22 THE ROSE IN CEREMONIES, FESTIVALS, ETC. 



his duties to the satisfaction of the people, dying without leaving 

 sufficient to pay his funeral expenses, the people voluntarily con- 

 tributed to pay them, and on the appearance of the body, cast 

 flowers upon its passage. 



At Baiee, when fetes were given upon the w^ater, the whole 

 surface of the lake of Lucina, appeared covered with roses. 



The custom of encircling the head, of surrounding the neck, 

 and also the breast with crowns and garlands of roses, on differ- 

 ent occasions, and particularly during the last days of a gay 

 festival, when, after the solid dishes, they passed to the dessert 

 and the rare wines, is well known by the odes of Anacreon, and 

 from the writings of several of the ancient poets. 



The voluptuous Horace, when he abandoned himself to plea- 

 sures, was always supplied wuth roses. In congratulating one of 

 his friends on his safe return from Spain, he recommended that 

 these flowers should not be wanting at the festival. On another 

 occasion, he told his favorite servant that he cordially disliked 

 the pompous displays of the Persians, and escaped them by 

 searching in what place the late Rose was found. Drawing 

 a picture of luxurious ease for his friend Hirpinus, he speaks 

 of " lying under the shade of a lofty Plane or Pine tree, per- 

 fuming our spotless hair with Assyrian spikenard, and crown- 

 ing ourselves with roses." We can very well judge how general 

 had become the custom of making crowns of roses, from the 

 number of times w^hich it is mentioned in Pliny, and the fre- 

 quency with which Martial speaks of it in his epigrams. The 

 latter author also informs us, that in the very height of Roman 

 luxury and reveling, the most favorable time for soliciting and 

 obtaining a favor was wdien the patron was entirely given up 

 to the pleasures of the table and of roses.'* 



Whatever doubt may exist of the use of crowns of roses, as 

 objects of luxury, it is well authenticated, that among medical 



2 " Hffic hora est tua, dum furit Lyseus 

 Cum regnat Rosa, cum madent capilli, 

 Tunc me vel rigidi legant Catones." 



Lib. X., epig. 19. 



