Testimony of the Latin Poets of the Augustan age—Tibullus—Propertius—Virgil—Horace—Ovid—Dyonisius Perigetes—Strabo. Mention of silk by authors in the first century—Seneca the Philosopher—Seneca the Tragedian—Lucan—Pliny—Josephus—Saint John—Silius Italicus—Statius—Plutarch—Juvenal—Martial—Pausanias—Galen—Clemens Alexandrinus—Caution to Christian converts against the use of silk in dress. Mention of silk by authors in the second century—Tertullian—Apuleius—Ulpian—Julius Pollux—Justin. Mention of silk by authors in the third century—Ælius Lampidius—Vopiscus—Trebellius Pollio—Cyprian—Solinus—Ammianus Marcellinus—Use of silk by the Roman emperors—Extraordinary beauty of the textures—Use of water to detach silk from the trees—Invectives of these authors against extravagance in dress—The Seres described as a happy people—Their mode of traffic, etc.—(Macpherson's opinion of the Chinese.)—City of Dioscurias, its vast commerce in former times.—(Colonel Syke's account of the Kolissura silk-worm—Dr. Roxburgh's description of the Tusseh silk-worm.)
The next Authors, who make mention of silk, are the Latin
poets of the Augustan age, Tibullus and Propertius, Virgil,
Horace, and Ovid. The Parthian war, and the increased intercourse
between the Roman empire and the kingdoms of the
East, had been the means of recently introducing every kind
of silken goods into more general use, although these manufactures
were still so rare as to be the objects of curiosity and admiration,
and were therefore well adapted to be brought in
among the embellishments of poetical imagery.
The appearance of the silken flags attached to the gilt standards of the Parthians (Florus iii. 11.) must have been a very striking sight for the army of Crassus, contributing both to inflame their cupidity and to alarm them with a sense of the
