(“ Annals,” ii., 83). ‘Two hundred years after the age of Pliny,” says Gibbon, “the use of pure or even of mixed silks was confined to the female sex, till the opulent citizens of Rome and the provinces were insensibly familiarized with the example of Elagabalus, the first who, by this effeminate habit, had sullied the dignity of an emperor anda man. Aurelian complained that a pound of silk was sold at Rome for twelve ounces of gold” (“ Decline and Fall,” ch. x1). At the time of Justinian the Persians held a monopoly of this trade. Two missionary monks residing in China imparted to Justinian the project of introducing the eggs of the silkworm into Europe, and returning to China concealed the eggs in a hollow cane and so transported them.
Scarlet. See on Matt. xxvii. 6.
Thyine wood (EvAov Ivivor). Only here in the New Tes- tament. From Suda or Iva the citrus, a North-African tree, a native of Barbary, used as incense and for inlaying. Pliny speaks of a mania among the Romans for tables made of this wood. The most expensive of these were called orbes, curcles, because they were massive plates of wood cut from the stem in its whole diameter. Pliny mentions plates four feet in diameter, and nearly six inches thick. The most costly were those taken from near the root, both because the tree was broadest there, and because the wood was dappled and speckled. Hence they were described by different epithets according as the markings resembled those of the tiger, the panther, or the peacock.
Vessel (cxetos). See on 1 Pet. iii. 7, and Acts ix.15. Also on goods, Matt. xii. 29; Mark iii. 27; and strake sail, Acts REVAL Lie
Of ivory (depdvtwov). Only here in the New Testament. References to ivory are frequent in the Old Testament. The navy of Tarshish brought ivory to Solomon with apes and peacocks (1 Kings x. 92). His great throne was made of it (1 Kings x. 18). Ahab’s ivory palace (1 Kings xxii. 39) was