Note 1314 — Chapter VII · INDUSTRY: WEAVERS, GLOVERS, SOCK-MAKERS, CORDWAINERS, TANNERS, HATTERS, DYERS OF PURPLE, ETC., FISHERMEN.

One of the most extraordinary productions of the Grecian loom seems to have been that magnificent chlamys which was weaving for king Demetrius at the period of his overthrow. It had been, we are told, a long time in hand, and represented in one vast picture both the face of the earth, and heaven with all its constellations. But it was never completed, none of the succeeding sovereigns of Macedon possessing the gorgeous taste of the son of Antigonos. Plut. Demet. § 41. Next perhaps to this in curious workmanship may be reckoned that rich mantle fifteen cubits in length, which the Sybarite Alcisthenes exhibited on Mount Lacinium during the festival of Hera, which was frequented by all the people of Italy. Dionysios, the elder, obtaining possession of this garment, sold it to the Carthaginians for a hundred and twenty talents. It was of a rich sea purple colour, and surrounded on all sides by a border containing the figures of animals, the upper row consisting of those of Susiana, the lower of those of Persia Proper. In the middle appeared an assembly of the gods—Zeus, Hera, Themis, Athena, Apollo, and Aphroditè. At either end stood a figure of Alcisthenes himself with a representation, probably symbolical of the city of Sybaris. All these figures were the produce of the loom, and not of the needle. Aristot. de Mirab. Auscult. t. xvi. p. 199, seq. Athen. xii. 58.