Again, Claudian supposes Thetis to have woven scarfs of gold and purple for her son Achilles:
Ipsa manu chlamydes ostro texebat et auro. (Ep. 35.)
The epigram in which this line occurs, seems to imply that Serena, mother-in-law of the Emperor Honorius, wove garments of the same kind for him.
Maria, the daughter of the above-mentioned Stilicho, was bestowed by him upon Honorius, but died shortly after, about A. D. 400. In February, 1544, the marble coffin, containing her remains, was discovered at Rome. In it were preserved a garment and a pall, which, on being burnt, yielded 36 pounds of gold. There were also found a great number of glass vessels, jewels, and ornaments of all kinds, which Stilicho had given as a dowry to his daughter[50]. We may conclude, that the garments discovered in the tomb of Maria were woven by the hands of her mother Serena, since the epigram of Claudian proves that she wove robes of a similar description for Honorius, and probably on the same occasion. Anastasius Bibliothecarius says, that when Pope Paschal was intent on finding the body of St. Cæcilia, having performed mass with a view to obtain the favor of a revelation on the subject, he was directed A. D. 821 to a cemetery on the Appian Way near Rome, and there found the body enveloped in cloth of gold[51]. Although there is no reason to believe, that the body found by Paschal was the body of the saint pretended, yet it may have been the body of a Roman lady who had lived some centuries before, and probably about the time of Honorius and Maria.
[50] Surii Comment. Rerum Gest. ab anno 1500, &c.
[51] “Aureis vestitum indumentis.” De Vitis Rom. Pontificum Mogunt. 1602, p. 222.
Pisander, who belonged to the same period (900 B. C.) with Homer, speaks of the Lydians as wearing tunics adorned with gold. Lydus observes, that the Lydians were supplied with gold from the sands of the Pactolus and the Hermus[52].
[52] De Magistratibus Rom. L. iii. § 64.
Virgil also represents the use of gold in weaving, as if it had existed in Trojan times. One of the garments so adorned was manufactured by Dido, the Sidonian, one by Andromache, and another was in the possession of Anchises[53]. In all these instances the reference is to the habits of Phœnice, Lycia, or other parts of Asia.
[53] Æn. iii. 483.; iv. 264.; viii. 167.; xi. 75.