We have reason to believe, that the _Lydians_ and _Carians_ bestowed the greatest attention on sheep-breeding and on the woollen manufacture before the arrival of the Greek colonists among them. The new settlers adopted the employments of the ancient inhabitants, and made those employments subservient to a very extensive and lucrative trade. Pliny (viii. 73. ed. Bip.) mentions the wool of Laodicea (See Appendix A.) in Caria; and Strabo (xii. c. 7. p. 578. Casaub.) observes, that the country about this city and Colossæ, which was not far from it, produced sheep highly valued on account of the fineness and the color of their fleeces. Aristophanes mentions a _pall_, made of “Phrygian fleeces[262]:” and Varro asserts, that in his time there were many flocks of wild sheep in Phrygia[263]. [262] Aves, 492. [263] De Re Rusticâ, ii. 1. The passages above quoted from Strabo and Joannes Tzetzes allude to the very great celebrity of the wool of _Miletus_ and of the articles woven from it. The passages, which will now be produced from both Greek and Latin authors of various ages, conspire to prove the distinguished excellence of the wool of Miletus, although in many of them the epithet _Milesian_ may be employed only in a proverbial acceptation to denote wool of the finest quality. The animals, which yielded this wool, must have been bred in the interior of Ionia not far from Miletus. Ctesias describes the softness of camels’-hair by comparing it to Milesian fleeces[264]. A woman in Aristophanes (Lysist. 732.) says, she must go home to spread her Milesian fleeces on the couch, because the worms were gnawing them. In a fragment of a Greek comedy, called Procris, of a somewhat later age (ap. Athen. l. xii. p. 553), a favorite lap-dog is described, lying on Milesian fleeces: Οὐκοῦν ὑποστορεῖτε μαλακῶς τῷ κυνί· Κάτω μὲν ὑποβαλεῖτε τῶν Μιλησίων Ἐρίων. Therefore make a soft bed for the dog: throw down for him Milesian fleeces. [264] Ctesiæ fragmenta, a Bähr, p. 224. The Sybarites wore _shawls_ of Milesian wool[265]. Palæphatus explains the fable of the Hesperides by saying, that their father Hesperus was a Milesian, and that they had beautiful sheep, such as those which were still kept at Miletus[266]. Eustathius says, the “Milesian _carpets_[267]” had become proverbial. Virgil represents the nymphs of Cyrene spinning Milesian fleeces, dyed of a deep _sea-green_ color: The nymphs, around her placed, their spindles ply, And draw Milesian wool, of glassy dye. _Georg._ iv. 334. [265] Timæus apud Athenæum, xii. p. 519. B. [266] De Incred. § 19. [267] In Dionysium, v. 823. He also alludes to the high price of Milesian fleeces in the following passage: Let rich Miletus vaunt her fleecy pride, And weigh with gold her robes in purple dyed. _Georg._ iii. 306.--_Sotheby’s Translation._ The comment of Servius on the latter passage is as follows: