Editing Silk (section)

===Ancient Mediterranean===
[[File:Gunthertuch.jpg|thumb|right|The ''[[Gunthertuch]]'', an 11th-century silk celebrating a [[Byzantine emperor]]'s triumph]]
In the ''[[Odyssey]]'', 19.233, when Odysseus, while pretending to be someone else, is questioned by Penelope about her husband's clothing, he says that he wore a shirt "gleaming like the skin of a dried onion" (varies with translations, literal translation here)<ref>''[[Odyssey]]'' '''19''' 233–234:
τὸν δὲ χιτῶν' ἐνόησα περὶ χροῒ σιγαλόεντα, οἷόν τε κρομύοιο λοπὸν κάτα ἰσχαλέοιο· = "And I [= [[Odysseus]]</ref> which could refer to the lustrous quality of silk fabric.
[[Aristotle]] wrote of ''[[Coa vestis]]'', a wild silk textile from [[Kos]].
[[Sea silk]] from certain large sea shells was also valued.
The [[Roman Empire]] knew of and traded in silk, and Chinese silk was the most highly priced luxury good imported by them.<ref name=gart/> During the reign of emperor [[Tiberius]], [[sumptuary law]]s were passed that forbade men from wearing silk garments, but these proved ineffectual.<ref>{{cite book
|last =Tacitus
|author-link =Tacitus
|title =Annals
|url =https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7959
|isbn =978-0-521-31543-2
|year =1989
|publisher =Cambridge University Press
|access-date =28 August 2020
|archive-date =30 June 2020
|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20200630173954/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7959
|url-status =live
}}</ref> The [[Historia Augusta]] mentions that the third-century emperor [[Elagabalus]] was the first Roman to wear garments of pure silk, whereas it had been customary to wear fabrics of silk/cotton or silk/linen blends.<ref>{{cite book |title=Historia Augusta Vita Heliogabali |at=Book 26.1}}</ref> Despite the popularity of silk, the secret of silk-making only reached Europe around AD 550, via the [[Byzantine Empire]]. Contemporary accounts state that monks working for the emperor [[Justinian I]] [[Smuggling of silkworm eggs into the Byzantine Empire|smuggled silkworm eggs]] to [[Constantinople]] from China inside hollow canes.<ref>{{cite book
|last=Procopius
|author-link =Procopius
|title =History of the Wars
|url =https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Procopius/Wars/8C*.html
|isbn=978-0-674-992399 |year =1928
|publisher =Harvard University Press
|at=Book 8.17
}}</ref> All top-quality looms and weavers were located inside the [[Great Palace of Constantinople|Great Palace complex]] in Constantinople, and the cloth produced was used in imperial robes or in diplomacy, as gifts to foreign dignitaries. The remainder was sold at very high prices.