Setabis et telas Arabum sprevisse superba
Et Pelusiaco filum componere lino.
Silius Ital. iii. 373.
Nam sudaria Setaba ex Hiberis
Miserunt mihi muneri Fabullus
Et Veranius.—Catullus, xx. 14.
Hispanæque alio spectantur Setabis usu.
Gratius Faliscus, l. 41.
Pliny also mentions a kind of flax, called Zoelicum, from a place in Gallicia.
Strabo (iv. 2. 2. p. 41. ed. Sieb.) particularly mentions the linen manufacture of the Cadurci: and from them the Romans obtained the best ticking for beds, which was on this account called Cadurcum.
Flax, as we are told by Pliny (xix. 1.), was woven into sail-*cloth in all parts of Gaul; and, in some of the countries beyond the Rhine, the most beautiful apparel of the ladies was linen. Tacitus states that the women of Germany wore linen sheets over their other clothing[1].
Jerome mentions the shirts of the Atrebates as one of the luxuries of his day, and his notice of them seems to show, that they were conveyed as an article of merchandize even into Asia.
Whether the manufactures of the Atrebates were equal to the modern Cambric we cannot say; but, supposing the garments in question to have been linen, it is remarkable that this manufacture should have flourished in Artois for 1800 years[2].
The following translation of a passage from Eginhart's LifeLatin, Linum; Slavonian, Len; Lithuanian, Linnai; Lettish, Linni; German, Lein; French, Suio; Gothic, and Anglo-Saxon, Lin; Welsh, Llin.]
- ↑ Fœminæ sæpiùs lineis amictibus velantur.—Germania, xvii. 5. The use of the same term for Flax in so many European languages, and especially in those of the North of Europe, is an evidence of the extensive use of this substance in very early times; e. g. Greek, [Greek: Linon;
- ↑ Erasmus makes the following remarks on the words "Atrebatum et Laodiceæ:" "Apparet ex his regionibus candidissima ac subtilissima linea mitti solere. Nunc hujus laudis principatus, si tamen ea laus, penes meos Hollandos est. Quanquam et Atrebates in Belgis haud ita procul a nobis absunt." See also Mannert, Geogr. 2. l. p. 196.
