Justinian and the silkworm heist

[Imperial Dave]

https://x.com/archeohistories/status/1981313876819169697

I blame Theodora

[Duncan Head]

But the smugglers couldn't be punished under the Chinese Official Secrets Act because Byzantium was not formally designated as an enemy state.

[nikgaukroger]

And China wasn't unified at the time either.

[Denis Grey]

Silk moths have a life cycle of 6 to 8 weeks, so even if the monks were given eggs or very young larvae rather than adult moths, the ones that reached Byzantium would have been the descendants of the original stolen property. 

And what were they fed while they were in transit?  The modern silkworm only eats mulberry leaves, but possibly their 6th century forebearers had a less specialised diet.

[Duncan Head]

And what were they fed while they were in transit?  The modern silkworm only eats mulberry leaves, but possibly their 6th century forebearers had a less specialised diet.

The accounts of Procopius and Theophanes, on which the story is largely based, do mention mulberry leaves, so presumably these were smuggled as well. Some species of mulberry are found in Greece, so the worms may just have had to adapt their diet slightly.

[Erpingham]

IIRC correctly, you need to have the right sort of mulberry trees. The attempts to create an English silk worm programme in the 17th century were scuppered by the planting of the wrong type of mulberry (Black as opposed to White Mulberry).

[Jim Webster]

I remember reading this in one of those children's history books that was probably published between the wars 

Amazing how stuff keeps coming round

[Imperial Dave]

IIRC correctly, you need to have the right sort of mulberry trees. The attempts to create an English silk worm programme in the 17th century were scuppered by the planting of the wrong type of mulberry (Black as opposed to White Mulberry).

Which of course is one possible explanation for the children's nursery rhyme 'here we go round the mulberry bush' 

[Nick Harbud]

Well, according to Wikipedia, the Romans cultivated mulberry specifically for silkworms as early as 220 AD.  Apparently the Elagabalus had a silk robe made from local silk.

According to the same sources, white mulberry can be found throughout Central Asia, Middle East, Southern Europe and North Africa.

Of course, silk farming may not have survived all the excitement around the Mediterranean during the 5^th and 6^th centuries.  Hence, the Byzantine need to source new silkworms to keep them in sartorial spendour they thought they deserved.