218 THE INSECT WORLD. 



of Oriental silk. They murmured at this gorgeous prodigality 

 but declared Caesar a great man. The introduction of silk 

 among the Romans was the signal for luxurious expenditure. 

 The patricians made a great display with their silk cloaks of 

 incalculable value ; so that, from the time of Tiberius, the Senate 

 felt itself called upon to forbid the use of silk garments to men. 

 Examples of simplicity are sometimes set in high places ; thus the 

 Emperor Aurelian refused to the Empress Severina a dress so 

 costly. 



The commerce in silk bore doubly hard upon Europe, both 

 on account of the value of the material and of the great use which 

 was made of it. Persia was the emporium and had the monopoly 

 of this merchandise. The Emperor Justinian I., who reigned 

 at Constantinople from A.D. 527 to 565, tried all the means within 

 his power of freeing his States from this ruinous tyranny, when 

 a circumstance occurred, very fortunately for the national com- 

 merce, which brought about the introduction into Europe of 

 sericiculture, or the cultivation of silk. 



Two monks of the order of St. Basil, in their ardour for the 

 propagation of the faith, had pushed forwards into China. There 

 they had been initiated into the operations which furnished the 

 fabric so highly prized. On their return to Constantinople, and 

 hearing of the project that Justinian entertained of depriving the 

 Persians of the monopoly in silk, the two monks proposed to 

 the Emperor to enrich his state by introducing the art of fabri- 

 cating this material. The proposition was rapturously accepted, 

 and the two monks returned again to China, with the object 

 of procuring the eggs of the insect. Having arrived at the 

 end of their journey, they succeeded in getting possession of a 

 quantity of silkworms' eggs. They hid them between the knots 

 of their sticks, and started back to their native country, with- 

 out being once interfered with. Two years afterwards they 

 re-entered Constantinople with their precious booty.* The larvae 

 were fed on mulberry leaves. Immediately afterwards began the 



* According to M. de Gasparin, author of an excellent " Essai sur 1'Histoire de 

 1'introduction des vers a sole en Europe " (Paris, in 8vo, 1841), it was not into China, 

 but only into Tartary, to Serinda, that the two monks went in search of the silk- 

 worms' eggs (pp. 3739). 



