thereof into their cloakes, called Pallia, as some of the Irish also use. And the auncient Latines and Romans used it, as you may read in Virgil, who was a very great antiquary : That Evander, when Æneas came to him at his feast, did entertaine and feast him, sitting on the ground, and lying on mantles. Insomuch as he useth the very word mantile for a mantle.
[o 1] " Humi mantilia sternunt." ] So that it seemeth that the mantle was a generall hahite to most nations, and not proper to the Scythians onely, as you suppose.
- ↑ " Humi mantilia sternuntr" Evanders entertainment of Æneas, is set out in the 8. booke of Virgils Æneis, but there we have no such word as mantile. In his entertainment by Dido we have it, but in
another sence. Æneid. lib. 1.
"Iam pater Æneas, & jam Troiana iuventus
"Conveniunt, stratoquc super discumbitur ostro,
"Dant famuli manibus lymphas, Cererernque canistris
"Expediunt, tonsisq; ferunt mantilia villis."Sir James Ware
dicti, ut Palliati pro Gratis." But that the ancient Latines and Roman-used it, as the author alledgeth, (out of I know not what place in Virgil) appeareth no way unto mee. That the gowne was their usual outward garment, is most certaine, and that commonly of wooll, finer or courser, according to the dignity of the person that wore it. Whence Horace, Satyr. 3. lib. 1.
"Sit mihi mensa tripes, et
"Concha salis puri, et toga quae defendere frigus,
"Quamvis crassa, queat."
And from this difference betweene the ancient Roman and Grecian habit, grew the proverbs, "modò palliatus, modò togatus, and de togâ ad pallium" to denote an unconstant person.
