PLINY: NATURAL HLSTORY 



3 IL Tenuioribus utebantur antiqui stroppos appel- 

 lantes, unde nata strophiola. quin et vocabulum 

 ipsum tarde communicatum est inter sacra tantum 

 et bellicos honores coronis suum nomen vindicantibus. 

 cimi vero e floribus fierent, serta a serendo serieve 

 appellabantur, quod apud Graecos quoque non adeo 

 antiquitus placuit. 



4 II L Arborum enim ramis coronari in sacris cer- 

 taminibus mos erat primum. postea variare coep- 

 tum mixtura versicolori florum, quae invicem odores 

 coloresque accenderet, Sicyone ingenio Pausiae 

 pictoris atque Glycerae coronariae dilectae ad- 

 modum illi, cum opera eius ^ pictura imitaretur, illa 

 provocans variaret, essetque certamen artis ac 

 naturae, quales etiam nunc extant artificis illius 

 tabellae atque in primis appellata Stephaneplocos 



' Hic addere vult huiu.s W armington. 



who would find them unnecessary, being perfectly familiar 

 with them. 



Another translation has been suggested to me by Professor 

 W. B. Anderson, who thinks that allerni may have its late 

 sense of in vicem, and that qv.aedam does not mean " certain," 

 but " as it were," " so to speak." He would translate :. 

 ■' whether they are intertwined with one another in elaborate 

 convolutions, or form as it were garlands within garlands 

 with strings of particular flowers arranged Ln rings or slantwise 

 or running riglit round." 



If with the old editors we put a stop (or even a semicolon) 

 at ambiliim, the sense of the first part of the sentence is 

 improved, for funicnli could be twined in orhem etc. more 

 naturally than could strings of coronae. The difficulty 

 however remains of distinguishing in orbem from in ambilum, 

 and the words quaedam . . . currunt by themselves form a very 

 jerky and obscure sentence. 



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