Born in the purple
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Traditionally, born in the purple was a category of members of royal families born during the reign of their parent. This notion was later loosely expanded to include all children born of prominent or high-ranking parents. The parents must be prominent at the time of the child's birth so that the child is always in the spotlight and destined for a prominent role in life. A child born before their parents became prominent would not be "born in the purple". This color purple came to refer to Tyrian purple, restricted by law, custom, and the expense of creating it to royalty.
The Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in a 945 carved ivory
Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos baptizes Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos
The Boukoleon Palace as it survives today
The northern facade of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus after the modern renovation
Tyrian purple
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Tyrian purple, also known as royal purple, imperial purple, or imperial dye, is a reddish-purple natural dye. The name Tyrian refers to Tyre, Lebanon, once Phoenicia. It is secreted by several species of predatory sea snails in the family Muricidae, rock snails originally known by the name Murex. In ancient times, extracting this dye involved tens of thousands of snails and substantial labour, and as a result, the dye was highly valued. The colored compound is 6,6'-dibromoindigo.
Fabrics dyed in the current era from different species of sea snail. The colours in this photograph may not represent them precisely.
A 20th-century depiction of a Roman triumph celebrated by Julius Caesar. Caesar, riding in the chariot, wears the solid Tyrian purple toga picta. In the foreground, two Roman magistrates are identified by their toga praetexta, white with a stripe of Tyrian purple.
Two shells of Bolinus brandaris, the spiny dye-murex, a source of the dye
Byzantine Emperor Justinian I clad in Tyrian purple, 6th-century mosaic at Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy