Crimson & Olive & Purple

Crimson is the minium body — the deep vivid crimson of the triumphal general's body, painted with minium (minimum — red lead — Pb₃O₄ — lead tetroxide — a vivid, slightly orange-shifted red pigment produced by heating white lead carbonate in air, forming a brilliant orange-red lead oxide) or red ochre (rubrica — iron oxide — Fe₂O₃ — the most basic and most widely used red pigment in the ancient world). The triumphal general's painted face: during a Roman triumph, the triumphing general (triumphator) wore the most elaborate costume in the Roman world — including the toga picta (entirely Tyrian-purple toga with gold embroidery — worn only on this occasion), the tunica palmata (golden-embroidered tunic), the corona triumphalis (laurel wreath), the sceptrum (ivory scepter with eagle), and — most unusually — his face and visible skin painted with red minium to resemble the face of the terracotta cult statue of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in the Capitoline Temple. The significance: the triumphing general was, for the duration of the triumph, ritually identified with Jupiter himself — the most powerful deity in the Roman pantheon. A slave rode behind him in the triumphal chariot, holding a laurel wreath over his head and whispering 'Memento mori' ('remember that you are mortal') to counteract the divine identification, one of the most extraordinary ritual paradoxes in any religious tradition. Olive is the laurel — the dark muted olive of the corona triumphalis (the triumphal laurel wreath). Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis — the 'noble laurel' — a medium-sized evergreen tree native to the Mediterranean basin) has the most historically charged botanical symbolism of any plant in Western culture: (1) It was sacred to Apollo (the Greek/Roman god of music, poetry, prophecy, archery, and the sun — the laurel became Apollo's sacred plant through the myth of Daphne, who was transformed into a laurel tree to escape Apollo's pursuit); (2) As Apollo's plant, the laurel wreath (corona laurea) was awarded to victorious athletes in the Pythian Games at Delphi (Apollo's most important oracle sanctuary), to military victors, to poets, and eventually as the corona triumphalis to triumphing Roman generals; (3) The word 'laureate' (poetic laureate — the most celebrated poet) derives from the Latin laurea — the laurel — a direct echo of the ancient tradition. The specific dark muted olive of the laurel leaf (longer and darker than the true olive — Olea europaea — but the same characteristic muted yellow-green with its darker, less silvery quality compared to the olive tree proper) is the most immediately recognizable color of the Roman ceremonial tradition. Purple is the toga picta — the deep regal purple of the toga picta — the most expensive and most exclusively imperial garment in the Roman world. Tyrian purple (purpura — from Greek: πορφύρα — porphyra — the purple dye; Tyrian because the greatest production centers were in the Phoenician city of Tyre — now in modern Lebanon — and its offshore island Tyre-proper): produced from the mucus glands of two species of sea snail — Murex brandaris (now: Bolinus brandaris — the spiny dye-murex) and Murex trunculus (now: Hexaplex trunculus — the banded dye-murex) — found throughout the Mediterranean. The production: to produce enough Tyrian purple to dye a single toga (requiring approximately 10-12 kg of dye), approximately 8,000-10,000 murex snails were required (each yielding a tiny drop of the dye precursor — a colorless compound that oxidizes in sunlight to produce the purple — dibromoindigo — 6,6'-dibromoindigo — the most lightfast natural dye ever discovered). The cost: in the period of the late Roman Empire (4th century CE), Tyrian purple cost more by weight than gold — a pound of twice-dyed Tyrian purple wool cost approximately 50,000 denarii in Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices (301 CE), at a time when a skilled laborer earned approximately 50 denarii per day.