BOOK IX. Lxn. i34-L.\iii. 137 



been carded is dipped again, until it soaks up all the 

 juice. The Avhelk by itself is not approved of, as 

 it does not make a fast dye ; it is blended in a 

 nioderate degree with sea-purple and it gives to its 

 excessively dark hue that hai-d and brilliant scarlet 

 whicli is in demand ; when their forces are thus 

 mingled, the one is enUvened, or deadened as the 

 case may be, by the other. The total amount of 

 dye-stuffs required for 1,000 Ibs. of fleece is 200 Ibs. 

 of whelk and 111 Ibs. of sea-purple ; so is produced 

 that remarkable amethyst colour. For Tyrian purple 

 the wool is first soaked with sea-purple for a preUm- 

 inary pale dressing, and then completely transformed 

 with whelk dye. Its highest glory consists in 

 the colour of congealed blood, blackish at first 

 glance but gleaming when held up to the light ; 

 this is the origin of Homer's phrase, ' blood of purple 

 hue.' 



LXIII. I notice that the use of purple at Rome Bistory of 

 dates from the earhest times, but that llomuhis used ^at^^uLne!^^^ 

 it only for a cloak ; as it is fairly certain that the 

 first of the kings to use the bordered robe and broader 

 purple stripe was Tullus Hostilius, after the conquest 

 of the Etruscans. Cornelius Nepos, who died in the 

 principate of the late lamented Augustus, says : ' In 

 my young days the violet purple dye was the 

 vogue, a pound of which sold at 100 denarii ; and 

 not much later the red purple of Taranto. This was 

 foUowed by the double-dyed Tyrian purple, which 

 it was impossible to buy for 1000 denarii per pound. 

 This was first used in a bordered robe by PubHus 

 Lentulus Spinther, curule aedile, but met with dis- 

 approval, though who does not use this purple for 

 covering dining-couches now-a-days ? ' Spinther was 



255 



