Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1028 SERICUM. SERICUM.
who joined in the suit of another person with the thin fleece found on trees. (Virg. Geo7g. ii. 121;
bargain that they should share whatever was; Petron. 119;Seneca, Hipjol. 386; Festus Avieacquired by the condemnatio. (Dig. 48. tit. 7. nus, 935; Sil. Ital. Pan. vi. 4, xiv. 664, xvii.
s. 6.) [G. L.] 596.) An author, nearly contemporary with
SENTIORES. [COMITIA, p. 333.] those of the Augustan age already quoted (DioSEPTA. [CoMITrA, p. 336, b.] nysius Periegetes, 755), celebrates not only the
SEPTEMVIRI EPULO'NES. [EePULONES.] extreme fineness aand the high value, biut also the'SEPTTMATRUS. [QUINQUATRUS.] flowered texture of these productions. The cirSEPTIMO'NTIUM, a Roman festival which,cumstances now stated sufficiently account for the
was held in the month of Decemnber. It lasted fact, tlhat after the Augustan age we find no
only for one day (dies Septimontium, dies Septimnon- further mention of Coan, but only of Seric webs.
tialis). According to Festus (s. v. Septimontium7), The rage for the latter increased more and more.
the festival was the same as the Agonalia; but Even men aspired to be adorned with silk, and
Scaliger in his note on this passage has shown'hence the senate early in the reign of Tiberius
from Varro (de Ling. Lat. vi. 24) and from Ter- enacted " Ne vestis Serica viros foedaret.1" (Tac.
tullian (de Idolol. 10), that the Septimontium Ann. ii. 33; Dion Cass. lvii. 15; Suidas, s. v.
must have been held on one of the last days of TiLdpros.)
December, whereas the Agonalia took place on the In the succeeding reigns, we find the most
tenth'of this month. The-day of the-Septimontium vigorous measures adopted by those emperors
was a dies feriatus for the montani, or the inhabit- who were characterized by severity of' manners,
ants of the seven ancient hills or rather districts of to restrict the use of silk, whilst CaliguIa and
Rome, who offered on this day sacrifices to the others, notorious for luxury and excess, not only
gods in their respective districts. These sacra encouraged it in the female sex, but delighted to
(sacra proo n2oltibus, Fest. s. v. Publica sacra) were, display i iin ptublic on theior own persons. (Suet.
like the paganalia, not sacra publica, but privata. Casliq. 52; Dion Cass. lix. 12; see'also Joseph.'
(Varro, 1. c.; compare SACRA.) They' were believed B. J. vii. 5. ~ 4.) Shawls and scarves, interwoven
to have beean instituted to commemorate the en- with gold anld bronlght fiom the remotest East,
closure of the seven'hills of Rome within the walls Iwere accumulated in the wardrolbe of the Empress
of the city, but must certainly be referred to a during successive. reigns (Martial, xi. 9), until in
time lwhen the Capitoline, Quirinal, and Viminal the year 176 Antoninus, the philosopher, in consc%were not yet ~incorporated With Rome. (Compare quence of the exhausted state of his treasury, sold
Columella, ii. 10; Suet. Doneit. 4; Plut. Quaest. them by public atuction in the Forum of Trajan
Romn. 68; Niebuhr, Dtist. of Rone, vol. i. p. 389, xwith the rest of the imperial orna.ments. (Capitol.
&c.) [L. S.] in vita, 17.) At this period we find that the
SEPTUNX. [As, p. 140, b.] silken texture, besides being mixed with gold
SEPULCRUM. [FuNuJs, p. 360,b.] (Xpvu07rarrosr, Xpvaooc)7s), was adorned with enimSEQUESTRES. [AsnBITUs.] broidery, this part of the woik beinlg executed
SERA. [JANuA, p. 626, b.'l either in Egypt or Asia Minor. (Nilotis, dAikaeonia,
SE'RICUIJM (ospL.,c), silk, also called boie- acies, Lucan, x. 141; Seneca, Terc. Oct. 664.) The
byciz2num. The first ancient author who affords Christian authors from'Clemens Alexiandrinus
any' evidence respecting the use of silk, is Aristotle (Pasedacg. ii. 110) and Tertullian (de Paclio, 4)
(H. A. v. 19). After a description, partially cor- downwards discourage or condemn the use of silk.
rect, of the metamorphoses of the silkworm (bosmbyx, Plutarch also dissuades the virtuous and prudent
Martial, viii. 33), he intim'ates that the produce of wife from wearing it (Cosj. Pinaec. p. 350, vol. vi.
the cocoons was wound upon bobbins by women ed. Reiske), although it is probable that ribands
for the purpose of bein woven, -and that Pamphile, for dressing the hair (Martial, xiv. 24) ivere not
daughter of Plates, was said to have first woven uncommon, since these goods (Serica) wvere prosilk.in Cos. This statement authorizes the conc!u- curable in the vicus Tuscus at Rome (xi. 27).
sion, that raw silk i-nas bronught from the interior Silk thread was also imported and used for various
of Asia and mamnufacturLed in Cos as early (is the purposes. (Galenl, Ilepl Aiyv,. vol. vi. p.,33, ed.
fourth century B.c. From this istind it appears thiat Chartier.)
the Roman ladies obtained their most splendid Although Comnmodus in some degree replenished
garments [COA VESTIS], SO that the later poets the palace with valuable and cll'ioius effects, inof the Augustan age, Tibullus (ii. 4), Propertius cluding those of silk (Capitol. Permtii. 8), this arti(i. 2, ii. i, iv. 2, iv. 5), Horace (Casrii. iv. 13. 13, cle soon afterwards again became very rare, so that
Sat. i. 2. 1'01>, and Ovid (Art. iA7neTt. ii. 298), few writers of the third century nlitke mention of
adorn their verses with allusions to these elegant it. When finely manufactured,.it sold for its
textures, xwhich were reimarikably thin, somletimes weight in gold, on which accoint Aurelitn would
of a fine.purple dye (Hor. l. cc.), and variegated not allow his empress to have even a single shawllt
with transverse stripes of gold. (Tibull. ii. 6.) of purple silk (pallio blcntteo seeico, Vopisc. Aiurel.
About thtis -time the Parthian conquests opened a 45). The use of silk wxith a warp of linen er woo!,.vay for:the transport into Italy of all the most called tramoserica alnd so/nseric, as distinguished
valuable productions of central Asia, which was fi'om lIoloserica, was permitted under miny restricthe supposed territory of the Seres. The appear- tions. About the end howesver, of the third ceiiance of the silken flags attached to the gilt stand- tury, silk, especially whllen -woven with a warp of
ards of the Parthians in the battle fought in.54 inferior value, began to be much more generally
B. c. (Florus, iii. 11), must have been a very strik- wvorn both by men andl woinen; and the conseing sight for the army of'Crassus. quence was that, in order to confine the enjoymelt
The inquiries of the Romans respecting the of this luxury more entirely to the imperial fanlily
nature of this beautiful manufacture led to a very and court, private pei'sons were forbidden to engeneral opinion that silk in its natural state was a gage in the manufacture, anId gold and silken bor