Cilicium
（
δέρρις). A haircloth. The material of which the Greeks and
Romans almost universally made this kind of cloth was the hair of goats. The Asiatics made it
of camel's-hair. Goats were bred for this purpose in Cilicia; and from this country the Latin
name of the cloth was derived. Lycia, Phrygia, Spain, and Libya also produced the same
article. The cloth obtained by spinning and weaving goat's-hair was nearly black, and was used
for the coarse dress which sailors and fishermen wore, as it was the least likely to be
destroyed by being wet; also for horse-cloths, tents, sacks, and bags to hold workmen's tools
(
fabrilia vasa), and for the purpose of covering military engines, and
the walls and towers of besieged cities, so as to deaden the force of the ram (see
Aries), and to preserve the woodwork from being set on
fire.
Among the Orientals, sackcloth, which was with them always haircloth, was worn to express
mortification and grief. After the decline of the Roman power, it passed from its other
uses to be so employed in Europe also. Monks and anchorites almost universally adopted the
cilicium as fit to be worn for the sake of humiliation, and they supposed their end to be more
completely attained if this part of their raiment was never washed.
