Εἵματα τεύχουσιν πολυδαίδαλα, τιμήεντα,
Εἰδόμενα χροιῇ λειμωνίδος ἄνθεσι ποίης·
Κείνοις οὔτι κεν ἔργον ἀραχνάων ἐρίσειεν. (l. 755.)
And the barbarous nations of the Seres, who renounce the care of sheep and oxen, but comb the variously colored flowers of the desert land to make precious figured garments, resembling in color the flowers of the meadow, and rivalling (in fineness) the work of spiders.—Yates’s Translation.
It is worthy of observation that Dyonisius speaks expressly not only of the fineness of the thread, but of the flowered texture of the silk.
STRABO.
Τοιαῦτα δὲ καὶ τὰ Σηρικὰ, ἔκ τι νων φλοιῶν ξαινομένης βύσσου.
L. xv. 695. (v. vi. p. 40. Tzschucke.)
This is repeated by Eustathius on Dyonisius Periegetes[27]. The account seems to have been taken by Strabo, perhaps inaccurately, from Nearchus. It is doubtful, whether Σηρικὰ denoted silken webs in this passage. But whatever Strabo meant, he supposed the raw material to be scraped from the bark of trees[28].
[27] L. 1107. p. 308, Bernhardy.