Some of the luxury items listed here may be somewhat obscure using their Latin names. If you think you know what something is, name it in this thread and tell how it was used in ancient times!

To start off: purpura is the name Romans used for the purple dye discovered by the Phoenicians. The dye was obtained from the murex, a mullosk that lives in an intricate whorled shell and discharges the dye when it is killed. Thousands of mullosks were needed to produce a single ounce of purple. It was extremely expensive and its use, especially for clothing, was a mark of status.

Read more at this post by Voluptua Amytas.