A Curious Roman Law

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20168, 9 June 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

A Curious Roman Law

Wrought silk was brought from Persia to Greece 325 B.C. In Rome in the time of Tiberius, a curious law was passed by the Senate. It prohibited the use of plate of gold, and forbade men “to debase themselves by wearing silk, fit only for women.” In ancient times silk was of the same value as gold, weight for weight, and was thought to grow in the same manner as cotton, on trees, says a writer in the Horsham Sign Post. Silkworms were not brought to Europe from India until the sixth century.

It is on record that Charlemagne, in A.D. 780, made Offa, King of Mercia, a magnificent present of two silken vests. Roger, who was King of Sicily in 1146, did much to encourage the Sicilians to produce silk, so that they not only bred silkworms, but spun and wove the silk. Gradually the manufacture of silk spread into Italy and Spain, also into the south of France, but it was left to Henry IV. (of France) to plant mulberry trees and order the production of silk throughout the kingdom. Silk was not manufactured in England until 1604, although there is some account of the beautiful silk mantles worn by some noble ladies at a grand ball held at Kenilworth in 1286. The clergy were permitted to wear silk as early as 1534. A great advance in silk manufactures was made by the French refugees, who came to London in. 1688 and settled at Spitalfields, and from then the silk manufacture has gone steadily onwards.