2512 Purple Colour of the Ancients. 



been the Helix Ianthina of Linneus : it resembles in form the in- 

 flated cheek [bucca) of a person blowing a trumpet. Of the purple 

 obtained from this mollusk, when used by itself alone, it is said by 

 Pliny that it was " austerus in glauco, et irascenti similis mart : " a 

 sullen deep blue, and resembling the sea in a rage (lib. 9, c. 36). It 

 was modified, however, by other juices; and, when it constituted the 

 chief ingredient in the mixture, it exhibited, according to the propor- 

 tion used, three recognized varieties or shades. The first is seen in 

 the purplish parts of the Heliotropium, or sun-flower ; the second in 

 those of the Malva, or mallow; and the third in the Viola serotina, or 

 late-flowering violet. This last was highly esteemed, and is termed 

 by Pliny Conchyliorum vegetissimus, — the freshest, or most lively, of 

 the colours obtained from the Cunchylium (lib. 21, c. 8). It is proba- 

 bly the same colour as that indicated by the above writer in the ex- 

 pression "ianthina vestis " (lib. 21, c. 6): a garment in hue like the 

 flower of the violet. By Martial (lib. 2, epig. 39) the word ianthina 

 is used absolutely in the neuter plural for garments of a violet colour : 

 the adjective is evidently formed from two Greek words, signifying a 

 violet and a flower. This is also, in all likelihood, the same shade of 

 purple as that which was denominated amethystinus, from its resem- 

 blance to the precious stone called the amethyst : a person clad in a 

 garment of this particular hue was termed amethystinatus. Thus 

 Martial says (lib. 2, epig. 57), " hie, quern videtis, gressibus vagis 

 lentum, Amethystinatus media qui secat septa:' 1 the man, whom you 

 behold moving leisurely on with steps uncontrolled, who threads his 

 way through the midst of the public market, clad in a purple garment 

 of the colour of amethyst. Ovid (Art. Am. lib. 3, v. 161) speaks of 

 " purpurea amethysti," or purple amethysts. We are thus enabled to 

 see that the flower of the violet, and the precious stone, the eastern 

 amethyst, were both looked upon by the ancients as a shade of purple 

 which was held in great esteem. 



That the purpura of the ancients, however, included some shades 

 of colour which are indeed well known to ourselves, but to which we 

 are not in the custom at any time of giving the name of purple, is evi- 

 dent from not a few passages in their best and most familiarly known 

 writers. Thus, for example, the pigment which the Roman ladies 

 made use of for imparting a colour to their cheeks was called purpu- 

 rissuin, or purpurissus, although it must at once be evident, that if 

 the application of this pigment had produced a decided, or even a 

 perceptible, tinge of what we denominate purple, it would have proved 

 an unnatural blemish, and not an ornament, on the countenance of an 



