BOOK XXII. VI. 13-V11. 15 



Varro, presented with the siege crown in Africa 

 when ManiHus was consul," having rescued three 

 cohorts with three others led out to rescue them. 

 Such is the story carved under Scipio's statue by 

 Augustus, now in Heaven, in the Forum Augusti. 

 Augustus himself, in the consulship of Marcus 

 Cicero junior, was on the 13th September presented 

 with the siege crown by the Senate ; so inadequate 

 was the civic ci'own thought to be. Nobody else 

 at all, I find, has received this distinction. 



\'II. There were therefore no special plants used 

 in making this crown, but whatever plants had been 

 found on the site of the peril, however lowly and 

 mean, these gave the honour its nobiHty. That 

 such ignorance about the composition of this crown 

 is rife amongst us I consider less strange when I see 

 the further indifFerence to the means of preserving 

 health, of banishing physical pain and of warding 

 ofF death. But who could not with justice censure 

 modern ways ? The cost of living has been increased 

 by luxuries and extravagance ; * never has thei'e 

 been more zest for hfe or less care taken of it. We 

 believe that care of our life is the duty of others, 

 that others make it their business on instructions 

 from us,*' and that physicians have already provided 

 for our needs. The enjoyment of pleasures is our 

 personal affair, but our lives we entrust to the charge 

 of somebody else, thereby incurring what I personally 

 hold to be the worst possible disgrace. Moreover, 

 most people actually laugh at me for carrying on 

 research in these matters, and I am accused of 

 busying myself with trifles. It is, however, a great 

 comfort to me in my vast toil to know that Nature 

 too, not I alone, incurs this contempt, for I shall 



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