arnival or masquerade (spectaculis ac
rebus ludiciis), would endure garments inscribed with verses and
titles, and painted with various figures? Nevertheless, it is plain
that such garments were constantly used in ancient times. To say
nothing of Homer, who assigns to Ulysses a tunic variegated with
figures of animals; to say nothing of the Massagetae, whom Herodotus
relates painted animals on their garments with the juice of herbs; we
also read of these garments (though then considered very antiquated)
being used under the Caesars of Rome.

They say that Alcisthenes the Sybarite had a garment of such
magnificence that when he exhibited it in the Temple of Juno at
Lacinium, where all Italy was congregated, it attracted universal
attention. It was purchased from the Carthaginians, by Dionysius the
elder, for 120 talents. It was twenty-two feet in breadth, of a purple
ground, with animals wrought all over, except in the middle, where
were Jupiter, Juno, Themis, Minerva, Apollo, Venus: on one sleeve it
had a figure of Alcisthenes, on the other of his city Sybaris.

That this description is not exaggerated may be inferred from the
following passage from a homily on Dives and Lazarus by a Bishop of
Amuasan in Pontus, given by Ciampini.

"They have here no bounds to this foolish art, for no sooner was
invented the useless art of weaving in figures in a kind of picture,
such as animals of all sorts, than (rich persons) procure flowered
garments, and also those variegated with an infinite number of images,
both for themselves, their wives, and children. . . . . . . Whensoever
thus clothed they go abroad, they go, as it were, painted all over,
and pointing out to one another with the finger the pictures on their
garments.

"For there are lions and panthers, and bears and bulls, and dogs and
woods, and rocks and huntsmen; and, in a word, everything that can be
thought of, all drawn to the life: for it was necessary, forsooth,
that not only the walls of their houses should be painted, but their
coats (tunica) also, and likewise the cloak (pallium) which covers it.

"The more pious of these gentry take their subjects from the Gospel
history: _e.g._ Christ himself with his disciples, or one of the
miracles, is depicted. In this manner you shall see the marriage of
Cana and the waterpots; the paralytic carrying his bed on his
shoulders; the blind man cured by clay; the woman with the issue of
blood taking hold of the border (of