacred historian goes so far as to describe the*