at an enormous price from nations, to which our commerce has not yet extended, in order that our matrons may display their persons to the public no less than to adulterers in their chamber!—Yates's Translation.
The Seres must be supposed to have dwelt somewhere in the
centre of Asia. Perhaps those geographers who represent Little
Bucharia as their country[1], are nearest the truth, and thus
far neither Greeks nor Romans had penetrated. Silk was
brought to them "from nations, to which even their commerce
had not yet extended." Hence their inaccurate ideas respecting
its origin[2].
SENECA, THE TRAGEDIAN.
Nec Mæonià distinguit acu,
Quæ Phœbeis subditus Euris
Legit Eois Ser arboribus.
Herc. Œtæus, 664.
Nor with Mæonian needle marks the web,
Gather'd by Eastern Seres from the trees.
Seres, illustrious for their fleece.
Thyestes, 378.
Remove, ye maids, the vests, whose tissue glares
With purple and with gold; far be the red
Of Tyrian murex, and the shining thread,
Which furthest Seres gather from the boughs.
Hyppolitus, 386. (Phædra loquitur.)
At a very early period the art of dyeing had been carried to a very great degree of perfection in Phœnicia. The method of dyeing woollen cloths purple was, it is said, first discovered at Tyre. This color, the most celebrated among the ancients, appears to have been brought to a degree of excellence, of which we can form but a very faint idea:
- ↑ The position of Serica is discussed by Latreille in his paper hereafter cited. See also Mannert. iv. 6. 6, 7. Brotier, Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscrip. tom. 46. John Reinhold Forster (De Bysso, p. 20, 21.) thinks that Little Bucharia was certainly the ancient Serica. Sir John Barrow (Travels in China, p. 435-438.) thinks the Seres were not the Chinese.
- ↑ The first author who speaks of the Seres as a distinct nation, is Mela, iii. 7. He describes them as a very honest people, who brought what they had to sell, laid it down and went away, and then returned for the price of it. The same account is given by Eustathius, on Dyonisius, l. 752. p. 242, Bernhardy.
