2510 Purple Colour of the Ancients. 



There is in Pliny another passage, through the information in which 

 we are enabled to look on the same identical shade of colour as that 

 which was esteemed by the Romans, — a purple of an excellent cha- 

 racter. Speaking of indigo, and of the adulteration to which the 

 article was frequently subjected, he goes on to say : — " Probatur car- 

 bone. Reddit enim quod sincerum est, flammam excellentis purpuras ; 

 et, dum fumat, odorem maris." It is tested by means of a burning 

 coal : for that which is unadulterated, gives out a flame of an excellent 

 purple colour ; and, while it is -smoking, a smell of the sea. When 

 employed as a teacher, I procured from London a piece of eastern in- 

 digo, the finest in quality which was to be had in the market : this 

 was laid upon a small surface of iron made red hot: there quickly 

 arose a flame of a very beautiful hue : the colour, so far as I can 

 describe it in words, was an exceedingly rich lake, of great depth of 

 tone, so to speak, and with a tinge, as it were, of black. It may be 

 proper to add that the indigo, while burning, gave out, to a powerful 

 extent, that smell of the sea which is noticed by the Roman natural 

 historian. Vitruvius (lib. 7, c. 7) refers to a purple which was pro- 

 duced by cooling ochra usta, or burnt ochre, with vinegar made from 

 wine. This particular hue of the colour under consideration may, 

 therefore, likewise be still seen by ourselves, on going through the 

 process which is thus pointed out. 



There are other and numerous objects in Nature to which the epi- 

 thet purpureus is applied by classical writers, and by looking on 

 which we have it completely in our power to see and to identify a 

 considerable variety of those shades of colour which were characterized 

 among the ancients by the general name of purple. Thus in Pliny 

 (lib. 14, c. 1) it is said, — " Uvae hie purpureo lucent colore, illic ful- 

 gent roseo : " in one place the grapes shine with the colour of purple, 

 in another they are bright with that of the rose. There cannot be a 

 doubt that the grape, thus spoken of as being of a purple colour, is 

 the variety so frequently to be met with, which is of a subdued violet 

 shade, especially before the delicate bloom with which it is covered 

 is impaired or rubbed off. To the same purpose is the line in Horace : 

 — " Certantem et uvam purpura? : " — and the grape vying in beauty 

 with purple (Epod. 2, v. 20). Pliny, moreover, makes mention of 

 " purpurea? ficus," or purple figs (lib. 15, c. 18); of" purpurea salix," 

 or the purple willow (lib. 16, c. 37); of " purpurea viola," or the pur- 

 ple violet (lib. 21, c. 11); of " purpurea lactuca," or the purple lettuce 

 (lib. 19, v. 8) ; and of " purpurea pruna,"* or purple prunes or dam- 



* This particular shade of purple may be observed in the fruit of the wild sloe 



