the consular robes of the two brothers Probinus and Olybrius (A. D. 395.), represents the Gabine Cincture, by which the toga was girt over the breast, as made of silk.
In the following passage he represents the two brothers, Honorius and Arcadius, as dividing the empire of the world between them and receiving tributes of its productions from the most distant regions:
Vestri juris erit, quicquid complectitur axis.
Vobis rubra dabunt pretiosas æquora conchas,
Indus ebur, ramos Panchaia, vellera Seres.
De III. Cons. Honorii, l. 209-211.
To you the world its various wealth shall send:
Their precious shells the Erythrean seas;
India its iv'ry, Araby its boughs,
The distant Seres fleeces from the trees.
In a poem, which immediately succeeds this in the order of time, Claudian describes a magnificent toga, worn by Honorius on being appointed a fourth time consul, by saying, that it received its color (the Tyrian purple) from the Phœnicians; its woof (of silk forming stripes or figures) from the Seres; and its weight (produced by Indian gems) from the river Hydaspes[1]. Again, in his poem on the approaching marriage of Honorius and Maria, he mentions yellow silk curtains (l. 211.) as a decoration of the nuptial chamber.
Again he says (in Eutrop. l. i. v. 225, 226. 304. l. ii. v. 337.):
Te grandibus India gemmis,
Te foliis Arabes ditent, te vellere Seres.
Let India with her gems thy wealth increase,
The Arabs with their leaves, the Seres with their fleece.
He also mentions with delight the use of gold in dress, as well as of silk. The following passage represents the manner in which Proba, a Roman matron, near the end of the fourth century, expressed her affectionate congratulations on the elevation of her two sons to the Consulship, by preparing robes interwoven with gold for the ceremony of their installation.
- ↑ De IV. Cons. Honorii, i. 600, 601.
