Chap. 40.] ANECDOTES CONNECTED WITH THE LAUliEL. 335 



versal gladness. This is done, not because it is always green, 

 nor yet because it is an emblem of peace — for in both of those 

 respects the olive would take the precedence of it— but because 

 it is _ the most beauteous tree on Mount Parnassus, and was 

 pleasing for its gracefulness to Apollo even ; a deity to whom 

 the kings of Rome sent offerings at an early period, as we 

 learn from the case of L. Brutus. 83 Perhaps, too, honour is 

 more particularly paid to this tree because it was there that 

 Brutus 84 earned the glory of asserting his country's liberties, 

 when, by # the direction of the oracle, he kissed that laurel- 

 bearing soil. Another reason, too, may be the fact, that of all 

 the shrubs that are planted and received in our houses, this is 

 the only one that is never struck by lightning. 85 It is for 

 these reasons, in my opinion, that the post of honour has been 

 awarded to the laurel more particularly in triumphs, and not, 

 as Massurius says, because it was used for the purposes of 

 fumigation'and purification from the blood of the enemy. 



In addition to the above particulars, it is not permitted to 

 defile the laurel and the olive by applying them to profane 

 uses ; so much so, indeed, that, not even for the propitiation of 

 the divinities, should a fire be lighted with them at either 

 altar or shrine. 86 Indeed, it is very evident that the laurel pro- 

 tests against such usage by crackling 87 as it does in the fire, 

 thus, in a manner, giving expresssion to its abhorrence of such 

 treatment. ^ The wood of this tree when eaten is good as a 

 specific for internal maladies and affections of the sinews. 88 



It is said that when it thundered, the Emperor Tiberius was 



83 L.Junius Brutus, the nephew of Tarquin. Pliny alludes to the message 

 seuo to Delphi, for the purpose of consulting the oracle on a serpent being 

 seen in the royal palace. 



81 He alludes to the circumstance of the priestess being asked who should 

 reign at Kome after Tarquin ; upon which she answered, ' k He who first 

 kisses his mother ;" on which Brutus, the supposed idiot, stumbled to the 

 ground,-and kissed the earth, the mother of all. 



65 A mere absurdity; the same has been said of the- beech, and with 

 equal veracity. ' 



» 6 He makes a distinction between "altar" and "ara" here The 

 former was the altar of the superior Divinities, the latter of the superior 

 and interior as well. l 



' The crackling of the "laurel is caused by efforts of the essential oil to 

 escape from the parenchyma or cellular tissue of the leaf, which it breaks 

 with considerable violence when burning. 

 88 Nervorum. See B. xsiii. c. 80. °" 



