Manufacture of golden textures in the time of Moses—Homer—Golden tunics of the Lydians—Their use by the Indians and Arabians—Extraordinary display of scarlet robes, purple, striped with silver, golden textures, &c., by Darius, king of Persia—Purple and scarlet cloths interwoven with gold—Tunics and shawls variegated with gold—Purple garments with borders of gold—Golden chlamys—Attalus, king of Pergamus, not the inventor of gold thread—Bostick—Golden robe worn by Agrippina—Caligula and Heliogabalus—Sheets interwoven with gold used at the obsequies of Nero—Babylonian shawls intermixed with gold—Silk shawls interwoven with gold—Figured cloths of gold and Tyrean purple—Use of gold in the manufacture of shawls by the Greeks—4,000,000 sesterces (about $150,000) paid by the Emperor Nero for a Babylonish coverlet—Portrait of Constantius II.—Magnificence of Babylonian carpets, mantles, &c.—Median sindones.
The use of gold in weaving may be traced to the earliest times, but seems to be particularly characteristic of oriental manners.
It was employed in connexion with woollen and linen thread of the finest colors to enrich the ephod, girdle, and breast-plate of Aaron[105]. The sacred historian goes so far as to describe the mode of preparing the gold to be used in weaving: “And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work.”—Ex. xxxix. 2-8. The historian certainly does not intend to describe the process of wire-drawing, nor probably the art of making gold thread. It seems likely, that neither of these ingenious manufactures were invented in his time. The queen described in Ps. xiv., wears “clothing of wrought gold[106].” Homer mentions a golden girdle, (Od. ε. 232. κ. 543.). He also describes an upper garment, which Penelope made for Ulysses before going to Illium. On the front part of it a beautiful hunting piece was wrought in gold. It is thus described. “A dog holds a fawn with its fore feet, looking at it as it pants with fear and strives to make its escape.” This, he says, was the subject of universal admiration[107].
[105] “And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work. It shall have the two shoulder-pieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together. And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel: six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold. And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial. And thou shalt make ouches of gold; and two chains of pure gold at the ends; of wreathen work shalt thou make them, and fasten the wreathen chains to the ouches. And thou shalt make the breast-plate of judgment with cunning work; after the work of the ephod shalt thou make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen shalt thou make it.”—Ex. xxviii. 5-15.
[106] “The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.”—Ps. xlv. 13.
[107] Od. τ. 225-235.
Pisander, who probably lived at the same period with Homer, speaks of the Lydians as wearing tunics adorned with gold. Lydus, who has preserved this expression of the ancient cyclic poet, observes that the Lydians were supplied with gold from the sands of the Pactolus and the Hermus[108].
[108] De Magistratibus Rom. L. iii. § 64.
Virgil also represents the use of gold in weaving, as if it had existed in Trojan times. One of the garments so adorned was made by Dido, the Sidonian, another by Andromache, and a third was in the possession of Anchises[109]. In all these instances the reference is to the habits of Phœnice, Lycia, or other parts of Asia.
[109] Æin. iii. 483.; iv. 264.; viii. 167.; xi. 75.