The color purple and the roman laws...

[Martin Moser]

Hi,

sorry, but I beg to differ ... :-) )

Purple dye was made by a mullosc or some other kind of shell fish that is believed to be extinct today.

I doubt that, see my link above in this thread (and the 2nd, German one, lots of info on it there!) ...

Even in Roman times it was very rare and expensive.

Rare? I'd say no. Expensive, yes, but not rare.

Because of this, it's unlikely a barbarian would come by purple cloth unless he killed someone of very high rank in society. That would mean his punishment would be death.

Babarian does not necessarily mean having no money. There certainly were very, very rich people that would still be considered babarian by the Romans.

Even if someone made purple in some other way (supposedly there wasnt an other way)

Again, see my other posting above. The *color* purple was produced in more than one way obviously. There was just one "real" purple, however.

they would still be showing themselves to be a higher rank than others. It'd be like impersonating an officer today, but with harsh Roman justice.

Was that so for everybody? I'd be interested to see references for that. I read about sanctions for one or two court nobles in the 3rd or 4th century, but otherwise ... maybe somebody else knows more?