As contemporary with the authors last quoted, Dyonisius and Strabo, we may here mention the law passed by the Roman Senate early in the reign of Tiberius, “Ne vestis Serica viros fœdaret.” _Taciti Annales_, ii. 33. _Dion. Cass._ _l._ 57. p. 860. _Reim. Suidas in v._ Τιβέριος[29]. Silk was to be worn by women only. [29] Dio Cassius (l. 43. p. 358. Rheim.) mentions as a report, that Julius Cæsar employed silk curtains (παραπετάσματα Σηρικὰ) to add to the splendor of his triumph. The next emperor Caligula had silk curtains to his throne (_Dion. Cass. l._ 59. p. 915. _Reim._), and he wore silk as part of his dress, when he appeared in public. Dio Cassius particularly mentions, that, when he was celebrating a kind of triumph at Puteoli, he put on what he alleged to be the _thorax_ of Alexander, and over that a silken chlamys, dyed with the murex, and adorned with gold and precious stones. On the following day he wore a tunic interwoven with gold[30]. The use of shawls and tunics of silk was, however, except in the case of the extravagances of a Caligula, still confined to the female sex. Under the earlier emperors it is probable, that silk was obtained in considerable quantities for the wardrobe of the empress, where it was preserved from one reign to another, until in the year 176 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the philosopher, in consequence of the exhausted state of his treasury, sold by public auction in the Forum of Trajan the imperial ornaments and jewels together with the golden and silken robes of the Empress[31]. [30] In describing the effeminate dress of the emperor Caligula, Suetonius tells us (_cap._ 52), that he often went into public, wearing bracelets and long sleeves, and sometimes in a garment of silk and a cyclas. [31] Jul. Capitol. c. xvii. p. 65. Bip. FIRST CENTURY. SENECA, THE PHILOSOPHER. Posse nos vestitos esse sine commercio Serum.--_Epist._ 91. We may clothe ourselves without any commerce with the Seres. Video Sericas vestes, si vestes vocandæ sunt, in quibus nihil est, quo defendi aut corpus aut denique pudor possit: quibus sumtis mulier parum liquidò nudam se non esse jurabit. Hæc ingenti summâ ab ignotis etiam ad commercium gentibus accersunter, ut matronæ nostræ ne adulteris quidem plus sui in cubiculo quam in publico ostendant.--_De Beneficiis, L._ vii. _c._ 9. I see silken (Seric) garments, if they can be called garments, which cannot afford any protection either for the body or for shame: on taking which a woman will scarce with a clear conscience deny, that she is naked. These are sent for at an enormous price from nations, to which our commerce has not yet extended, in order that our matrons may display their persons to the public no less than to adulterers in their chamber!--Yates’s Translation.