In a passage (Carmen. xv.), he mentions a pall,
Cujus bis coctus aheno
Serica Sidonius fucabat stamina murex.
The Tyrian murex, twice i’ th’ cauldron boil’d,
Had dyed its silken threads.
The expression here used, indicates that the silk thread was brought from the country of the Seres to be dyed in Phœnice. In Horace we have already noticed the “Coæ purpuræ.”
A passage from the Burgus Pontii Leontii (Carmen. xxii.), shows that the same article (Serica fila) was imported into Gaul.
In the same author (l. ii. Epist. ad Serranum) we meet with “Sericatum toreuma.” The latter word probably denoted a carved sofa or couch. The epithet “sericatum” may have referred to its silken cover.
The same author describes Prince Sigismer, who was about to be married, going in a splendid procession and thus clothed:
Ipse medius incessit, flammeus cocco, rutilus auro, lacteus serico.