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Re: mantle of the leveller
Posted By: Ghôlsbane (194.200.95.218)
Date: 2/12/2003 at 2:29 a.m.
In Response To: Re: mantle of the leveller (Seraph)
: Purple, for whatever reason was expensive dye, so only
: royalty (Imperialty?) wore it, such as the Roman
: Emperors.
Well, I heard of the origins of this while studying Herodotus' literature. In Book 3 of his Histories, he tells of Cambyses' diplomatic expedition to visit the long-lived Ethiopians. Basically, he'd heard of their Table of the Sun, a mythical plain that brought forth food every day, and wanted to dig his greedy claws into this treasure. So, he sent envoys to the Ethiopian king, bearing gifts to win his trust. These included a purple robe.
When the king receives these gifts, he pours merciless scorn onto them (apart from the wine), and asks about their origins. The envoys explain that the robe is made using a purple dye. My Classics teacher was able to explain that purple dye was of Phoenician origin and was made from extremely rare molluscs. The dye was therefore very valuable around that time (3000 BC). The ethiopian king, being lord over a very isolated kingdom, had no knowledge of the value of this substance and as a result sees through it to the insincerity of the maker.
: True, not all royalty wore purple, but its not just a
: made up expression because some King once liked
: wearing purple or something.
Well, Cambyses did :)
You can read the relevant passage here: http://www.angelfire.com/md/Orastie/Herodot3.html#Herodotus.Hist.3.17
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