Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/120

 Themistius describes a portrait of one of the kings of Persia, who wore, together with the tiara and the collar or necklace, a purple shawl interwoven with gold (Orat. 24. p. 369. ed. Dindorf.).

During the periods to which the preceding evidence has allusion, it is not probable that cloth of gold was in use among the Greeks and Romans except to a very limited extent. Nevertheless it does not appear to have escaped the avidity for every species of excellence, which in early times distinguished the inhabitants of Magna Græcia. For, when Pythagoras became a teacher of wisdom and philosophy at Crotona, among other lessons of frugality he persuaded the matrons to put off their "golden garments" with other fashionable ornaments, and deposit them in the temple of Juno as offerings to the goddess. In a passage attributed to Menander we meet with the mention of a "golden or purple chlamys" as a suitable offering to the gods. Hedylus of Samos, a writer of the same age, describes a woman of loose morals, by name Niconoe, as wearing a tunic striped with gold (Brunck's Analecta, i. 483.).

Attalus, king of Pergamus, is said by Pliny (L. viii. cap. 48.) to have invented the art of embroidering with gold thread. Nevertheless we have seen, that gold was thus used long before the time of Attalus. But there can be no doubt, that he established and maintained a great manufacture of these stuffs at Pergamus; thus contributing greatly to improve the art, and bring these cloths into more general use.

The next passage is from Dr. Bostock's translation of the 33rd Book, ch. xix. "Gold may be spun or woven like wool, without the latter being mixed with it. We are informed by Verrius, that Tarquinius Priscus rode in triumph in a tunic of gold; and we have seen Agrippina, the wife of the Emperor Claudius, when he exhibited the spectacle of a naval combat, sitting by him covered with a robe made entirely of woven gold. In what are called the Attalic stuffs, the gold is woven