20. Dyeing. — Dyeing was well understood from an early period, especially in purple, and this process seems from the lirst to have been carried out, not at home, but in the factory. The charac- teristic word for ' to dye' is ^airTeiv (cf. tiiu/uere) from the dipping of the garment in the dye (cf. Rev 19"), and for 'the dye' tpapixaKov (mccHcamcn, medicamentum). As a rule, the stull' was dyed not as a fabric, but previously to weaving. The Egyptians, however, followed a practice akin to modern cotton-printing. The chief demand, of course, in all dyeing was that the dye should be lasting and proof against washing. Alum and other substances were used in dyeing, and animal and vegetable, but not mineral, dyes. They dis- tinguished between herbal and snail dyeing. From the former were obtained madder, salt'ron, weed, woad, litmus, gall-nuts, etc. ; from the latter, purple and scarlet. The most important, the subject of constant mention, is dyeing with purple. Furple- (or rather violet-) dj'eing, properly so called, — that is, dyeing with the juice of certain kinds of snails, — was a discovery of the Phrenicians, especially those of Tyre, whose products remained by far the best (and the dearest). Phcenician purple was always understood to have been produced in this way, while imitations from other countries were some- times made from plants. Thus it is that the Latin and Greek words for shell-lisli, with their deriva- tives, are very often used for purple-dyes. Three difierent types of shell-lish (murex, iropcfivpa, pur- pura) were employed, one obtained at Tarentum and other places in the Adriatic for Tarentine piuple, another obtained oil' the African coast for (!a-tulian or African purple, and the third oil' the Pha'uician coast for Phtcnician purple. Uo/xpi'pa, though properly the name of only one shell-lish, came to be used quite generally for purple, and from it the derivatives came : e.//. Trop^updiruXis {purpuraria), Ac IB'*, applied to Lydia of Thyatira, means a dealer in purple dyed wool and fabrics of all sorts. The name of another shell-lish, murex, was similarly used to describe purple in general. The means by which the dye was obtained need not be here de.scribe<l in detail. Several varieties of purple were produced by the mi.xture of the juices of various shell-lish. ryTian(and Laconian) pur]ile w^as always double-dyed (5(/ia0ov). The wool was first dipped in one dye (pchiffinm), while the latter was still half-boiled, and then dijiped in another (hucinum). The colour thus gained was like that of coagulated blood, blackish and shining, especially in sunlight. In addition to the genuine purple, brighter dyes w-ere i)roduced by the weaken- ing of it through the use of various other sub- stances.
Something must be said of dyeing with other materials. Crimson dye was obtained from the
insect kermes (corcM/n), the female cocrus of the kernies oak, in form like a berry, native of the northern shores of the Meiliterraiiean. This dye is alluded to in the a<ljcctive KbKKwoi (Mt 27**, flo 11"', Kev 17»-* 18'-'»). Yellow dye-sluir was ob- tained from the styles and stignuita of the sallron (kpAsos, crocu.i), which grows in .S. Kuro|)e, from Italy eastwards, and Western .'\sia. The finest was obtained from Corycus in Cilicia, and Sicily was also noted for it. As a jierfume at public shows and funerals it was well known. The men- tion of other ancient dyi^s may bo here omitted.
21. Clothes and cloth-merchants. — The com- monest colour in (irccce for the x'ruii' and l/jLirioi' was white, but artisans wore darker clothes : gay clothes were worn only at festivals. So also witli the Roman toga and tunica ; the brighter colours came in later, especially for the larema and similar garments. The bright colours always found ac- ceptance with Roman women, both of good and of bad character, both married and unmarried. At the same time, good taste forbade the use of glaring colours. Such colours as were employed had nearly always some natur.al model — stone, llower, plant, animal, or skj'. The ancients cer- tainly knew a w ide variety of colours.
Some account of the number and cut of the garments worn by men may now be given. In historical times the dress of the Roman man con- sisted of an under garment (tunica, x"""'', Ac 9^^ Jude^, as well as Gospel references) and an upper garment or wrap (toqa, from tetjo, ' I cover,' i/uo- Tiov, Ac 92» 7°" 12" 14" 'l6-2 18" 22-»- '^, Rev 3'- '« i* 19'», etc., from which the general word liJLaTi<jix6i, ' cloth- ing ' [Ac 20^, 1 Ti 2", and often in papyri] comes). The toga was worn only outside the house. The tunic was a shirt consisting of two parts, a breast l)iece and a ba(^k piece, which were sewn together. It had sometimes no sleeves, and at other times they reached only to tlie elbow. Commonly it was girded over the hips, so that it reached only to the knees: soldiers and travellers wore shorter tunics (cf. Ac 12'). The tunic could be worn loose in the bouse. Already in Plautus' time it was the custom to wear a tunica, interior {subucula) under the tunica proper, and like it of wool. The toga was a white woollen garment of elliptical form, while the corresponding Greek garment (iMonoi/) was rectangular. The length was three times the height of the man up to the shoulder, but the breadth varied. The method of wear does not here concern us. The working classes, who wore only the tunica, not the toga, used tlie pwnula (2 'i'i 4'^) as a protection against rain, w ind, snow, and cold. It was the dress, for example, of mule- teers, and of slaves who had to work in the open, as well as of soldiers, travellers, and others who had to face the elements in bad weather. It was made of shaggy frieze or leather, dark-coloured and thick, without sleeves, sticking close to the body. The characteristic great-coat of the soldier, sagum, had sleeves. The laceiTia, a light cloak with a hood, was sometimes worn over the toga, and was variously coloured. Of the synthesis, or dinner dress, also of various colours, little is known, except that it was coloured and that several could be worn at a time showing ofl' the variety of colours at the neck. The two varieties of he.'id-dress, the felt cap ipi/cu.i), worn in Greece by lishermen, sailors, and arti.s.'ins, and the flat hat [pctasus), were also usual in Italy. As a rule, however, one aiijieared in public without a hat. Thessalian hats were worn in the theatre jus a pro- tection from the sun's heat, as also Macedonian causiw with broad turned-up brims.