HISTORY OF THE SILK MANUFACTURE CONTINUED TO THE 4TH CENTURY.
SPINNING, DYEING, AND WEAVING.--HIGH DEGREE OF EXCELLENCE ATTAINED IN
THESE ARTS.
Testimony of the Latin poets of the Augustan
age--Tibullus--Propertius--Virgil--Horace--Ovid--Dyonisius
Perigetes--Strabo. Mention of silk by authors in the
first century--Seneca the Philosopher--Seneca the
Tragedian--Lucan--Pliny--Josephus--Saint John--Silius
Italicus--Statius--Plutarch--Juvenal--Martial--Pausanias--Galen--Clemens
Alexandrinus--Caution to Christian converts against the
use of silk in dress. Mention of silk by authors in the
second century--Tertullian--Apuleius--Ulpian--Julius
Pollux--Justin. Mention of silk by authors in the
third century--Ælius Lampidius--Vopiscus--Trebellius
Pollio--Cyprian--Solinus--Ammianus--Marcellinus--Use of silk by the
Roman emperors--Extraordinary beauty of the textures--Use of water
to detach silk from the trees--Invectives of these authors against
extravagance in dress--The Seres described as a happy people--Their
mode of traffic, etc.--(Macpherson’s opinion of the Chinese.)--City of
Dioscurias, its vast commerce in former times.--(Colonel Syke’s account
of the Kolissura silk-worm--Dr. Roxburgh’s description of the Tusseh
silk-worm.) 22