Video Sericas vestes, si vestes vocandæ sunt, in quibus nihil est, quo defendi aut corpus aut denique pudor possit: quibus sumtis mulier parum liquidò nudam se non esse jurabit. Hæc ingenti summâ ab ignotis etiam ad commercium gentibus accersunter, ut matronæ nostræ ne adulteris quidem plus sui in cubiculo quam in publico ostendant.—De Beneficiis, L. vii. c. 9.
I see silken (Seric) garments, if they can be called garments, which cannot afford any protection either for the body or for shame: on taking which a woman will scarce with a clear conscience deny, that she is naked. These are sent for at an enormous price from nations, to which our commerce has not yet extended, in order that our matrons may display their persons to the public no less than to adulterers in their chamber!—Yates’s Translation.
The Seres must be supposed to have dwelt somewhere in the centre of Asia. Perhaps those geographers who represent Little Bucharia as their country[32], are nearest the truth, and thus far neither Greeks nor Romans had penetrated. Silk was brought to them “from nations, to which even their commerce had not yet extended.” Hence their inaccurate ideas respecting its origin[33].
[32] The position of Serica is discussed by Latreille in his paper hereafter cited. See also Mannert. iv. 6. 6, 7. Brotier, Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscrip. tom. 46. John Reinhold Forster (De Bysso, p. 20, 21.) thinks that Little Bucharia was certainly the ancient Serica. Sir John Barrow (Travels in China, p. 435-438.) thinks the Seres were not the Chinese.
[33] The first author who speaks of the Seres as a distinct nation, is Mela, iii. 7. He describes them as a very honest people, who brought what they had to sell, laid it down and went away, and then returned for the price of it. The same account is given by Eustathius, on Dyonisius, l. 752. p. 242, Bernhardy.
SENECA, THE TRAGEDIAN.
Nec Mæonià distinguit acu,
Quæ Phœbeis subditus Euris
Legit Eois Ser arboribus.
Herc. Œtæus, 664.