page_title: Tyrian purple
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Tyrian purple / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Liebig Chromos. Trade card.Series 1378, Julius Caesar, no 5, Caesar's triuph at Rome. 1938. Private collection Paul MR Maeyaert. 11 x 7,1cm.&#160;; Ref: PM_110511_Liebig_Chromos; www.pmrmaeyaert.eu; www.polmayer.com; Cultural heritage; Cultural heritage|Techniques|Postcard trade card. Text on reverse: JULES CÉSAR; 5. - Le cortège triomphal de César à Rome.; L'Orient pacifié, César se tourna vers l'occident où les derniers partisans de Pompée et de la république regroupaient leurs troupes. Scipion, illustre descendant des vainqueurs de Carthage et Juba, roi de Numidie, furent défaits a Thapsus. Alors, cinq ans après la cessation de la guerre des Gaules et après quatre ans de guerre civile, César, en un magnifique triomphe, célébra toutes ses victoires sur les ennemis. En même temps le Sénat qui, après Pharsale, pressentant en lui un maître tout-puissant, lui avait décerné la dictature pour un an. lui renouvela cette charge pour 10 ans, avec la censure et le droit perpétuel de siéger a côté des consuls de l'armée. La vieille république paraissait bien morte&#160;; cependant en 45 César dut courir en Espagne faire face à une dernière tentative pompéienne, celle de Sextus Pompée, fils du triumvir défunt. La victoire de Munda valut A César, de la part d'un Sénat asservi plus que jamais. le titre à perpétuité d'imperator et la nomination; de tous les magistrats. L'empire existait en fait, sinon de nom.;
context_page_description: Tyrian purple, also known as Phoenician red, Phoenician purple, royal purple, imperial purple, or imperial dye, is a reddish-purple natural dye; the name Tyrian refers to Tyre, Lebanon. It is a secretion produced by several species of predatory sea snails in the family Muricidae, rock snails originally known by the name 'Murex'. In ancient times, extracting this dye involved tens of thousands of snails and substantial labor, and as a result, the dye was highly valued. The main chemical is '6,6′-dibromoindigo.
context_section_description: Biological pigments were often difficult to acquire, and the details of their production were kept secret by the manufacturers. Tyrian Purple is a pigment made from the mucus of one of several species of Murex snail. Production of Tyrian Purple for use as a fabric dye began as early as 1200 BCE by the Phoenicians, and was continued by the Greeks and Romans until 1453 CE, with the fall of Constantinople. The pigment was expensive and complex to produce, and items colored with it became associated with power and wealth. Greek historian Theopompus, writing in the 4th century BCE, reported that "purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon [in Asia Minor]."
  Mineral pigments were also traded over long distances, often at great cost. The only way to achieve a deep rich blue was by using a semi-precious stone, lapis lazuli, to produce a pigment known as ultramarine. The best sources of lapis were in Asia, primarily in the Sar-i Sang mines of Afghanistan. As a result, the pigment was prohibitively expensive in Europe. To have one's portrait commissioned and painted with ultramarine blue was considered a great luxury. Due to the cost, the patron was often forced to pay for the pigment personally. In turn, painters of these commissioned works were often subject to contracts that explicitly described the quantity of expensive pigments to be used, and on what portions of the painting. Artists without wealthy patrons were forced to seek less expensive replacement pigments, both mineral (azurite, smalt) and biological (indigo).
  Tyrian purple may first have been used by the ancient Phoenicians as early as 1570 BC. It has been suggested that the name Phoenicia itself means 'land of purple'. The dye was greatly prized in antiquity because the colour did not easily fade, but instead became brighter with weathering and sunlight. It came in various shades, the most prized being that of black-tinted clotted blood.
  Because it was extremely difficult to make, Tyrian purple was expensive: the 4th century BCE historian Theopompus reported, "Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon" in Asia Minor. The expense meant that purple-dyed textiles became status symbols, whose use was restricted by sumptuary laws. The most senior Roman magistrates wore a toga praetexta, a white toga edged with a stripe of Tyrian purple. The even more sumptuous toga picta, solid Tyrian purple with a gold stripe, was worn by generals celebrating a Roman triumph. 
  By the fourth century AD, sumptuary laws in Rome had been tightened so much that only the Roman emperor was permitted to wear Tyrian purple. As a result, 'purple' is sometimes used as a metonym for the office (e.g. the phrase 'donned the purple' means 'became emperor'). The production of Tyrian purple was tightly controlled in the succeeding Byzantine Empire and subsidized by the imperial court, which restricted its use for the colouring of imperial silks. Later (9th century) a child born to a reigning emperor was said to be porphyrogenitos, "born in the purple".
  Some speculate that the dye extracted from the Bolinus brandaris is known as argaman (ארגמן) in Biblical Hebrew. Another dye extracted from a related sea snail, Hexaplex trunculus, produced a blue colour after light exposure which could be the one known as tekhelet (תְּכֵלֶת), used in garments worn for ritual purposes.
caption: A twentieth-century depiction of a Roman triumph celebrated by Julius Caesar. Caesar, riding in the chariot, wears the solid Tyrian purple toga picta. In the foreground, two Roman magistrates are identified by their toga praetexta, white with a stripe of Tyrian purple.
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