Seres
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Seres was a country and tribe of Seres (Siberia) mentioned by Pliny.[1]. Pliny has mentioned about Seres people in f.n.4 of Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 20
Variants
Jat Gotras Namesake
- Sera = Seres (Pliny.vi.15, Pliny.vi.20). Sera = The capital of Serica. Sera is also a Jat clan. Seria is a Village situated in District Jhajjar (Haryana).
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[2] mentions 'The Caspian Sea and Hyrcanian Sea'....Agrippa bounds the Caspian Sea and the nations around it, including Armenia, on the east by the Ocean of the Seres4, on the west by the chain of the Caucasus, on the south by that of Taurus, and on the north by the Scythian Ocean.
4 The supposed Eastern Ocean of the ancients.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[3] mentions The Seres....The first people that are known of here are the Seres,4 so famous for the wool that is found in their forests.5 After steeping it in water, they comb off a white down that adheres to the leaves; and then to the females of our part of the world they give the twofold task6 of unravelling their textures, and of weaving the threads afresh. So manifold is the labour, and so distant are the regions which are thus ransacked to supply a dress through which our ladies may in public display7 their charms. The Seres are of inoffensive manners, but, bearing a strong resemblance therein to all savage nations, they shun all intercourse with the rest of mankind, and await the approach8 of those who wish to traffic with them.
4 The people of Serica, which country with Ptolemy corresponds to the north-western part of China, and the adjacent portions of Tibet and Chinese Tartary. The capital, Sera, is by most supposed to be Singan, on the Hoang-ho, but by some Peking. Pliny evidently refers to the same people, and has some notion of the locality of their country.
5 This is generally supposed to bear reference to the cloths exported by the Seres, as Serica, and corresponding to our silks. On examination, however, it will appear that he rather refers to some textures of cotton, such as calicos or muslins; it being not unknown to Pliny that silks or bombycina were the produce of the bombyx or silk-worm; see B. xi. c. 22. The use of the word "canities" points strongly to cotton as being the substance meant.
6 Whether it is silk or cotton that is here referred to, Pliny seems in this passage to allude to some peculiarity in the texture, which was perhaps so close, that when brought to the Western world it was the custom to draw out a portion of tie threads. In such case it perhaps strongly resembled the Chinese crapes of the present day. Speaking of Cleopatra in B. x. 141, of the Pharsalia, Lucan says, "Her white breasts are resplendent through the Sidonian fabric, which, wrought in close texture by the sley of the Seres, the needle of the workman of the Nile has separated, and has loosened the warp by stretching out the web."
7 He either refers to dresses consisting of nothing but open work, or what we may call fine lace, and made from the closely woven material imported from China, or else to the 'Coan vestments' which were so much worn by the Roman women, especially those of light character, in the Augustan age. This Coan tissue was remarkable for its extreme transparency. It has been supposed that these dresses were made of silk, as in the island of Cos silk was spun and woven at an early period, so much so as to obtain a high celebrity for the manufactures of that island. Seneca, B. vii. De Benef. severely censures the practice of wearing these thin garments. For further information on this subject, see B. xi. c. 26, 27, and B. xii. c. 22.
8 Meaning that they do not actively seek intercourse with the rest of the world, but do not refuse to trade with those who will take the trouble of resorting to them. This coincides wonderfully with the character of the Chinese even at the present day.