The actual color of
Tyrian purple, the original color purple from which the name purple is derived, is the color of a dye made from a
mollusk that, because of its incredible expense (many times more expensive than
gold), in
classical antiquity became a symbol of
royalty because only the very wealthy could afford it. Therefore, Tyrian purple is also called
imperial purple.
Tyrian purple may have been discovered as early as the time of the
Minoan civilization.
Alexander the Great (when giving imperial audiences as the
emperor of the
Macedonian Empire), the emperors of the
Seleucid Empire, and the
kings of
Ptolemaic Egypt wore Tyrian purple. The imperial robes of
Roman emperors were Tyrian purple trimmed in metallic
gold thread. The badge of office of a
Roman Senator was a stripe of Tyrian purple on their white
toga.
[6] Tyrian purple was continued in use by the emperors of the
Eastern Roman Empire until
its final collapse in 1453.
In
medieval Europe,
blue dyes were rare and expensive,
[7] so only the most wealthy or the
aristocracy could afford to wear them. (The
working class wore mainly
green and
brown.) Because of this (and also because Tyrian purple had gone out of use in
western Europe after the collapse of the
Western Roman Empire in AD 476), Europeans' idea of purple shifted towards this more bluish purple known as
royal purple because of its similarity to the
royal blue worn by the aristocracy. This was the shade of purple worn by
kings in
medieval Europe.