306 pliny's natural histoet. [Book XXI. 



Egyptian^^ chaplets ; and then the winter chaplets, made for 

 the time at which Earth refuses her flowers, of thin laminae of 

 horn stained various colours. By slow degrees, too, the name 

 was introduced at Rome, these garlands being known there 

 at first as " corollae," a designation given them to express 

 the remarkable delicacy ^^ of their texture. In more recent 

 times, again, when the chaplets presented were made of thin 

 plates ^^ of copper, gilt or silvered, they assumed the name 

 of '* coroUaria." 



CHAP. 4. (3.) WHO WAS THE FIRST TO GIVE CHAPLETS WITH 



LEAVES OF SILVER AND GOLD. LEMNISCI : WHO WAS THE FIRST 

 TO EMBOSS THEM. 



Crassus Dives ^^ was the first who gave chaplets with arti- 

 ficial leaves of silver and gold, at the games celebrated by him. 

 To embellish these chaplets, and to confer additional honour 

 on them, lemnisci were added, in imitation of the Etruscan 

 chaplets, which ought properly to have none but lemnisci '® 

 made of gold. For a long period these lemnisci were desti- 

 tute of ornament i^' P. Claudius Pulcher^^ was the first who 

 taught us to emboss ^^ them, and added leaves of tinsel to the 

 laminae "° of which the lemniscus was formed. 



CHAP. 5. THE GREAT HONOUR IN WHICH CHAPLETS WERE HELD 



BY THE ANCIENTS. 



Chaplets, however, were always held in a high degree of 

 estimation, those even which were acquired at the public 

 games. Eor it was the usage of the citizens to go down in 

 person to take part in the contests of the Circus, and to 

 send their slaves and horses thither as well. Hence it is that 

 we find it thus written in the laws of the Twelve Tables : 



12 From Athenoeus, B. xv. c. 2, et seq., wo learn that the Egyptian 

 chaplets were made of ivy, narcissus, pomegranate blossoms, &c. 

 '•^ " Corolla," being the diminutive of " corona." 

 1* Or tinsel. ^^ The " Rich." 



16 Ribbons or streamers. " "Pari." 



18 Consul, A.u.c. 570. 



19 Or "engrave," "caelare." He is probably speaking here of golden 

 lemnisci, 



20 «' Philyrse." This was properly the inner bark of the linden-tree ; 

 but it is not improbable that thin plates of metal were also so called, from 

 the resemblance. The passage, however, admits of various modes of ex- 

 planation. 



