iJforaP (3&r^mon'\^f, 2 7 



attached as to hang over the forehead. Many of them, made up 

 into wreaths and devices, were suspended upon stands placed in the 

 room, garlands of Crocus and Saffron encircled the wine cups, and 

 over and under the tables were strewn various flowers. Diodorus 

 informs us that when the Egyptians approached the place of divine 

 worship, they held the flower of the Agrostis in their hand, inti- 

 mating that man proceeded from a well-watered land, and that he 

 required a moist rather than a dry aliment ; and it is not improbable 

 that the reason of the great preference given to the Lotus on these 

 occasions was derived from the same notion. 



This fondness of the ancients for flowers was carried to such 

 an extent as to become almost a vice. When Antony supped with 

 Cleopatra, the luxurious Queen of Egypt, the floors of the apart- 

 ments were usually covered with fragrant flowers. When Sarda- 

 napalus, the last of the Assyrian monarchs, was driven to dire 

 extremity by the rapid approach of the conqueror, he chose the 

 death of an Eastern voluptuary : causing a pile of fragrant woods 

 to be lighted, and placing himself on it with his wives and treasures, 

 he soon became insensible, and was suffocated by the aromatic 

 smoke. When Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian king, held high 

 festival at Daphne, in one of the processions which took place, 

 boys bore Frankincense, Myrrh, and Saffron on golden dishes, two 

 hundred women sprinkled everyone with perfumes out of golden 

 watering-pots, and all who entered the gymnasium to witness the 

 games were anointed with some perfume contained in fifteen gold 

 dishes, holding Saffron, Amaracus, Lilies, Cinnamon, Spikenard, 

 Fenugreek, &c.) When the. Roman Emperor Nero sat at banquet in 

 his golden palace, a shower of flowers and perfumes fell upon him ; 

 but Heliogabalus turned these floral luxuries into veritable curses, 

 for it was one of the pleasures of this inhuman being to smother 

 his courtiers with flowers. 



Both Greeks and Romans caried the delicate refinements of 

 the taste for flowers and perfumes to the greatest excess in their 

 costly entertainments ; and it is the opinion of Baccius that at 

 their desserts the number of their flowers far exceeded that of 

 their fruits. The odour of flowers was deemed potent to arouse 

 the fainting appetite ; and their presence was rightly thought to 

 enhance the enjoyment of the guests at their banqueting boards: — 



" The ground is swept, and the triclinium clear, 

 The hands are purified, the goblets, too, 

 Well rinsed ; each guest upon his forehead bears 

 A wreath'd flow'ry crown ; from slender vase 

 A willing youth presents to each in turn 

 A sweet and costly perfume ; while the bowl, 

 Emblem of joy and social mirth, stands by, 

 Filled to the brim ; and then pours out wine 

 Of most delicious flavour, breathing round 

 Fragrance of flowers, and honey newly made, 

 So grateful to the sense, that none refuse ; 

 While odoriferous fumes fill all the room." — Xettophanes. 



