11 



of linen or cotton, and may therefore be call- 

 ed half silk stuffs; but a general outcry soon 

 arose, even against the half silk stuffs, under 

 the pretence that they were too expensive 

 and too womanish. Even as late as the reign 

 of the Emperor Tiberius, seventeen years af- 

 ter Christ, it was ordered ''that no silk dress 

 should henceforth disgrace a Roman city" In 

 the reign of Marcus Aurelius, in the year 173, 

 such attire was only worn by the ladies of the 

 highest rank. The Syrian voluptuary, He- 

 liogabulus, it is stated, was the first who wore 

 a dress wholly composed of silk, in the year 

 218; but in the year of our Lord 270, Jlure- 

 lianus denied to his wife, Severa, such a dress, 

 colored with purple. "Let us not," said he, 

 "exchange gold for spider's web, and indeed, 

 at that epoch, silk was of the same value with 

 gold, being exchanged weight for weight. 



The Persians enjoyed for centuries the 

 monopoly of the trade in silk ; but after their 

 subjugation by Alexander, three hundred 

 years before the birth of Christ, Greece and 

 Rome became participants of the trafic ; and 

 such was the anxiety of the Romans to trade 

 with a people who were competent to the 

 production cf so beautiful an article, that the 

 Emperor ^Marcus Jlntonius sent ambassadors 

 to China to negotiate a more direct commer- 

 cial intercourse, and a second embassay was 

 despatched with the same view in the year 

 272, the results of which were more favora- 

 ble. The price of silk remained, however, 

 so high, and it rose so much in the estimation 

 of the Romans, that Justinian made anothei 

 attempt soon after he ascended the throne to 

 obtain a more certain as well as an increased 

 supply. Julian also, subsequently made 

 similar effort but failed. The preachers o 

 the doctrines of JVes/or, who were exiled by 

 the government of Byzantium, fled to India 

 Their patriarch, who resided in Persia, sen 

 missions, and established convents and bishop 

 ricks in every direction. And it is related o 

 two of his monks, who had been employed as 

 missionaries in some of the Christian churchei 

 which were instituted indifferent parts of In 

 dia, having penetrated into the country of th< 

 Seres, had observed the labors of the silk 

 worms, and become acquainted with the art o 

 working their production into a variety o 

 elegant fabrics. Aware of the solicitude o 

 the Europeans on this subject, they repairet 

 to Constantinople, and imparted to the Empe 

 ror Justinian the secret which had hithert( 

 been so well preserved by the Seres, that sil! 

 was produced by a species of worms, th 



eggs of which might be transported with 

 afety, and propagated in the dominions. By 

 ic promise of a great reward, says the ac- 

 ount, they were induced to return and brought 

 way a quantity of the silk worm's eggs in 

 le hollow of a cane, and conveyed them safely 

 o Constantinople about the year 555. These 

 vere hatched in the proper season by the 

 varmth of a manure heap, the worms fed 

 vith the leaves of the Mulberry tree, and 

 lieir race propagated under the direction of 

 be monks. The insects thus happily produced 

 rom this caneful of eggs, were, it is affirmed, 

 he progenitors of all the silk worms of Eu- 

 ope and the western part of Asia. Vastnum- 

 ers of these insects were soon thereafter 

 eared in different parts of Greece, and par- 

 icularly in the Peloponnesus. The monks 

 laving also made themselves masters of the 

 art of manufacturing silk, the business was 

 conducted under the auspicies of the Emperor, 

 and for his exclusive benefit; but the imperial 

 monopoly could not long continue, and man- 

 kind, gradually, became possessed of the pre- 

 vious insects, after the death of Justinian, in 

 he year 565. The people of the Peninsula, 

 and of the cities of Athens, and Thebes, en- 

 oyed the profit of the culture and manufac- 

 ure of silk for upwards of 400 years, and the 

 Venetians during the continuance of their 

 commercial glory, distributed the products of 

 iheir industry over the western parts of Eu- 

 rope. Things remained thus until Roger, the 

 Norman, King of Sicily, after his return from 

 the second crusade, in the year 1146, invaded 

 Greece and captured a great number of silk 

 weavers, who were carried off and settled in 

 Palermo, the capital city of the conqueror. 



By order of the King, the Grecian prison- 

 ers taught his Sicilian subjects to raise and 

 feed silk worms, and to weave the various va- 

 rieties of the silk stuffs, and so well did they 

 profit by their instructions, that in twenty 

 years, the silk manufactures of Sicily elicited 

 the warmest commendations from most of the 

 historians of the age. 



The Saracens had before this time engaged 

 in the manufacture of silk. Lisbon and Al- 

 meira and the island of Majorca, were famous 

 for their silk fabrics. Louis XI of France and 

 his son Charles VIII made attempts to intro- 

 duce the manufacture, but the honor of success 

 belongs to Henry IV. 



As early as the year 1455, mention is made 

 of a company of silk women in England, and 

 the business had become so important in 1504, 

 as to receive a prohibitory statute in its favor. 



