PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY 



bus nostris, cum velut ex industria fluctibus agerentur 

 in proras stantium noctu inopesque remedii illae 

 proelium navale adversus arbores inirent. 



6 In eadem septentrionali plaga Hercyniae silvae 

 roborum vastitas intacta aevis et congenita mundo 

 prope inmortali sorte miracula excedit. ut alia 

 omittantur fide caritura, constat attoUi colles occur- 

 santium inter se radicum repercussu aut, ubi secuta 

 tellus non sit, arcus ad ramos usque et ipsos inter se 

 rixantes curvari portarum patentium modo, ut 

 tmTnas equitum tramittant. 



Glandiferi maxime generis omnes, quibus honos 



7 apud Romanos perpetuus : III. hinc civicae coro- 

 nae, militum virtutis insigne clarissimum, iam 

 pridem vero et clementiae imperatorum, postquam 

 ci\iUum bellorum profano meritum coepit videri 

 civem non occidere. cedunt his murales vallaresque 

 et aureae, quamquam pretio antecedentes, cedunt et 

 rostratae, quamvis in duobus maxime ad hoc aevi 

 celebres, M. Varrone e piraticis bellis dante Magno 

 Pompeio itemque M. Agrippa tribuente Caesare e 



8 SicuHs, quae et ipsa piratica fuere. antea rostra 

 navium tribunaU praefixa fori decus erant, veluti 



» See IV. 80 n. 



" A Civic Wreath was voted by the senate to Juhus Caesar 

 as the saviour of the country, and thenceforward one was 

 kept hung up at the door ot the emperor'8 palace. 



' A golden crown decorated with turrets was given to the 

 first man who scaled the walls of a besieged city, and one 

 ornamented with a palisade to the first who crossed a 

 palisaded trench ; and in particular one variety of triumphal 

 crown was called corona aurea. One called corona navalis or 

 rostraia, decorated with the ' beaks ' of ships, was awarded 

 to the first sailor who boarded an enemy ship, and later to a 

 naval commander who won a signal victory. 



