SĒRĬCUM (σηρικόν), silk, also called _bombycinum_. Raw silk was
brought from the interior of Asia, and manufactured in Cos, as early
as the fourth century B.C. From this island it appears that the Roman
ladies obtained their most splendid garments [COA VESTIS], which
were remarkably thin, sometimes of a fine purple dye, and variegated
with transverse stripes of gold. Silk was supposed to come from
the country of the Seres in Asia, whence a silk garment is usually
called _Serica vestis_. Under the empire the rage for such garments
was constantly on the increase. Even men aspired to be adorned with
silk, and hence the senate, early in the reign of Tiberius, enacted
_ne vestis Serica viros fœdaret_. The eggs of the silkworm were first
brought into Europe in the age of Justinian, A.D. 530, in the hollow
stem of a plant from “Serinda,” which was probably Khotan in Little
Bucharia, by some monks who had learnt the method of hatching and
rearing them.