BOOK XXII. IV. 8-v. lo 



grass pulled up from the site where the besieged 

 men had beeu reheved by some one. ¥ov in old 

 times it was the most solemn token of defeat for 

 the conquered to present grass to their conquerors, 

 for to do so meant that they withdrew ft-om their 

 land, from the very soil that nurtured them and 

 even from means of burial. This custom, I know, 

 exists even today among the Germans. 



V. L. Siccius Dentatus " was presented with this 

 crown but once, although he earned fourteen civic 

 crowns and fought out one hundred and twenty 

 battles, \ictorious in all. So much rarer a thing is 

 it for a decoration to be conferred by rescued men 

 upon the one man who rescued them. Certain com- 

 manders havc even been decorated more than once, 

 P. Decius Mus,'' for instance, when mihtary tribune, 

 once by his own army, and again by those who 

 formed the reheved garrison. He showed by a 

 devout act how great a dignity this distinction 

 brought with it, seeing that after the presentation he 

 sacrificed to Mars a white bull, as well as the hundred 

 tawny ones which at the same time had been given 

 to him by the reUeved garrison in recognition of his 

 courage. This Decius afterwards wlien consul with 

 Imperiosus as his colleague sacrificed himself as a 

 victim in oi'der to secure victory.'' It was also given 

 by the Senate and People of Rome — the highest 

 distinction in my opinion that a human being can 

 attain to — to that Fabius who " restored the whole 

 Roman State " by refusing to fight, not however on 

 the occasion when he rescued the Master of the 

 Horse ** and his army ; it was then thought preferable 

 for a crown and a new title, " Father," to be given 

 him by those whom he had rescued. The unanimous 



301 



