A HISTORY WRAPPED IN PURE SILK

Humble worm produced a market winner along thousands of kilometers of the route that took its name

In 53 BC Marcus Licinius Crassus, a Roman general and politician who once acted as a consul for the Roman Republic, was fighting troops of the Parthian Empire near the town of Carrhae (now Harran, Turkey).

In the heat of battle the Parthians are said to have produced a military flag made of Chinese silk that, under the glaring sun, blazed resplendently. Dazed by a luminance they had never seen before, the Romans panicked and were eventually defeated.