Silks gave visible form to Byzantium's political culture and, being light to carry, could circulate widely. Many of the garments issued to recipients of offices and titles were made of silk and the Book of the Eparch takes for granted the close connection between imperial prerogatives, silken vestments of various shades of purple and restrictions, on foreigners access to them. Through whetting appetites for silks and maintaining a monopoly over the finest quality products, the emperor could hope to arouse in his own subjects and foreigners alike the desire to gain them through some form of 'Servia'. These ‘classes' when cut up into pieces. That products simultaneously expressed his wealth, superior knowledge, and - by the symbols on them - the antiquity and unsurpassable legitimacy of his rule...