PLUMA´RII
PLUMA´RII were understood by Becker (whom
Göll now corrects) to be persons who made stuffs of feather
embroidery, presumably like those for which the Aztecs were famous: but
Marquardt has shown that the
opus plumatum or
opus plumarium, which these workers made, was
embroidery of needlework in plain stitch as opposed to the embroidery of the
Phrygiones, which was in cross stitch. In
the
opus plumatum the stitches were laid lengthwise,
so that they seemed to overlap one another, like the feathers in the plumage
of a bird: it might therefore be translated “feather-stitch
work” (Rock,
Textile Fabrics, 116). An analogous use
of
pluma appears in
Verg. A. 11.770, of the lorica “
in
plumam squamis auro conserta.” The idea of Georges
(
Philolog. 32.530) that it was woven work is founded on
certain passages where the words
texere,
textrina are used loosely, and is disproved by an edict of
Diocletian (16.38), where the plumarius works at stuffs already woven,
obviously embroidering them by hand. The work is mentioned first by Varro
(ap. Non. p. 162, 27): it was often, though not necessarily, in gold thread,
as “pars auro plumata” (Lucan,
Phars. 10.125;
cf. Procop.
Just. 3.1, p. 53). The plumarii
(
ποικιλτὴς ὃν λέγομεν πλουμάριον
Schol.
ad Aeschin.
Tim.
§ 97) are mentioned in many inscriptions (C.
. L.
6.9813, &c.). (Marquardt,
Privatleben, p. 538;
Blümner,
Technologie, vol. i. p. 210;
Becker-Göll,
Charikles, vol. ii. p. 338.)
[
W.S] [
G.E.M]
