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Silkworm eggs hidden in canes
A Costly Silk Supply
The Byzantine Empire, Eastern Rome, was obsessed with silk. The Silk Road that brought it from China was controlled by Persians, the Byzantines' bitter rivals, so every purchase meant paying an enemy a premium.
Then two monks from Central Asia approached the emperor, Justinian. Everyone believed the rumor that silk grew on trees, but the monks knew that it came from worms.
Smuggling the Eggs
They hollowed out their walking sticks and stuffed the bamboo canes with silkworm eggs, along with mulberry seeds, the only food silkworms eat. The trip took two years across thousands of miles of territory, and eggs that hatched early or froze along the way would have ended the mission.
The eggs survived. The mulberry seeds were planted, the trees flourished, the eggs hatched, and silk could be made outside China.
Why did Persia control the Silk Road?
Persia sat directly between the Byzantine Empire and China, so overland caravans had to cross its territory. The Sasanian rulers taxed that traffic and could limit what passed through. Byzantine emperors tried other routes, including sea routes through the Red Sea, with limited success. Rome and Persia fought wars during Justinian's reign, in 527 to 532 and again from 540 to 562.
How does a silkworm make silk?
A silkworm is the caterpillar of the moth Bombyx mori, and it makes silk from a liquid protein produced in glands near its mouth. The protein hardens into a thread as it meets the air. The caterpillar spins that thread around itself into a cocoon. A single cocoon is one continuous filament that can run several hundred meters.
Why do silkworms eat only mulberry leaves?
Domestication over thousands of years narrowed the diet of Bombyx mori to the leaves of the white mulberry. Chemical cues in those leaves trigger the caterpillar to bite and swallow, so it largely ignores other plants. Silk farming therefore begins with planting mulberry trees. Adult silk moths have been bred so far from their wild ancestors that they cannot fly.
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