Of white thou hast to clothe a tribe sufficient stock,
The produce fair of more than one Apulian flock.
L. ii. Ep. 46. l. 5, 6.
On the other hand the wool from the vicinity of Canusium was no less esteemed for its dark colors, whether inclining to brown or to red. These saved the expense of dyeing. The testimony of Pliny to their value has been already produced. In the two following Epigrams (l. xiv. 127 and 129.) Martial alludes to the peculiar recommendations and uses, first of the brown, and secondly of the reddish variety.
This Canusine lacerna, it is true,
Looks muddy: but it will not change its hue[1].
Rome in the brown delights, gay Gaul in red:
This pleases boys, and whose is blood to shed.
On referring to the passages produced from Pliny, Columella, and Martial, it will be seen that the Romans ascribed a very high value to the white wool of Gallia Cisalpina, i. e. of North Italy, or the region about the Po. Parma was considered second only to Apulia for the whiteness of its wool. Besides the two epigrams of Martial already cited, he refers to Parma as a great place for sheep-breeding in the following passage, addressed to the wealthy Callistratus;
And Gallic Parma shears thy num'rous flocks.
L. v. ep. 13.
Columella speaks moreover (l. c.) of the superiority of the
wool of Mutina, now Modena; and Martial (l. v. ep. 105.)
mentions the circumstance of a fuller, or clothier, in that city
having exhibited a show to the public, which is a presumptive
evidence that he had a great business in manufacturing the
produce of the surrounding country.
Strabo in his account of the productions of Cisalpine Gaul divides the wool into three kinds; First, the soft kind, of which the finest varieties were grown about Mutina and the river
- ↑ It appears from this epigram that, when shaken, it had the color of the brown
wool of Canusium, a kind of drab. The lacerna was a mantle, which the Romans
wore out of doors over their white toga, with which it was well contrasted,
whether it was purple, scarlet, or brown; but the last color, though less showy at
first, must have had the advantage of durability. See Appendix A.
