In a poem, which immediately succeeds this in the order of time, Claudian describes a magnificent toga, worn by Honorius on being appointed a fourth time consul, by saying, that it received its color (_the Tyrian purple_) from the Phœnicians; its woof (_of silk forming stripes or figures_) from the Seres; and its weight (_produced by Indian gems_) from the river Hydaspes[48]. Again, in his poem on the approaching marriage of Honorius and Maria, he mentions yellow silk curtains (_l._ 211.) as a decoration of the nuptial chamber. [48] De IV. Cons. Honorii, i. 600, 601. Again he says (_in Eutrop._ _l._ i. _v._ 225, 226. 304. _l._ ii. _v._ 337.): Te grandibus India gemmis, Te foliis Arabes ditent, te vellere Seres. Let India with her gems thy wealth increase, The Arabs with their leaves, the Seres with their fleece. He also mentions with delight the use of gold in dress, as well as of silk. The following passage represents the manner in which Proba, a Roman matron, near the end of the fourth century, expressed her affectionate congratulations on the elevation of her two sons to the Consulship, by preparing robes _interwoven with gold_ for the ceremony of their installation. With joy elated at this proud success, Their venerable mother now prepares The golden trabeas, and the cinctures bright With Seric fibres shorn from woolly trees: Her well-train’d thumb protracts the length’ning gold, And makes the metal to the threads adhere. _In Probini et Olybrii Consulatum_, _l._ 177-182. From these verses we learn that Proba had herself acquired the art of _covering the thread with gold_, and that she then used her gold thread in the _woof_ to form the stripes or other ornaments of the consular trabeæ. These are afterwards called stiff togas (_togæ rigentes_, _l._ 205.), on account of the rigidity imparted to them by the gold thread. The same poet gives an elaborate description of a Trabea which he supposes to have been woven by the Goddess Rome with the aid of Minerva for the use of the Consul Stilicho. Five different scenes are said to have been _woven_ in this admirable robe (_regentia dona, graves auro trabeas_), and certain parts of them were wrought in gold[49]. [49] In I. Cons. Stilichonis, L. ii. 330-359. Again, Claudian supposes Thetis to have woven scarfs of gold and purple for her son Achilles: Ipsa manu chlamydes ostro texebat et auro. (_Ep._ 35.) The epigram in which this line occurs, seems to imply that Serena, mother-in-law of the Emperor Honorius, wove garments of the same kind for him.