Article
Professor Hsin-Mei Agnes Hsu
Brown University
Rhode Island, USA
By commission of the UNESCO Scientific Committee for the Qhapaq Ñan
April 2006
Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Chinese Silk was all the rage in Augustan Rome (31 BCE-14 CE). In Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love), Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE) gives us one of the earliest references of the wearing of Chinese silk in Western literature.
But he that covets to retain her heart,
Let him apply his flattery with art;
With lasting raptures on her beauty gaze,
And make her form the subject of his praise.
Purple commend, when she’s in purple dress’d;
In scarlet, swear she looks in scarlet best;
Array’d in gold, her graceful mien adore,
Vowing those eyes transcend the sparkling ore.
With prudence place each compliment aright;
Tho’ clad in crape, let homely crape delight.
Ovid’s obsession with beauties adorned in gossamers of silk is an apt metaphor to the seductive effect of Chinese silk on the Romans. The exotic import would prove to be more than a passing trend, for its enduring popularity beyond the Augustan age was well documented by a number of observers, including Tacitus (c. 56-c. 117 CE) and Galen (129-200 CE). As the most conspicuous consumers of Chinese silk in the ancient world, the Romans provided the initial impetus for the globalization of silk.
The Early Silk Road from the Roman Perspective
The appeal of Chinese silk was undeniably its luxurious qualities—soft to the touch and lightweight as feather, yet surprisingly durable—but the Roman patrician consumers’ obsession with Chinese silk was likely driven by the material’s scarcity and mysterious origin. The most exquisite silk products were reserved exclusively for imperial consumption. Caligula (r. 37-41 CE) was known for his penchant for wearing women’s silk garments, among his many eccentricities. He was often seen in public clad in such attire. Commodus (r. 180-192), on the other hand, preferred to use silk for interior decoration. His palace was said to have been adorned with splendid drapery of embroidered silk. The most infamous silk aficionado in Western antiquity was the last of the Antonines, Elagabalus (r. 218- 22 CE). He was vilified for introducing the cult of the Syrian Sun God to Roman religion; he also gained notoriety as the first and probably the only Roman emperor to have dressed exclusively in pure Chinese silk. If ancient writings hold any truth, Elagabalus even commissioned the making of a silk rope dyed to the colors of imperial purple and scarlet in anticipation of fulfilling the prophecy of a violent death by a noose.
Silk is a fibrous substance produced by insects, but Chinese silk is made from the fibers exclusively produced by the moths that feed on mulberry leaves. These moths, Insecta Lepidoptera Ditrysia Bombycoidea Bombycidae, were native only to China in the early antiquity. Raw silk is produced from silkworm cocoons in a lengthy process known as sericulture. (INSERT picture of silk cocoons) During this process the caterpillar inside is killed in order to preserve the cocoon. After an extended period of soaking in hot water, the cocoon is unraveled to obtain the filament; each cocoon produces about 1000 yards of filament. The filaments are subsequently wound on a wheel and spun. Raw silk is a versatile material that can be dyed into a rainbow of colors and variegated with gold threads; finely manufactured silk was prized for its soft texture, lightweight, and translucency. Chinese mythology dates the invention of sericulture to prehistoric times. Excavated examples of silk threads and spinning tools at early Neolithic sites confirm the cultivation of silkworms as early as c. 4000 BCE. There is no doubt that sericulture was already highly developed by the Shang dynasty (c. 1500-1045 BCE).
It is commonly misconceived that the Chinese were the only producers of silk in the ancient world. My investigation shows that, prior to the introduction of Chinese silk, another type was known to the Romans. In Historia Naturalis (The Natural History), Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) describes a certain Coan silk, named after the Mediterranean island of Cos where the fabric was sourced.
The first kinds of silk dresses worn by the Roman ladies were from this island, and, as Pliny says, were known by the name of Coca vestes. These dresses were so fine as to be transparent, and were sometimes dyed purple, and enriched with stripes of gold. They probably had their name from the early reputation which Cos acquired by its manufactures of silk.
By all accounts, Coan silk was very much in vogue before Chinese silk became known. The Roman obsession with Chinese silk had an inauspicious start. In 53 BCE, the Roman army suffered a devastating defeat and tremendous casualty in the hands of the Parthians at the battle of Carrhae, near the Euphrates in Western Mesopotamia. The Roman commander Marcus Licinius Crassus died after a risky escape; his body was then taken by the Parthians and his head was presented to the Parthian king Orodes II. As the survivors of Crassus’s army fled from the battlefield, however, they were struck by the sight of their enemy’s brilliantly colored banners fluttering in the wind. These banners were made of Chinese silk.
Once the Romans learned about Chinese silk, it quickly replaced the Coan prototype as the sine qua non in a fashionable lady’s wardrobe. Soon, even men of the upper class began to prefer clothing made of Chinese silk, as ownership of Chinese silk symbolized wealth and status. In the early years of Tiberius’s reign (r. 14-37 CE), the Senate issued several edicts prohibiting men from wearing Chinese silk because it was viewed as the source of a significant monetary outflow into foreign hands. By the third century CE, silk had become so costly that Emperor Aurelian (r. 270-275) forbade his empress to own not even one shawl of purple-dyed silk. By this time, silk was selling for its weight in gold.
Chinese silk was the most costly article of import for the Romans for one reason only – that the trade was monopolized by numerous middlemen, namely the Parthians, a traditional enemy of Rome. There was no direct trade between the Chinese and Romans, who are the respective supplier and consumer. In fact, the two great empires did not come into direct contact until the second century after Rome defeated Parthia and controlled the Persian Gulf. Hou Han shu (History of the Latter Han) records that an embassy from Da Qin (a term most scholars agree to denote Rome) arrived in China in 166 CE and was granted audience with Emperor Huan (r. 146-168). If the account is true, the chronology indicates that the embassy was likely dispatched by Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-180 CE).
By the fourth century CE, the silk trade had become a huge industry. Soon, Chinese silk was no longer an exclusive material for the Roman elite. Ancient sources tell us that the use of silk had become so popular that it spread to all classes, even to the lowest. The demand of silk continued to increase steadily over the subsequent centuries. In 552 CE, Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I (r. 527-565) is said to have sponsored the earliest known case of industrial espionage in history. He sent two Nestorian monks to Central Asia to discover the secret of Chinese silk; they returned to Byzantium with silkworm eggs hidden inside the hollow of their walking sticks. The secret of Chinese silk was finally exposed. From then on, sericulture spread throughout Asia Minor and Europe.
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