PRUDENTIUS, CL., A. D. 405.
The following sentence occurs in a speech of St. Lawrence at his martyrdom:
Hunc, qui superbit serico,
Quem currus inflatum vehit;
Hydrops aquosus lucido
Tendit veneno intrinsecus.
Peristeph. Hymn. ii. l. 237-240.
See him, attir'd in silken pride,
Inflated in his chariot ride;
The lucid poison works within,
Dropsy distends his swollen skin.
In another Hymn to the honor of St. Romanus we find the following lines:
Aurum regestum nonne carni adquiritur?
Inlusa vestis, gemma, bombyx, purpura,
In carnis usum mille quæruntur dolis.
Peristeph. Hymn. x.
To please the flesh a thousand arts contend:
The miser's heaps of gold, the figur'd vest,
The gem, the silk-worm, and the purple dye,
By toil acquir'd, promote no other end.
In the same Hymn (l. 1015.) Prudentius describes a heathen priest sacrificing a bull, and dressed in a silken toga which is held up by the Gabine cincture (Cinctu Gabino Sericam fultus togam). Perhaps, however, we ought here to understand that the cincture only, not the whole toga, was of silk. It was used to fasten and support the toga by being drawn over the breast.
In two other passages this poet censures the progress of luxury in dress, and especially when adopted by men.
Sericaque in fractis fluitent ut pallia membris
Psychomachia, l. 365.
The silken scarfs float o'er their weaken'd limbs.
Sed pudet esse viros: quærunt vanissima quæque
Quîs niteant: genuina leves ut robora solvant,
- [Footnote: China, which are very strong and compact, and therefore more resemble those of
the Phalæna Paphia.]
