A Journey through time, space and purple
Long before purple was associated with rebellion, luxury, or Barney, it was something much simpler:
🐌 Mucus.
Yes. You read that right.
Purple came from snails. Specifically, the Murex sea snail, found in the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre.
Tyre wasn’t just any city - it was the Silicon Valley of the ancient world. A seaport of innovation, myth, and commerce. And its greatest export? A dye so rare and labor-intensive that it changed the course of history: Tyrian Purple.
🐌 The Snail That Made Purple
The Murex snail, unassuming and spiny, lived in rocky tide pools off the coast of the eastern Mediterranean. To most, it was just another mollusk. But to the Phoenicians of Tyre, it held a secret.
Inside the snail was a gland - small, soft, and buried deep - capable of producing a milky mucus that, when exposed to sunlight and air, transformed into the deepest, richest shade of purple the ancient world had ever seen.
But extracting it? That was another matter.
💀 Alchemy of Light, Death, and Time
To create even a single gram of dye:
Tens of thousands of Murex snails were needed.
Each had to be painstakingly cracked open, often with stones.
The gland - no bigger than a grain of rice - was removed, left to ferment, and then boiled in vats over open fires.
The smell? Unbearable. Ancient texts describe it as rancid, sickly-sweet, and overpowering.
The labor? Grueling. Most of it performed by enslaved people or the poorest laborers.
The work could take days or weeks, and the yield was minuscule. But when the sun hit it just right, the liquid would bloom from pale yellow to green to crimson to a near-hallucinogenic violet. The resulting dye didn’t fade with time or washing. Instead, it deepened - aging like wine, darkening into a bruised, royal violet.
🧵 Not Just a Color, But a Code
Sumptuary laws translated wealth into visibility, and visibility into legitimacy. They told the world who mattered - who could be seen, and who should remain unseen.
And so purple functioned as a form of social encryption. A way for ruling classes to keep power cloaked in symbolism.
⚖️ The Laws of Luxury: Sumptuary Rules & the Politics of Purple
Purple wasn’t just expensive. It was illegal - unless you were powerful enough to break the rules.
In the ancient world, sumptuary laws were used to control who could wear what. These weren’t just about fashion. They were about status, class, and control. And no color was more tightly regulated than purple.
👑 Rome & Byzantium: Power Woven into Fabric
By the time of Julius Caesar, purple had become the ultimate flex - a visible sign of absolute authority. To preserve its power, emperors didn’t just wear it. They outlawed it for everyone else.
In Rome, Tyrian purple was reserved for high-ranking senators and the emperor himself. Even a purple stripe on your toga could signal elite status - or spark suspicion.
Under Byzantine rule, the stakes got even higher. The phrase "Born in the Purple" (Porphyrogennetos) wasn’t a metaphor. It literally meant being born in a chamber decorated with purple, ensuring the child’s legitimacy to the throne.
Emperor Justinian I doubled down on the exclusivity. Wearing purple without authorization could get you exiled - or executed.
Purple became a visual passport to privilege. A cloak of statecraft. A divine filter.
🛑 Forbidden Fashion
In medieval Europe, sumptuary laws spread like wildfire:
In the Holy Roman Empire, purple helped reinforce the emperor’s “divine right” to rule.
In 16th-century England, Elizabeth I banned non-royalty from wearing purple. Even wealthy nobles could be fined - or jailed - for dressing above their station.
The Church got in on it too. By the 12th–15th centuries, purple was worn by Catholic bishops and popes. Religious authority was dressed in rarity.
Rewire your thinking:
What’s something you’ve always wanted—but never questioned why you want it?