D Y I 
ft was deftined. As the power and refpeft of kings in- 
creafed, it was made a fymbol of majefty ; and this was 
carried fo far, that in the time of the emperors it was 
confidered as a particular right belonging to the princes 
of the imperial houfe ; fo that immediately after their 
birth, they were wrapped in purple fwaddling-clothes, 
and by thefe means obtained, as it were, a title to the 
empire. Nay, it was confidered as an almoft indifpen- 
fable ceremony in the choice of an emperor, that the 
fuccefsful candidate fhould be clothed in purple ; and 
we have inftances of the foldiers, when nothing elfe was 
at hand, tearing the purple from their ftandards, and 
wrapping it round the newly-chofen emperor. In free 
republican dates this colour was a mark of the higheft 
official dignity. Thus the fupreme magiftrates at Rome 
were diftinguifhed by broader or narrower purple (tripes, 
with which their clothes were bordered behind and 
before. Hence it happened that purple, which every 
one had been before at liberty to life, was by the em¬ 
perors made a regality; and when affirmed by private 
perfons, was puniffied with death, as a kind of high 
treafon. Many attempts have been made, with tolerable 
fuccefs, to reftore the ancient Tyrian purple dye to 
modern practice, and numbers of (hells of the buccinum 
genus have been colledted for this purpofe ; but the 
perfection to which other dyes have been recently 
brought, and the beautiful purples of modern times, 
render the Tyrian method unneceflary. 
The Greeks, about the period of Alexander the Great, 
and under his fucceffors, firft began to render black, 
dark blue, yellow, and green, dyes, more beautiful, and 
to learn the art alio, of fixing them on linen. We find, 
among the various companies eftablilhed by Numa at 
Rome, a dyers’ company, called collegium tinElorum. 
Afterwards the art of dying continued to increate among 
the Romans, and they began to divide colours into 
general and particular, according as they were ufual 
among both fexes, or were exclufively worn by either. 
Thus the ancient authors frequently fpeak of the colours 
by which the four different parties at the Circenfian 
games were diftinguifhed from each other, and which, on 
that account, were called the colores circenfcs. Thefe 
were green, aurora colour, afh colour, and white. This 
colour afforded employment in particular to the fu/lones, 
who walhed and fcoured white as well as coloured 
clothing. For this purpofe they employed urine, chalk, 
faltpetre, and fumigation with fulphur. The procelfes 
to be ufed were prefcribed by a peculiar law ( Lex Me- 
tellana ) iffued by the tribune Metellus, in the year of 
Rome 354. They were required, in the firft place, to 
wadi the clothes with Sardinian earth, then to expofe 
them to the vapour of fulphur, and to fcour them with 
unadulterated Cimolian earth, (from Cimolus, one of the 
iflands called the Sporades,) which reftored the fplendour 
of the colour that had been deftroyed by the fulphur. 
In the laft place, they fmoothed the pile of the cloth 
with the (kin of a hedge-hog, or the fuller’s thiftle, and 
then preffed it. A paffage in St. Mark ix. 3, alludes 
to this procefs. Luther tranflates the word yveetpev^ 
(fullo) improperly, by making it lignify a dyer. 
But the art of dying was not confined merely to the 
Phoenicians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans; it vl as 
foon communicated to other nations, each of which em¬ 
ployed for this purpofe fuch minerals and plants as their 
different countries produced. According to the account 
of Pliny and other authors, the Gauls who inhabited 
beyon^ the Alps dyed the moft beautiful purple and 
other colours with herbs ; but they were not acquainted 
with a method of fixing them. We are told alfo by 
Tacitus, that the German women manufactured linen 
drelfes, and dyed them of a beautiful purple red colour. 
Pliny gives a defeription of an ingenious mode of dying, 
w’hich has a near refemblance to our cotton printing, 
then practifed by the Egyptians. They applied to the 
white cloth certain tinctures, more or lels capable of 
V01. VI. No. 237. 
N G. 41 
imbibing the dyes, (colorem /orient lb us medicament Is,) and 
which were not vifible. The cloth was then put into a 
boiler, containing the dye or colouring conipofition, and 
after it was taken out, it appeared as if painted with 
various colours. Thefe colours never faded ; and the 
cloth, by the boiling, was rendered more durable. 
Something of the fame kind is related by Herodotus, 
who informs us, that certain people, who lived near the 
Cafpian fea, by means of the leaves of trees, which they 
bruifed, and fteeped in water, could form on cloth the 
■figures of animals, dowers, &c. which were as lading as 
the cloth itfelf. The art of dying was alfo in great 
efteem among the Perfians at a very early period. 
Among the Chinefe, too, Hoang-ti, one of their earlieft 
emperors, was, according to Martini, the firft who wore 
a blue drefs, as being the colour of the heavens, and a 
yellow one, as being the colour of the earth. He alfo 
caufed dreffes of different colours to be made in imita¬ 
tion of flowers and birds, that they might ferve as marks 
of diftinction to the high and the low, the rich and the 
poor, in his empire, 
It has been a queftion of much doubt, whether the an¬ 
cients, in their modes of dying, employed what are callejd 
mordants. Pliny, when fpeaking of the fpecies of dying 
peculiar to the Egyptians, exprefsly fays't'hat the work¬ 
men began by rubbing the (tuffs which they intended to 
dye, and afterward applied drugs which did not leave any 
(tain, but had the property of powerfully imbibing the 
colours fubfequently to be employed. It cannot there¬ 
fore be doubted that the fubftances thus employed a£ted 
as mordants. The ancient Greek chemifts, (whofe ma- 
nuferipts are fcarcely known but by their titles, given by 
Fabricius,) explain with much perfpicuity the necefiiry 
of fixing colours by mordants. They notice the fugitive 
and permanent colours, <pevy.ru , and ycniyuru 
ccpEvy.Tu • Many other equally forcible expreffions occur ; 
among which we may notice the term ^y.ny.u, correfpond- 
ing exaftly with the word mordant, being derived from 
the verb S'rry.u, mordco. The Greek chemifts moreover ob- 
ferve that fometimes the mordants were firft applied, 
(vorcGatprov, or wjr&vpri ,) and afterward the colour: but 
at other times the mordant and colour were mingled to¬ 
gether : and the application of the mordant was regarded 
as fo very e.ffential by the Greeks, that the term denoting- 
it (eri vtpem) was frequently employed to fignify the opera¬ 
tion of dying ; of which Diofcorides furnifhes many ex¬ 
amples. 
The ancients were acquainted with but few metallic 
falts; native fulphat of iron and of copper were, how¬ 
ever, certainly uled by them in dying ; and the colours 
were formed and fixed by the gall-nuts, or by the feeds 
of a fpecies of acacia peculiar to Egypt,.or by the rind 
of pomegranates. Some fubftances poffefs the properties 
of a mordant as well as of a colouring principle ; and fe- 
veral of thefe, fuch as the root of the oak, and a fpecies 
of lotus, called by Pliny faba Graca, were known and 
employed. The ancients alfo made ufe of various fub¬ 
ftances which by modern dyers are called alteratives, and 
which produce certain changes in many dyes or colours. 
Muriat of ammonia, or fal ammoniac, was known to the 
ancients, and Pliny relates the mode by which it was pre¬ 
pared : .but it is uncertain whether or not it was employed 
in dying. Even fuppofing it not to have been ufed, (fill 
its place was fupplied by urine.; and, according to Pliny, 
this laft fluid was commonly employed to form the purple 
dye in the manner of an alterative. Lime was alfo pro¬ 
bably ufed by the ancients, who prepared it from marble 
and (hells.' 
The Greeks an,d the Saracens were for a long time the 
exclufive poffeffors of this art, and furuillied the weftern 
world with dyed (tuffs, and particularly purple ; which, 
according to fome authors, was prepared by them of a 
beautiful colour in the eleventh century. The public 
tafte, however, was at length changed, and people began 
to fee as great a value on the fcarlet as upon purple, and 
O o at 
