The most favourable season for taking these fish is after the rising of the Dog-star, or else before spring; for when they have once discharged[2686] their waxy secretion, their juices have no consistency: this, however, is a fact unknown in the dyers’ workshops, although it is a point of primary importance. After it is taken, the vein is extracted, which we have[2687] previously spoken of, to which it is requisite to add salt, a sextarius[2688] about to every hundred pounds of juice. It is sufficient to leave them to steep for a period of three days, and no more, for the fresher they are, the greater virtue there is in the liquor. It is then set to boil in vessels of tin,[2689] and every hundred amphoræ[2690] ought to be boiled down to five hundred pounds of dye, by the application of a moderate heat; for which purpose the vessel is placed at the end of a long funnel, which communicates with the furnace; while thus boiling, the liquor is skimmed from time to time, and with it the flesh, which necessarily adheres to the veins. About the tenth day, generally, the whole contents of the cauldron are in a liquified state, upon which a fleece, from which the grease has been cleansed, is plunged into it by way of making trial; but until such time as the colour is found to satisfy the wishes of those preparing it, the liquor is still kept on the boil. The tint that inclines to red is looked upon as inferior to that which is of a blackish hue. The wool is left to lie in soak for five hours, and then, after carding it, it is thrown in again, until it has fully imbibed the colour. The juice of the buccinum is considered very inferior if employed by itself, as it is found to discharge its colour; but when used in conjunction with that of the pelagiæ, it blends[2691] with it very well, gives a bright lustre to its colour, which is otherwise too dark, and imparts the shining crimson hue of the kermes-berry, a tint that is particularly valued. By the admixture of their respective virtues these colours are thus heightened or rendered sombre by the aid of one another. The proper proportions for mixing are, for fifty pounds of wool, two hundred pounds of juice of the buccinum and one hundred and eleven of juice of the pelagiæ. From this combination is produced the admirable tint known as amethyst colour.[2692] To produce the Tyrian hue the wool is soaked in the juice of the pelagiæ while the mixture is in an uncooked and raw state; after which its tint is changed by being dipped in the juice of the buccinum. It is considered of the best quality when it has exactly the colour of clotted blood, and is of a blackish hue to the sight, but of a shining appearance when held up to the light; hence it is that we find Homer speaking of “purple blood.”[2693]
CHAP. 63. (39.)—WHEN PURPLE WAS FIRST USED AT ROME: WHEN THE LATICLAVE VESTMENT AND THE PRÆTEXTA WERE FIRST WORN.
I find that, from the very first, purple has been in use at Rome, but that Romulus employed it for the trabea.[2694] As to the toga prætexta and the laticlave[2695] vestment, it is a fact well ascertained, that Tullus Hostilius was the first king who made use of them, and that after the conquest of the Etruscans. Cornelius Nepos, who died in the reign of the late Emperor Augustus, has left the following remarks: “In the days of my youth,” says he, “the violet purple was in favour, a pound of which used to sell at one hundred denarii; and not long after, the Tarentine[2696] red was all the fashion. This last was succeeded by the Tyrian dibapha,[2697] which could not be bought for even one thousand denarii per pound. P. Lentulus Spinther, the curule ædile, was the first who used the dibapha for the prætexta, and he was greatly censured for it; whereas now-a-days,” says he, “who is there that does not have purple hangings[2698] to his banqueting-couches, even?”
This Spinther was ædile in the consulship of Cicero, and in the year from the Building of the City, 691. “Dibapha” was the name given to textures that had been doubly dyed, and these were looked upon as a mighty piece of costly extravagance; while now, at the present day, nearly all the purple cloths that are reckoned of any account are dyed in a similar manner.
CHAP. 64.—FABRICS CALLED CONCHYLIATED.
Fabrics that are called conchyliated are subjected to the same process in all other respects, but without any admixture of the juice of the buccinum; in addition to which, the liquid is mixed with water and human urine in equal parts,[2699] one-half[2700] only of the proportion of dye being used for the same quantity of wool. From this mixture a full colour is not obtained, but that pale tint, which is so highly esteemed; and the clearer[2701] it is, the less of it the wool has imbibed.
(40.) The prices of these dyes vary in proportion to the quantity produced by the various shores; still, however, those who are in the habit of paying enormous prices for them, may as well be informed that on no occasion ought the juice of the pelagiæ to exceed fifty,[2702] and that of the buccinum one hundred sesterces for one hundred pounds.[2703]
CHAP. 65.—THE AMETHYST, THE TYRIAN, THE HYSGINIAN, AND THE CRIMSON TINTS.
But no sooner have we finished with one branch of this subject than we have to begin upon another, for we find that it is made quite a matter of sport to create expense; and not only this, but the sport must be doubled by making new mixtures and combinations, and falsifying over again what was a falsification of the works of Nature already; such, for instance, as staining tortoise-shell,[2704] alloying gold with silver for the purpose of making electrum,[2705] and then adding copper to the mixture to make Corinthian metal.[2706]
(41.) It was not sufficient to have borrowed from a precious stone the name of “amethyst” for a dye, but when we have obtained this colour we must drench it over again with Tyrian tints,[2707] so that we may have an upstart name[2708] compounded of both, and at the same moment a two-fold display of luxury; for as soon as ever people have succeeded in obtaining the conchyliated colour, they immediately begin to think that it will do better as a state of transition to the Tyrian hues. There can be little doubt that this invention is due to some artist who happened to change his mind, and alter a tint with which he was not pleased: hence a system has taken its rise, and spirits, ever on the rack for creating wonders, have transformed what was originally a blunder into something quite desirable; while, at the same time, a double path has been pointed out to luxury, in thus making one colour carry another, and thereby become, as they say, softer and more mellow. And what is even more than this, human ingenuity has even learned to mingle with these dyes the productions of the earth, and to steep in Tyrian purple fabrics already dyed crimson with the berry of the kermes, in order to produce the hysginian[2709] tint. The kermes of Galatia, a red berry which we shall mention when we come to speak[2710] of the productions of the earth, is the most esteemed of all, except, perhaps, the one that grows in the vicinity of Emerita,[2711] in Lusitania. However, to make an end, once for all, of my description of these precious dyes, I shall remark, that the colour yielded by this grain[2712] when a year old, is of a pallid hue, and that if it is more than four years old, it is quickly discharged: hence we find that its energies are not developed either when it is too young or when old.