One performed the part of a soldier, girt with a sword; another had his chlamys tucked up by a belt, and carried scimitars and hunting-poles, as if engaged in the chace; another, wearing gilt slippers, a silken tunic, precious ornaments, and artificial hair, by his flowing attire represented a woman.
ULPIAN.
Vossius, in his Etymologicum Linguæ Latinæ, in the learned and copious article Sericum, says, “Inter sericum et bombycinum discrimen ponit Ulpianus, l. xxiii. de aur. arg. leg. ‘Vestimentorum sunt omnia lanea, lineaque, vel serica, vel bombycina.’”
JULIUS POLLUX.
The Bombyces are worms, which emit from themselves threads, like the spider. Some say, that the Seres collect their webs from animals of this kind. L. vii. 76. p. 741.—Kühn.
JUSTIN
evidently refers to the use of silken garments in his account of the customs of the Parthians, where he says,
They formerly dressed after their own fashion. After they became rich, they adopted the pellucid and flowing garments of the Medes. L. xli. c. 2.
All doubt, whether the transparent garments, mentioned by Justin, were of silk, must be removed by the authority of Procopius, from whom we shall hereafter cite ample and important testimony in reference to the time when he lived, and who in the two following passages expressly states, that the webs, called by the Greeks in his time Seric, were more anciently denominated Median.
Among the valuable and curious effects of the emperor Commodus, which after his death (A. D. 192.) were sold by his successor Pertinax, was a garment with a woof of silk, of a bright yellow color, the appearance of which was more beautiful than if the material had been interwoven with threads of gold[43].