She may thin garments wear, which female Coan hands Have woven, and in stripes dispos’d the golden bands. L. ii. 6. The latter of these two passages is remarkable as showing that the Coan women practised the elegant art of interweaving gold thread in their silken webs. The gold was no doubt displayed in transverse stripes. PROPERTIUS. Why thus, my life, display thy braided hair, And heave beneath thin Coan webs thy bosom fair? L. i. 2. In the next passage Propertius is speaking of his own Poetry, and alludes to his frequent mention of Coan garments. If bright she walk in Coan vest array’d, Through all this book will Coan be display’d. L. ii. 1. ON A STATUE OF VERTUMNUS. My nature suits each changing form: Turn’d into what you please, I’m fair. Clothe me in Coan, I’m a decent lass, Put on a toga, for a man I pass. L. iv. 2. The texture of the Coan Minerva. L. iv. 5. Who gives no Coan robe, but verse instead, Artless shall be his lyre, his verses dead. _Ibid._ The same poet (L. iv. 8. 23.) mentions “Serica carpenta,” chariots with silk curtains; and the following line (L. i. 14. 22.) shows, that couches with ornamented silk covers were then in use: Quid revelant variis Serica textilibus? Propertius also mentions silk under the name of the animal, which produced it: Shines with the produce of th’ Arabian worm. L. ii. 3. 15. In this line, as well as in some of those before quoted, he alludes to the use of silk by females of indifferent character. He probably uses the epithet _Arabian_, because the Roman merchants obtained silk from the Arabs, who received it from Persia. VIRGIL. Soft wool from downy groves the Æthiop weaves, And Seres comb their fleece from silken leaves. _Georg._ ii. 120, 121.--Sotheby’s Translation. The poet is here enumerating the chief productions of different countries, and therefore mentions cotton and silk. The idea, that silk webs were manufactured from thin fleeces obtained from trees, will be found recurring in many of the subsequent citations. It may have been founded on reports brought by the soldiers of Crassus, or by others who visited the interior of Asia about the same period. HORACE. Nor Coan purples, nor the blaze Of jewels can bring back the days, Which, fix’d by time, recorded stand, By all, who read the Fasti, scann’d. _Od._ _l._ iv. 13. (_ad Lycen._) 13-16. As if uncloth’d, she stands confess’d In a translucent Coan vest. _Sat._ i. 2. 101.