xi.
tit. 8, leg. 5.) An inglorious permission, and necessary restriction,
was applied to the mince, the female dancers, (Cod. Theodos. l. xv. tit.
7, leg. 11.)]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian.--Part III.

I need not explain that silk [61] is originally spun from the bowels of
a caterpillar, and that it composes the golden tomb, from whence a worm
emerges in the form of a butterfly. Till the reign of Justinian,
the silk-worm who feed on the leaves of the white mulberry-tree were
confined to China; those of the pine, the oak, and the ash, were common
in the forests both of Asia and Europe; but as their education is
more difficult, and their produce more uncertain, they were generally
neglected, except in the little island of Ceos, near the coast of
Attica. A thin gauze was procured from their webs, and this Cean
manufacture, the invention of a woman, for female use, was long admired
both in the East and at Rome. Whatever suspicions may be raised by the
garments of the Medes and Assyrians, Virgil is the most ancient writer,
who expressly mentions the soft wool which was combed from the trees of
the Seres or Chinese; [62] and this natural error, less marvellous than
the truth, was slowly corrected by the knowledge of a valuable insect,
the first artificer of the luxury of nations. That rare and elegant
luxury was censured, in the reign of Tiberius, by the gravest of the
Romans; and Pliny, in affected though forcible language, has condemned
the thirst of gain, which explores the last confines of the earth, for
the pernicious purpose of exposing to the public eye naked draperies and
transparent matrons. [63] [6311] A dress which showed the turn of the
limbs, and color of the skin, might gratify vanity, or provoke
desire; the silks which had been closely woven in China were sometimes
unravelled by the Phoenician women, and the precious materials were
multiplied by a looser texture, and the intermixture of linen threads.
[64] Two hundred years after the age of Pliny, the use of pure, or
even of mixed silks, was confined to the female sex, till the opulent
citizens of Rome and the provinces were insensibly familiarized with
the example of Elagabalus, the first who, by this effeminate habit, had
sullied the dignity of an emperor and a man. Aurelian complained, that a
pound of silk was sold at Rome for twelve ounces of gold; but the supply
increased with the demand, and the price diminished with the supply. If
accident or