In his treatise on Female Attire he mentions silk in relation to Milesian wool, and he concludes that treatise in the following terms:
Manus lanis occupate, pedes domi figite, et plus quam in auro placebitis. Vestite vos serico probitatis, byssino sanctitatis, purpurâ pudicitiæ.
Employ your hands with wool; keep your feet at home. Thus will you please more than if you were in gold. Clothe yourselves with the silk of probity, with the fine linen of sanctity, and with the purple of modesty.
Lastly, this author says (Adv. Marcionem, l. i. p. 372.),
Imitare, si potes, apis ædificia, formicæ stabula, aranei retia, bombycis stamina.
Imitate, if thou canst, the constructions of the bee, the retreats of the ant, the nets of the spider, the threads of the silk-worm.
APULEIUS.
Prodeunt, mitellis, et crocotis, et carbasinis, et bombycinis injecti. * * * Deamque, serico contectam amiculo, mihi gerendam imponunt. Metamorphoseon, l. viii. p. 579, 580. ed. Oudendorpii.
They came forward, wearing ribbons, and cloths of a saffron color, of cotton, and of silk, loosely thrown over them. * * * And they place on me the Goddess covered with a small silken scarf, to be carried by me.
Hic incinctus baltheo militem gerebat; illum succinctum chlamyde, copides et venabula venatorem fecerant; alius soccis obauratis, indutus serica veste, mundoque pretioso, et adtextis capite crinibus, incessu perfluo feminam mentiebatur. Ibid. l. xi. p. 769.