CHAPTER V.
SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OF THE ANCIENTS.
HIGH DEGREE OF EXCELLENCE ATTAINED IN THIS MANUFACTURE.
Manufacture of golden textures in the time of Moses—Homer—Golden tunics of
the Lydians—Their use by the Indians and Arabians—Extraordinary display
of scarlet robes, purple, striped with silver, golden textures, &c., by Darius,
king of Persia—Purple and scarlet cloths interwoven with gold—Tunics and
shawls variegated with gold—Purple garments with borders of gold—Golden
chlamys—Attalus, king of Pergamus, not the inventor of gold thread—Bostick—Golden
robe worn by Agrippina—Caligula and Heliogabalus—Sheets interwoven
with gold used at the obsequies of Nero—Babylonian shawls intermixed
with gold—Silk shawls interwoven with gold—Figured cloths of gold and Tyrean
purple—Use of gold in the manufacture of shawls by the Greeks—4,000,000
sesterces (about $150,000) paid by the Emperor Nero for a Babylonish
coverlet—Portrait of Constantius II.—Magnificence of Babylonian carpets,
mantles, &c.—Median sindones.
The use of gold in weaving may be traced to the earliest times, but seems to be particularly characteristic of oriental manners.
It was employed in connexion with woollen and linen thread of the finest colors to enrich the ephod, girdle, and breast-plate of Aaron[1]. The sacred historian goes so far as to describe the*
- ↑ "And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work. It shall have the two shoulder-pieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together. And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel: six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold. And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall
