Although the date of the following inscription, found at Rome, is uncertain, it may be conveniently brought in here. It is published by Muratori, Novus Thesaurus Vet. Inscriptionum, tom. ii. p. 939.
P. AVCTIVS P. L. LYSANDER. VESTIARIVS. TENVIARIVS. MOLOCHINARIVS. VOT. SOL.
Muratori in his Note says, that “Vestiarius Tenuiarius” was the man who made thin garments, and “Molochinarius” the man who made such garments of a mallow color.
The authors, next in regard to antiquity, who make mention of Molochina, are the writers of the Latin Comedy, Statius Cæcilius, who died 169 B. C., and Plautus, who died 184 B. C.
Nonius Marcellus (l. xvi.) quotes the following line from the Pausimachus of the former dramatist:
Carbasina, molochina, ampelina.[203]
[203] See C. C. Statii Fragmenta, a Leonhardo Spengel, Monachii 1829, p. 35. Statius chiefly copied Menander (Gellius, ii. c. 16.); but it is not certain that Menander wrote any play called Pausimachus.
The passage of Plautus is in the Aulularia (Act iii. Scene v. l. 40.), where we have a ludicrous enumeration, extending through more than ten lines, of all the persons concerned in the manufacture or sale of garments.
Solearii astant, astant molochinarii.
All the lexicographers and commentators explain Molochinarius to be one who dyes cloth of the color of the mallow. Lanarius was a woollen-draper; Coactiliarius, a dealer in felts, a hatter; Lintearius a linen-draper; and Sericarius a silk-mercer. According to the same analogy, Molochinarius would mean a dealer in Molochina, i. e. in all kinds of cloth made from mallows.