Smuggling of silkworm eggs into the Roman Empire

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Stealing and smuggle of silkworm eggs into the Roman Empire

The Silk Road
Date	Mid-6th century (552/563 CE)
Location	Central Asia
Participants	Two monks
Outcome	Establishment of Roman silk industry

In the mid-6th century CE, two monks, with the support of the Roman emperor Justinian I, acquired and smuggled living silkworms into the Roman Empire, which led to the establishment of an indigenous Roman silk industry that long held a silk monopoly in Europe.

Background

• 
  565AD. Roman Empire, blue and purple; Sassanid Empire in yellow. Sassanid vassals, in orange, encompassing the

  Indus river in the southeast and the Kingdom of Khotan

  in the northeast (both silk-growing areas).
• 
  Sogdiana, located in Central Asia north of the Sassanid states. Silk was also produced in the Kingdom of Khotan (east of Sogdiana) at this time, and in the Indian subcontinent

  , east of the Sassanid Empire
• 
  Silk production also occurred in these areas of East Asia in 560AD, in the Northern and Southern dynasties or Six Dynasties period

Expedition

Two unidentified monks (most likely members of the

Shortly after the expedition there were silk factories in Constantinople, Beirut, Antioch, Tyre, and Thebes.^[4] The acquired silkworms allowed the Roman Empire to have a silk monopoly in Europe. The acquisition also broke the Chinese and Persian silk monopolies.^[8] The resulting monopoly was a foundation for the Roman economy for the next 650 years until its demise in 1204.^[11] Silk clothes, especially those dyed in imperial purple, were almost always reserved for the elite in Byzantium, and their wearing was codified in sumptuary laws.^[1] Silk production in the region around Constantinople, particularly in Thrace in northern Greece, has continued to the present (see: Silk museums of Soufli).

Sources