APPENDICES.
APPENDIX A.ON PLINY’S NATURAL HISTORY.
Sheep and wool—Price of wool in Pliny’s time—Varieties of wool and where produced—Coarse wool used for the manufacture of carpets—Woollen cloth of Egypt—Embroidery—Felting—Manner of cleansing—Distaff of Tanaquil—Varro—Tunic—Toga—Undulate or waved cloth—Nature of this fabric—Figured cloths in use in the days of Homer (900 B. C.)—Cloth of gold—Figured cloths of Babylon—Damask first woven at Alexandria—Plaided textures first woven in Gaul—$150,000 paid for a Babylonish coverlet—Dyeing of wool in the fleece—Observations on sheep and goats—Dioscurias a city of the Colchians—Manner of transacting business.
Sheep and wool—Price of wool in Pliny’s time—Varieties of wool and where produced—Coarse wool used for the manufacture of carpets—Woollen cloth of Egypt—Embroidery—Felting—Manner of cleansing—Distaff of Tanaquil—Varro—Tunic—Toga—Undulate or waved cloth—Nature of this fabric—Figured cloths in use in the days of Homer (900 B. C.)—Cloth of gold—Figured cloths of Babylon—Damask first woven at Alexandria—Plaided textures first woven in Gaul—$150,000 paid for a Babylonish coverlet—Dyeing of wool in the fleece—Observations on sheep and goats—Dioscurias a city of the Colchians—Manner of transacting business.
[569]The edition here followed is that of Sillig, Lipsiæ, 1831-6, 5 vols., 12mo.
[569]The edition here followed is that of Sillig, Lipsiæ, 1831-6, 5 vols., 12mo.
[569]The edition here followed is that of Sillig, Lipsiæ, 1831-6, 5 vols., 12mo.
“We are also much indebted to sheep both in sacrifices to propitiate the gods, and in the use of their fleeces. As oxen produce by cultivation the food of men, so we owe to sheep the protection of our bodies.... There are two principal kinds of sheep, thecoveredand thecommon. The former is softer, the latter more delicate in feeding, inasmuch as the covered feeds on brambles. Its coverings are chiefly of Arabic materials.
“The most approved wool is the Apulian, and that which is calledthe wool of Greek sheepin Italy, andthe Italic woolin other places. The third kind in value is that obtained from Milesian sheep. The Apulian wools have a short staple, and are only celebrated for making pænulas. They attain the highest degree of excellence about Tarentum and Canusium. In Asia wools of the same kind are obtained at Laodicea. No white wool is preferred to those which are produced about the Po, nor has a pound ever yet exceeded a hundred sesterces (about $3,60.). Sheep are not shorn everywhere: in certain places the practice of pulling off the wool continues. There are various colors of wool, so that we want terms to denote all. Spain produces some of those varieties which we callnative; Pollentia, near the Alps, furnishes the chief kinds of black wool; Asiaand Bætica those ruddy varieties calledErythrean; Canusium a sandy-colored[570]wool; and Tarentum one of a dark shade peculiar to that locality. New-shorn greasy wools have all a medicinal virtue. The wool of Istria and Liburnia being more like hair than wool, is unsuitable for making the cloths which have alongnap. This is also the case with the wool of Salacia in Lusitania; but the cloth made from it is recommended by itsplaided pattern. A similar kind is produced about Piscenæ (i. e.Pezenas), in the province of Narbonne, and likewise in Egypt, the woollen cloth of which country, having been worn by use, isembroideredand lasts some time longer. Thecoarse wool with a thick staple was used in very ancient times for carpets: at least Homer (900 B. C.) speaks of the use of it.The Gauls have one method of embroidering these carpets, and the Parthians another.Portions of wool also make clothby being forced together by themselves[571]. With the addition of vinegar these also resist iron, nay even fires, which are the last expedient for purging them; for, having been taken out of the caldrons of the polishers, they are sold for the stuffing of beds, an invention made, I believe, in Gaul, certainly in the present day distinguished by Gallic names: for in what age it commenced I could not easily say, since the ancients used beds of straw, such as are now employed in camps. The cloths calledgausapabegan to be used within the memory of my father; those calledamphimallawithin my own, (See Part First,p. 30,) as well as the shaggy coverings for the stomach, calledventralia. For the tunic with the laticlave is now first beginning to be woven after the manner of thegausapa. The black wools are never dyed. Concerning the dyeing of the others we shall speak in their proper places, in treating of sea-shells or the nature of herbs.
“M. Varro says, that the wool continued to his time upon the distaff and spindle of Tanaquil, also called Caia Cæcilia, in the temple of Sangus; and that there remained in the temple of Fortune a royal undulate toga made by her, which Servius Tullius had worn. Hence arose the practice of carrying a distaff with wool upon it, and a spindle with its thread, after virgins who were going to be married. She first wove the straight tunic, such as is worn by tiros together with thetoga pura, and by newly-married women. Theundulateor waved cloth was originally one of the most admired; from it was derived thesoriculate[572]. Fenestrella writes, thatscrapedandPhryxiantogas came into favor about the end of thereign of the Divine Augustus. Thethick poppiedtogas are of remoter origin, being noticed even so far back as by the poet Lucilius in his Torquatus. Thetoga prætextawas invented among the Etruscans. I find evidence that kings wore thestriped toga[573], that figured cloths were in use even in the days of Homer; and that these gave rise to thetriumphal. To produce this effect with the needle was the invention of the Phrygians, on which account cloths so embroidered have been calledPhrygionic. In the same part of Asia king Attalus (see Part I.p. 88.) discovered the art of inserting a woof of gold: from which circumstance theAttaliccloths received their name. Babylon first obtained celebrity by its method ofdiversifying the picture with different colors, and gave its name to textures of this description. But to weave with a great number of leashes, so as to produce the cloths calledpolymita(i. e. damask cloths), was first taught in Alexandria; to divide by squares (i. e. plaids) in Gaul. Metellus Scipio brought it as an accusation against Cato, that even in his time Babylonian coverlets for triclinia were sold for 800,000 sesterces ($30,000), although the emperor Nero lately gave for them no less than 4,000,000 sesterces (about $150,000). Theprætextaof Servius Tullius, covering the statue of Fortune which he dedicated, remained until the death of Sejanus, and it is wonderful that they had neither decayed of themselves nor been injured by the worms of moths through the space of 560 years. We have, moreover, seen the fleeces of living sheep dyed with purple, with the coccus, or the murex, in pieces of barka foot and a half long, luxury appearing to force this upon them as if it were their nature.
“In the sheep itself the excellence of the breed is sufficiently shown by the shortness of the legs and the clothing of the belly. Those which have naked bellies used to be calledapicæ, and were condemned. The tails of the Syrian sheep are a cubit broad, and in that part they bear a great quantity of wool. It is thought premature to castrate lambs before they are five months old. In Spain, but especially in Corsica, there is a race of animals called musmons, resembling sheep, except that their covering is more like goats’-hair. The ancients called the mixed breed of sheep and musmonsUmbri.Sheep have a very weak head, on which account they are obliged to turn from the sun in feeding.They are most foolish animals.Where they have been afraid to enter, they follow one dragged along by the horn. They live ten years at the longest, but in Æthiopia thirteen years. Goats live there eleven years, and in other countries eight at the most.... In Cilicia and about the Syrtes, goats have a shaggy coat, which admits of being shorn.”
[570]This term is adopted as the best translation of the Latinfulvus, which, as well as the corresponding Greek adjective ξανθὸς, denoted a light yellowish-brown. Hence it was so commonly applied to the light hair, which accompanies a light complexion and often indicates mental vivacity, and which has consequently been always considered beautiful. Hence also it was used to denote the appearance of the Tiber and other rivers, when they were rendered turbid by the quantity of sand suspended in their waters.—See Fellows’sDiscoveries in Lycia.[571]SeeAppendix C.[572]It is probable thatsoriculatecloth was a kind of velvet, or plush, so called from its resemblance to the coat of the field-mouse,sorex, dim.soricula.Soriculatamay have been changed intosororiculataby repeating or at the beginning of the word.[573]The toga worn by the kings and other supreme magistrates among the Romans was calledtrabeafrom the stripes, which were compared to the joists or rafters of a building (trabes).
[570]This term is adopted as the best translation of the Latinfulvus, which, as well as the corresponding Greek adjective ξανθὸς, denoted a light yellowish-brown. Hence it was so commonly applied to the light hair, which accompanies a light complexion and often indicates mental vivacity, and which has consequently been always considered beautiful. Hence also it was used to denote the appearance of the Tiber and other rivers, when they were rendered turbid by the quantity of sand suspended in their waters.—See Fellows’sDiscoveries in Lycia.
[570]This term is adopted as the best translation of the Latinfulvus, which, as well as the corresponding Greek adjective ξανθὸς, denoted a light yellowish-brown. Hence it was so commonly applied to the light hair, which accompanies a light complexion and often indicates mental vivacity, and which has consequently been always considered beautiful. Hence also it was used to denote the appearance of the Tiber and other rivers, when they were rendered turbid by the quantity of sand suspended in their waters.—See Fellows’sDiscoveries in Lycia.
[571]SeeAppendix C.
[571]SeeAppendix C.
[572]It is probable thatsoriculatecloth was a kind of velvet, or plush, so called from its resemblance to the coat of the field-mouse,sorex, dim.soricula.Soriculatamay have been changed intosororiculataby repeating or at the beginning of the word.
[572]It is probable thatsoriculatecloth was a kind of velvet, or plush, so called from its resemblance to the coat of the field-mouse,sorex, dim.soricula.Soriculatamay have been changed intosororiculataby repeating or at the beginning of the word.
[573]The toga worn by the kings and other supreme magistrates among the Romans was calledtrabeafrom the stripes, which were compared to the joists or rafters of a building (trabes).
[573]The toga worn by the kings and other supreme magistrates among the Romans was calledtrabeafrom the stripes, which were compared to the joists or rafters of a building (trabes).
“The remaining shores are occupied by savage nations, as the Melanchlæni and Coraxi, Dioscurias, a city of the Colchians, near the river Anthemus, being now deserted, although formerly so illustrious, that Timosthenes has recorded that three hundred nations used to resort to it, speaking different languages; and that business was afterwards transacted on our part through the medium of one hundred and thirty interpreters.”