LUXURIOUS USE OF THE ROSE. 15 



thought to pay him a splendid compliment in honor of his birth- 

 day, by sending him roses in the midst of winter, their present 

 excited nothing but ridicule and disdain, so abundant had winter 

 roses become at Rome, by the efforts of art. Few of the Latin 

 poets have been more celebrated for their epigrammatic wit than 

 Martial ; and his epigram " to Ceesar, on the Winter Roses," 

 serves to show that the culture of roses at Rome was carried to 

 such perfection, as to make the attempts of foreign competitors 

 subjects only for ridicule. 3 



" The ambitious inhabitants of the land watered by the Nile 

 have sent thee, O Csesar, the roses of winter, as a present valu- 

 able for its novelty. But the boatman of Memphis will laugh 

 at the gardens of Pharaoh as soon as he has taken one step in 

 thy capital city for the spring, in its charms, and the flowers in 

 their fragrance and beauty, equal the glory of the fields of Pses- 

 tum. Wherever he wanders or casts his eyes, every street is bril- 

 liant with garlands of roses. And thou, O Nile ! must now, 

 yield to the fogs of Rome. Send us thy harvests, and we will 

 send thee roses." 



By this passage it is evident that the cultivation of roses, 

 among the ancients, was much farther advanced than is gene- 

 rally supposed. In another epigram Martial speaks again of 

 roses, which were formerly seen only in .the spring, but which 

 in his time had become common during the winter. We are 



3 AD C^ESAREM DE ROSIS HlBERNIS. 



" Ut nova dona tibi, Caesa, Nilotiea tellus 

 Miserat hibernas ambitiosa Rosas : 

 Navita derisit Pharios Memphiticus hortos, 

 Urbis ut intravit limina prima tuae. 

 Tantus veris honos, et odore gratia florae, 

 Tantaque Paestani gloria ruris erat. 

 Sic quacumque vagus, gressum oculosque ferebat, 

 Textilibus sertis omne rubebant iter. 

 At tu Romanae jussus jam cedere brumoe, 

 Mitte tuas messes, accipe, Nile, Rosas." 



MARTIAL, lib. vi., epig. 80. 



