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

SERRA. SERTA. 1029
ders (pa.occ(syaudce) were allowed to be made only
in the imperial gynaecea. [PARAGAUDA.] i
The production of raw silk (pi'aroa) in Europe.
was first attempted under Justinian, A. D. 530.
The eggs of the silkworm were conveyed to Byzantium in the hollow stem of a plant from " Serinda,"4
which was probably Khotan in Little B3ucharia, by
some monks, who had learnt the method of hatch- - S
ing and rearing them. The worms were fed with
the leaf of the Black or Common Mulberry (euscd-
ulleos. Procop. B. Gold. iv. 17; Glycas, Ame. iv. p. I
209; Zonar. Ann. xiv. p. 69, ed. Du Cange; Phot.
BiUl. p. 80, ed. Roth.). The cultivation both of
this species and of the White Mulberry, the breeding
of silk-worms, and the manufacture of their produce, having been long confined to Greece, were at
length in the twelfth century transported into last-nmentioned figure is represented a hand-saw
Sicily, and thence extended over the south of Eu- adapted to be used by a single person. That on
rope. (Otto Frisingen, Hist. Iop. Freder. i. 33; the left is from the same funereal monument as the
iMan. Comnenns, ii. 8.) The progress of this im- blade of the frame-saw: that on the right is the
portant branclh of industry was hqwever greatly figure of an ancient Egyptian saw preserved in the
impeded even in Greece both by sumptulary laws. Britiah Museum. These saws (serru2lae eamau
restricting the Lse of silk except in the church ser- brintae) were used to divide the smaller objects.
vice or in the dress and ornaments of the court, Some of them, called lasi, had a particular shape,'and also by fines and prohibitions against private by which they were adapted for amputating the
silk-mills, and by other attempts to regulate the branches of trees. (Pallad. de Re Ruast. i. 43.)
price both of the raw and manufactured article. St. Jerome (in Is. xxviii. 27) seems clearly to
It was at one time determined that the business allude to the circular saw, which was probably used,
should be carried on solely by the imperial trea- as at present, in cutting veneers (lcm7inaepraeZtenues,
surer. Peter Barsames, probably a Phoenician, Plin. IH. N. xvi. 43. s. 84). We have also intiheld the office, and conducted himself in the most mations of the use of the centre-bit, and we find
oppressive manner, so that the silk trade was ruined that even in the time of Cicero (pro Cluent. 64) it
both in Byzantium and at Tyre and Berytus, whilst was employed by thieves.
Justinian, the empress Theodora, and their trea- Pliny (H. N. xxxvi. 22. s. 44) mentions the use
surer amassed great wealth by the monopoly. of the saw in the ancient Belgium for cutting
(Procop. -ist. Arcanz. 25.) The silks woven in white building-stone: some of the oolitic and cre..
Europe previously to the thirteenth century were taceous rocks are still treated in the same manner
in general plain in their pattern. Many of those both in that part of the continent and in the south
produced by the industry and taste of the Seres, of England. In this case Pliny must be understood
i. e. the silk manufacturers of the interior of Asia, to speak of a proper or toothed saw. The saw
were highly elaborate, and appear to have been without teeth was then used, just as it is now, by
very similar in their patterns and style. of ornament the workers inl marble, and the place of teeth was
to the Persian shawls of modern times. [J. Y.] supplied, according to the hardness of the stone,
SERRA, dim. SERRULA (7rpiwv), a saw. It either by emery or by various kinds of sand of inwas made of iron (fersea, Non. Marc. p. 223, ferior hardness. (Plin. H. N, xxxvi. 6. s. 9.) In
ed. Merceri; de ferro lamiina, Isid. Orig. xix. 19; this malner the ancient artificers were able to cut
Virg. Georg. i. 143). The form of the larger saw slabs of the hardest rocks, which consequently
used for cutting timber is seen in the annexed were adapted to receive the highest polish, such
woodcut, which is taken from a miniature in the as granite, porphyry3 lapis-lazuli, and amethyst.
celebrated Dioscorides written at the beginning of [MoLA; PARIEs.]
the sixth century. (Montfaucon, Pal. Grace. p. The saw is an instrument of high antiquity, its
203.) It is of the kind which we call the frame- invention being attributed either to Daedalus
saw, because it is fixed in a rectangular frame. It (Plin. H. V. vii. 56; Sen. Epist. 90), or to his
was held by a workman (serrarizs, Sen. Epist. nephew Perdix (Hygin. Fa&. 274; Ovid. Met. viii.
57) at each end. The line was used to mark the 246) [CIRciNUS], also called Tales, who, having
timber in order to guide the saw (Sen. Epist. found the jaw of a serpent and divided a piece of
90); and its movement was facilitated by driving a ood with it, was led to imitate the teeth in iron.
wedges with a hammer between the planks (tenues (Diod. Sic. iv. 76; Apollodor. iii. 15.) In a bastabulae) or rafters (trabes). (Corippus, de Laud. relief published by Winckelmann (ilon. Inedt. ii.
Jdust. iv. 45 —48.) A similarrepresentation of the fig. 94), Daedalus is represented holding a saw
use of the frame-saw is given in a painting found approaching very closely in form to the Egyptian
at Herculaneum, the operators being winged genii, saw above delineated. [J. Y.]
as in this woodcut (An^t. d'rcol. i. tav. 34); but SERRA'TI NUMMI. [DENARIUS,p. 394, a.]
in a bas-relief published by Micali (Ital. av. il SERTA, used only in the plural (o-iua-,
Dom. dei Roem. tav. 49) the two sawyers rvear tunics o'eechSdCiv,ua), a festoon or garland. The art of
girt round the waist like that of the ship-builder in weaving wreaths [CoROaNA], garlands, and festhe woodcut at p. 141. The woodcut here intro- tooeens, employed a distinct class of persons (core.
duced aLso shows the blade of the saw detached narii and coronaria e; ereEpaz'rlerrXKiot, Theophrast.
from its frame, with a ring at each end for fixing H. P. vi. 8. ~ 1; Plin. HI. N. xxi. 2. s. 3, or
it in the frame, and exhibited on a funereal meonu- reiebao-rAioKo ), who endeavoured to combine all
mnent published by Gruter. On each side of the the most beautiful varieties of leaves, of flowers,
u 3