iiboiit 

 Cleopalni. 



BOOK XXI. VIII. ii-ix. 12 



the plaited chaplet," such as we find ahvavs used 

 in cerenionies of the Salii. Then they clianged 

 over to rose wreaths,'' and to such a heiglit did 

 luxuriousness rise that no chaplet was fashionable 

 except those stitched together with genuine petals 

 only, presently only those fetched from India or 

 even beyond. In fact the chaplet deemed the 

 sinartest prize is made of nard leaves, or of nuilti- 

 coloured silk steeped in })erfunies. Such is the latest 

 fonn taken by the luxury of our women. 



IX. Amoncp the Greeks indeed there have been a sian/ 

 written monosrraphs on chaplets by Mnesitheus 

 and Callimacluis, physicians who specify what 

 flowers are injurious to the head ; for health is to a 

 certain extent concerned even in this matter, because 

 it is especially amid the gaietv of drinking parties 

 that strong scents steal unawares to the head, witness 

 the wicked cunning of Cleopatra. For in the pre- 

 paration for the war that culminated at Actium, 

 Antonius, fearing even the attentiveness of the 

 queen herself, would not take food that had not been 

 foretasted. She is said to have played on his terror 

 by poisoning the tips of the flowers in his chaplet, 

 and then to have laid it on his " head. Presently, 

 as the revelry grew wilder, she proposed as a chal- 

 lenge that tliey " should drink their chaplets." 

 Who in such circumstances would suspect treacherv ? 

 So having gathered the fragments of his chaplet into 

 his cup he was beginning to drink, when she laid on 

 him an arresting hand, with these words : " Look, I 

 am the woman, Marcus Antonius, against whom, 

 with your new craze for foretasters, you are carefully 

 on your guard. Such my lack of opportunity or 

 means to act if I can live without you ! " Then a 



169 



