Is the type of monarchical enlightenment. With Caucasian nations it has
been the symbolic color of royalty, until 'invest with the purple,' in
the course of ages, comes to mean kingdom, government, power, to rule.
Purple is formed by the union of blue and red, truth and valor. Happy
the people who are truly governed by truth and valor! The Tyrian purple
was famous in Homer's days, and our dreams of Tyre and its splendor are
all colored by this most gorgeous of dyes, the manufacture of which from
a species of shell fish gave this ancient city a celebrity which all its
other arts combined could not equal. This was one of the symbolic colors
with which the high priest's robe was wrought in figures of pomegranates
upon its skirt; and when Solomon sent to Hiram, king of Tyre, for a
cunning workman to assist in building the temple, he did not fail to
require he should be skilled in purple. During the time of the Roman
emperors, the Tyrian purple was valued so highly that a pound of cloth
twice dipped was sold for about one hundred and fifty dollars. Even a
purple border about a robe was a mark of dignity.