Shines with the produce of th’ Arabian worm.
L. ii. 3. 15.
In this line, as well as in some of those before quoted, he alludes to the use of silk by females of indifferent character. He probably uses the epithet Arabian, because the Roman merchants obtained silk from the Arabs, who received it from Persia.
VIRGIL.
Soft wool from downy groves the Æthiop weaves,
And Seres comb their fleece from silken leaves.
Georg. ii. 120, 121.—Sotheby’s Translation.
The poet is here enumerating the chief productions of different countries, and therefore mentions cotton and silk. The idea, that silk webs were manufactured from thin fleeces obtained from trees, will be found recurring in many of the subsequent citations. It may have been founded on reports brought by the soldiers of Crassus, or by others who visited the interior of Asia about the same period.
HORACE.
Nor Coan purples, nor the blaze