In ancient Roman times, purple was associated with royalty, power, and wealth. Only nobles are eligible to wear purple clothes. But in fact, the extraction process of purple dye is very complicated and even unbearable...
Dyers need to crack open the murex shells to extract the mucus that secretes purple pigment. After taking it, put the mucus in the sun for a period of time. The time needs to be controlled carefully. If it is too late or too late, it will affect the depth of the color. On this basis, only about 14.17 grams of dye must be extracted from 250,000 dye murex to dye a Roman robe.
In 547 AD, the dye made from the purple mucus secreted by the snail glands was priceless. This kind of snail was not found everywhere, and was mostly produced in the Mediterranean and other places. At that time, there was no perfect breeding technology, so it was difficult to obtain this kind of murex.
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But in fact, the conch body smells bad, and the process of extracting the pigment is even more stinky, so the process of extracting the dye is done in the suburbs far away from the palace. But even if the dyed fabric has a fishy smell of marine life, it does not affect the love of purple among the beauty-loving Roman royal nobles. I would rather put up with the unpleasant smell than wear it!
Although clothing fashions have changed over time, because the output of Murex Purple is still low and it is still very valuable, it has been used by the most noble people in ancient Rome for a long time.
From then on, purple and royalty became an unbreakable symbol in the hearts of Europeans.
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