2516 Purple Colour of the Ancients. 



by the more recent and inferior writers of Rome, Malta itself is used 

 to denote purple cloth. Vossius (Voss), a celebrated German philolo- 

 gist, assigns as the reason of this, " quod purpureus color illi colori 

 similis est, quo apprehensa blatta manum hominis tingit (Etyrnol.) : 

 because the colour of purple is similar to that colour with which the 

 black beetle, when it is laid hold of, stains the hand of an individual. 

 On the other hand, Salmasius (De Saumaise), a Frenchman and a 

 learned commentator on the classics, maintains that the word blatta 

 is used instead of purpura, from the circumstance of blatta sometimes 

 signifying a bubble, or drop, of clotted blood, and being explained in 

 a Greek glossary by the words thrombos chaimatos, a clot of blood 

 (Adnot. ad Vopiscum, c. 46). This seems the preferable reason, — 

 more especially as we have seen that such is the shade of colour which 

 is assigned by Pliny to the royal and the most celebrated purple of 

 antiquity. In the Codex Justinianus, or Code of Laws of Justinian, 

 who reigned A. d. 530, there is a purple mentioned by the name of 

 oxyblatta (tit. 40, 1. 1). As the Greek word oxus, which is here in 

 composition, sometimes denotes that which is clear, the oxyblatta was 

 probably a purple of which the colour was more than usually brilliant. 



In an earthern vase, discovered, if I remember aright, in the baths 

 of Titus, there were found a variety of pigments, or colours, which 

 had belonged to an artist of antiquity. On these Sir Humphrey Davy 

 instituted a series of experiments, and communicated the result of his 

 researches to the literary and scientific world (Transactions of Royal 

 Society, 1815). One of the colours was of the shade of purple, or 

 rather red, which we denominate lake. He was unable to ascertain 

 whether this particular pigment was of animal or Qf vegetable origin. 

 If of the former, he supposed that it was, in all probability, the cele- 

 brated marine purple of Tyre. From what we have seen, however, in 

 regard to the royal or Tyrian purple, this is not likely to have been 

 the case, even if it could have been proved that the pigment in ques- 

 tion was in reality of animal origin. 



So greatly, in its variety of shades, was purple esteemed by the an- 

 cients, and so extensively was it used by all who could procure it, 

 that there was a particular class of individuals who were known by 

 the name of purpurarii, that is, dealers in purple. In the work of 

 Ursatus (Marmor. Erudit. p. 230), there is a stone to the memory of 

 C. L. Micus Purpurarius, On the stone are sculptured representa- 

 tions of the libra or pair of scales, of the ampullae or flasks, and of the 

 vasa or vessels, which the purpurarius made use of in the conducting 

 of his business. In the Acts of the Apostles we are told of a certain 



