MELITENSIS VESTIS
MELITENSIS VESTIS a specially fine and soft material for
dresses and the covering of couches made at Malta, a relic probably of the
Phoenicians, who colonised it. Diodorus (
5.12,
2) says that the inhabitants were good in all
industries, and particularly in manufacturing
ὀθόνια
λεπτότητι καὶ μαλακότητι διαπρεπῆ (cf.
Hesych. sub voce
Μελιταῖα). Isidore (
Orig.
19.22, 21) speaks of a
textrinum ad muliebrem vestem
conficiendam, and the same material is spoken of as a luxury
in
Cic. Ver. 2.72, 176;
74, 183. This gives probability to the reading
Melitensia in Lucret. 4.1129.
[
G.E.M]
