Silkworm eggs are smuggled to Constantinople
Monks who had lived in “Serinda”, beyond the peoples of India, brought silkworm eggs to Justinian so that the empire would no longer have to buy silk from its Persian enemies. So began sericulture in Byzantium, although the empire went on relying on imported raw silk for centuries.
- Date
- between 552 and 554exact date unknown: an interval is given
- Place
- Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Justinian I, Byzantine Empire
- Threads
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
- Also known as
- Smuggling of silkworm eggs; Serinda; Серинда; Sericulture in Byzantium; Шелководство в Византии
Silk reached the empire through Persian intermediaries, whose control made it scarce and costly. Procopius relates in the last book of his Wars that “at about this time” (around 552) certain monks coming from India, who had long lived in a country called Serinda, promised Justinian that the Romans would no longer have to buy silk from the Persians. Silk, they explained, is made by worms; the worms cannot be carried alive, but their eggs can, and kept warm under dung they will hatch. Promised large rewards, the monks went back to Serinda, brought the eggs to Byzantium and raised the worms on mulberry leaves, and from then on, Procopius says, silk was produced in the land of the Romans. Another sixth-century historian, Theophanes of Byzantium, whose work survives only in a summary by Patriarch Photius, credits instead a Persian who carried the eggs from the land of the Seres in a hollow cane.
Where Serinda lay has long been debated: China, the Tarim Basin (especially Khotan), Sogdiana, Ceylon and northern India are among the candidates proposed. The monks are often thought to have belonged to the Church of the East (the “Nestorians”), but Procopius does not say so. Gang Wu (2024) argues that the method described in the Byzantine sources — eggs warmed under dung, moths allowed to emerge from the cocoons, which were then spun rather than reeled — most closely resembles the sericulture practised around Khotan.
Procopius tells the story among the events of about 552; the English Wikipedia and Wikidata date it to 552, the articles on Byzantine silk to 553–554. The episode did not free the empire from imports at once. Silk manufacture became an imperial monopoly, but, as Wu notes, Byzantium still relied heavily on imported raw silk until at least the 10th century, and Chinese silk was long considered of better quality. When envoys of the Turks came to Justin II — the first embassy, led by the Sogdian Maniakh, arrived in 568 seeking a direct silk trade (Menander) — the emperor, according to Theophanes of Byzantium, showed them how silkworms were bred and silk was made, to their astonishment.
Connections
Part of
- Reign of Justinian I1 August 527 – 14 November 565 · Balkans and Anatolia
Related events
- Reign of Kaleb of Aksumbetween 510 and 514 – between 530 and 542 · Africabefore silkworms reached Constantinople, Justinian asked the Aksumites to buy Indian silk so as to bypass Persia (Procopius)
- Embassies of Maniakh and Zemarchus: the Turks ally with Byzantium568 – between 570 and 571 · Central and Northern AsiaJustin II showed the Turkish envoys how silkworms were bred, to their astonishment (Theophanes of Byzantium); the embassy of 568, led by the Sogdian Maniakh, came to trade silk (Menander)
Same participants
- Breach of the Marib Dam and its repair by AbrahaJuly 547 – between 548 and 549 · Middle East and Egyptvia Justinian I
- Jordanes and Procopius describe the Sclaveni and the Antesbetween 550 and 554 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Byzantine Empire
- Reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan531–579 · Middle East and Egyptvia Justinian I
Same place
- Founding of Constantinople11 May 330 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Theodosian Walls of Constantinoplebetween 404 and 408 – 413 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Imperial school in the Capitol of Constantinople27 February 425 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reign of Theodosius II1 May 408 – 28 July 450 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Theodosian Code15 February 438 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Council of Chalcedon8 October – 1 November 451 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Nika riots13–18 January 532 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Corpus Juris Civilis7 April 529 – 16 November 534 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Construction of Hagia Sophia23 February 532 – 27 December 537 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Plague of Justinian541–549 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatolia
- First Arab siege of Constantinople674–678 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Second Arab siege of Constantinoplebetween 15 July and 15 August 717 – 15 August 718 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’ attack on Constantinople18 June – 4 August 860 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople907 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 9112 September 911 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Olga’s visit to Constantinople and her baptism9 September – 18 October 957 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Sack of Constantinople12–13 April 1204 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reconquest of Constantinople25 July 1261 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Fall of Constantinople29 May 1453 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Accession of Suleiman the Magnificent30 September 1520 · Balkans and Anatolia
Adjacent events in the thread
- The Avars settle in the Carpathian Basinbetween 567 and 568 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Gothic War (535–554)535–554
- Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britainbetween 410 and 449 – between 550 and 625
Eastern Europe
- Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochinc. 450 – c. 700
- Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv: the legendary founding of Kyivbetween 500 and 700
Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan531–579
- Abraha’s expedition against Mecca: the Year of the Elephantbetween 552 and 571
Africa
Central and Northern Asia
- Bumin overthrows the Rouran: the Turkic Khaganate is foundedbetween February and March 552
- The Rouran Khaganate dominates the steppe402–552
South Asia
- Varahamihira compiles the Pancha-siddhantikabetween 505 and 587
- The later caves of Ajanta under the Vakataka king Harishenabetween 460 and 480 – between 480 and 550
East Asia
- The rebellion of Hou Jing and the fall of Jiankang27 September 548 – between 20 May and 7 June 552
- Buddhism reaches Japan from Baekjebetween 538 and 552
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Chenla absorbs Funanbetween 550 and 600 – between 627 and 637
- The inscriptions of Purnavarman, king of Taruma in western Javabetween 400 and 600
- Gold pendant copying a coin of Antoninus Pius at Óc Eobetween 152 and 600
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
North America
- Basketmaker III: pottery, beans and the bow on the Colorado Plateauc. 500 – c. 750
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
Latin America
- The burning of Teotihuacan’s ceremonial centrebetween 550 and 650
- Teotihuacan at its height: the largest city of the Americasc. 250 – c. 550
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Smuggling of silkworm eggs into the East Roman Empire
- Wikipedia (English): Byzantine silk
- Wikipedia (English): Theophanes of Byzantium
- Wikipedia (Russian): Византийский шёлк
- Procopius. History of the Wars. Book VIII, ch. 17 / transl. H. B. Dewing. — Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1928. — (Loeb Classical Library).
- Wu G. Mapping Byzantine Sericulture in the Global Transfer of Technology // Journal of Global History. — 2024. — Vol. 19, no. 1. — P. 1–17.
- Muthesius A. Byzantine Silk Weaving: AD 400 to AD 1200. — Vienna: Fassbaender, 1997.
- Blockley R. C. The History of Menander the Guardsman. — Liverpool: Francis Cairns, 1985.
- Wikidata: Q16931947