LIMBUS
LIMBUS (
παρυφή), the border of a
tunic or a scarf, chiefly in the woman's dress (
Verg. A. 4.137; Serv.
ad loc. 7). This
ornament, when displayed upon the tunic, was of a similar kind with the
CYCLAS and
INSTITA (Servius
in
Verg. A. 2.616), but much less expensive,
more common and more simple. It was generally woven in the same piece with
the entire garment of which it formed a part, and it had sometimes the
appearance of a scarlet or purple band upon a white ground; in other
instances it resembled foliage (
Verg. A.
1.649; Ovid,
Ov. Met. 6.127), or the
scrolls and meanders introduced in architecture. A very elegant effect was
produced by bands of gold thread interwoven in cloth of Tyrian purple (Ovid,
Ov. Met. 51), and called
ληροὶ or
leria. (Festus,
s.v. Brunck,
Anal. 1.483.) Demetrius Poliorcetes was arrayed
in this manner (
χρυσοπαρύφοις ἁλουργίσι,
Plut. Demetr. 41). Virgil
(
Aen. 5.251) mentions a scarf enriched with gold, the border
of which was in the form of a double meander. In illustration of this
account examples of both the single and the double meander are introduced at
the top of the annexed woodcut. The other
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Limbi. (From ancient vases.)
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eight specimens of
limbi are selected to
show some of the principal varieties of this ornament, which present
themselves on Etruscan vases and other works of ancient art.
An ornamental band, when used by itself as a fillet to surround the temples
or the waist, was also called
limbus. (
Stat. Theb. 6.367,
Achill.
2.176; Claud.
de Cons. Mallii Theod. 118.) A later name for
the limbus was
lorum, whence dresses with one
or more rows of stripes were called
monolores, dilores,
trilores, &c. (Vopisc.
Aurel. 46, 6). The
makers of
limbi were called
limbolarii (Plaut.
Aul. 514, and Wagner's
critical note). For these
limbi, see also Marquardt,
Privatleben, 544; Blümner,
Technologie, 1.202; Becker-Göll,
Charikles, 3.255,
Gallus, 3.266.
[
J.Y] [
G.E.M]
