Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/94

 brought from the country of the Seres to be dyed in Phœnice. In Horace we have already noticed the "Coæ purpuræ."

A passage from the Burgus Pontii Leontii (Carmen. xxii.), shows that the same article (Serica fila) was imported into Gaul.

In the same author (l. ii. Epist. ad Serranum) we meet with "Sericatum toreuma." The latter word probably denoted a carved sofa or couch. The epithet "sericatum" may have referred to its silken cover.

The same author describes Prince Sigismer, who was about to be married, going in a splendid procession and thus clothed:

Ipse medius incessit, flammeus cocco, rutilus auro, lacteus serico. L. iv. ''Epist. p'' 107. ''ed. Elmenhorstii''.

He himself marched in the midst, his attire flaming with coccus, glittering with gold, and of milky whiteness with silk.

Describing the heat of the weather, he says:

One man perspires in cotton, another in silk.

L. ii. Epist. 2.

Lastly, in the following lines he alludes to the practice of giving silk to the successful charioteers at the Circensian games:

The Emp'ror, just as powerful, ordains That silks with palms be given, crowns with chains: Thus marks high merit, and inferior praise In brilliant carpets to the rest conveys.

Carmen. xxiii. l. 423-427

ALCIMUS AVITUS, CL., A. D. 490.

Describing the rich man in the parable of Lazarus, this author says:

Ipse cothurnatus gemmis et fulgidus auro Serica bis coctis mutabat tegmina blattis.

L. iii. 222.

In jewell'd buskins and a blaze of gold, Silk shawls, or twice in scarlet dipt, he wore.

Avitus also mentions "the soft fleeces sent by the Seres."