It also didn’t hurt that Tyrian purple was said to resemble the color of clotted blood-a shade that supposedly carried divine connotations. It took as many as 250,000 mollusks to yield just one ounce of usable dye, but the result was a vibrant and long-lasting shade of purple.Ĭlothes made from the dye were exorbitantly expensive-a pound of purple wool cost more than most people earned in a year-so they naturally became the calling card of the rich and powerful. To harvest it, dye-makers had to crack open the snail’s shell, extract a purple-producing mucus and expose it to sunlight for a precise amount of time. The Phoenicians’ “Tyrian purple” came from a species of sea snail now known as Bolinus brandaris, and it was so exceedingly rare that it became worth its weight in gold. For centuries, the purple dye trade was centered in the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre in modern day Lebanon.
The reason for purple’s regal reputation comes down to a simple case of supply and demand. Its rulers wore flowing purple robes and signed their edicts in purple ink, and their children were described as being “born in the purple.”
Purple was especially revered in the Byzantine Empire. The Persian king Cyrus adopted a purple tunic as his royal uniform, and some Roman emperors forbid their citizens from wearing purple clothing under penalty of death. The color purple’s ties to kings and queens date back to ancient world, where it was prized for its bold hues and often reserved for the upper crust.
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