Purple Colour of the Ancients. 2515 



observation of their enemies. The same thing is related by Plutarch 

 in his Laconica Instituta (vol. ii. fol. p. 238). 



It was the opinion of the ancients that the quality of the purple dye 

 was very materially affected by the nature of the ground on which the 

 Murex had its abode, and by the food on which it was nourished. 

 We have already seen the pre-eminent beauty of that furnished by the 

 Murex in the vicinity of Tyre. From the Murex, also, around Taena- 

 rus, a mountain and promontory in Laconia, now called Cape Mata- 

 pan, there was a purple dye obtained which was accounted of great 

 value, and was at one time the height of fashion. Pliny says, " Pur- 

 pura laudatissima in mari circa Taenarum promontorium capiebatur : " 

 a purple, very much extolled, was in the custom of being procured in 

 the sea surrounding the promontory of Taenarus (lib. 9, c. 36). From 

 what is said of this particular purple by the poet Valerius Flaccus, it 

 would appear to have been of a bright red colour, having a resem- 

 blance to fire. His words are, " Taenario ignea fuco purpura" (lib. 1, 

 v. 427) : the fiery purple of Taenarian dye. When the Murex lived 

 among sea-weed, the purple which it produced was termed algensis? 

 from alga, a sea-weed ; and when on a fetid muddy bottom, lutensis, 

 from latum, mud. To both these kinds Pliny applies the epithet vi- 

 lissimum, that is, of the most worthless description. When on a 

 bottom where the sea was of a pebbly description, the produce had 

 the name of calculensis, from calculus, a pebble, and was of a finer 

 character than the foregoing two. When the locality and food were 

 of varied materials the purple was considered the finest of all, and was 

 called dialutensls. Lastly he mentioned a kind which was known a^ 

 the teeniensis : this was procured where the Murex had its abode amid 

 reefs of rocks lying like so many fillets, or ribbons {t<eni<e), at the bot- 

 tom of the sea (Pliny, lib. 9, c. 37). 



During the latter ages of the Roman Empire, when the Latin lan- 

 guage had been adulterated by barbarous and unclassical words, the 

 epithet blatteus came to be almost universally employed instead of 

 purpureus. Silk was then first coming into general use in Europe, 

 and the word of which we are speaking would appear to have been 

 applied in an especial manner to that precious substance, when it was 

 dyed of the colour of purple. Those individuals who made this their 

 trade were termed blattiarii, or dyers of silk in purple (Cod. Theod. 

 tit. 4, leg. 2) ; and the Roman senate is styled, by the poet Sidonius, 

 who flourished a. d. 450, " blattifer senatus," or the purple-clad senate 

 (lib. 9, ep. 16). The adjective in question is seemingly formed from 

 blatta, the black beetle, or Blaps mortisaga of entomologists ; and, 



