Is there a reason that the colour purple is associated with royalty?

Question

Was there some kind of real-world instance or happening we can point to that caused purple to become the “royal colour”?

In: 51

Answer 1

Before synthetics, purple dyes were extremely expensive. The best known was called [“Tyrian purple”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrian_purple#Royal_blue) which was produced from a certain species of sea snail. It was very resource and labor-intensive to produce, and therefore was only affordable by the wealthiest people, i.e. royalty. It is particularly associated with the Roman Empire and its successor state the Byzantine Empire.