388 Ancient History of the Rose. 



tertainments, and on the floors of the rooms in which they 

 feasted. Pacatius says : " Delicati ill I et fluentes parum se 

 lautos putabant, nisi luxuria vertisset annum, nisi hybernoe pocu- 

 lis rosce innatassent."* Suetonius relates of Nero, that he spent 

 upwards of thirty thousand pounds at one supper, in the pur- 

 chase of roses. This custom is supposed to have been intro- 

 duced during the time of Horace; an opinion which has been 

 formed from one of his odes (lib. i. od. xxxviii.), thus trans- 

 lated by Francis : - — 



" I tell thee, boy, that I detest 



The grandeur of a Persian feast ; 



Nor for me the linden's rind 



Shall the flowery chaplet bind : 

 Then search not where the curious rose 

 Beyond his season loitering grows." 



Cleopatra is said to have expended a talent in the purchase 

 of roses for one banquet, on which occasion the floor of the 

 apartment was covered with roses to the depth of a cubit, or one 

 foot and a half. (Athenceus, Deipnosoph. lib. iv. cap. ii.) 



The chief use of the rose at feasts was to form crowns and 

 garlands, which were placed upon the heads, and around the 

 necks, of the guests. The garlands were generally provided by 

 the master of the house. Those who attended on the guests were 

 also crowned, and even the drinking-bowls were wreathed with 

 flowers. Owing to this use of the rose, we learn from Anacreon 

 that a crown composed of them was regarded as an invitation 

 to festivity ; they were also considered as preventives of drunk- 

 enness ; though certainly, in some instances, the flowery wreath 

 seems to have been a well understood mark of inebriation. 



" Capiam mihi coronam in caput, assimulabo me esse ebrium." 



Plautus, Amphitryon, act iii. sc. 4. 



" I will place a chaplet on my head, and pretend to be drunk." 



Rich unguents and oils were also prepared from the rose (see 

 Home?; II. xxiii. 186.), which were used on the same occasions 

 as the rose flower itself. 



There are many other less remarkable uses of the rose, which 

 it would be necessary to mention, in order to render the above 

 by any means a complete account of this flower; their importance, 

 however, does not warrant their insertion here. To the philo- 

 sophic botanist the above account of the rose will not, it is be- 

 lieved, be attractive; to the horticulturist it may present many 

 pleasing features; to the classic reader, it will recall customs 

 most intimately blended with the beauties of Grecian and Ro- 

 man poetry. The feeling, too, which dictated some of the most 

 striking and touching uses of the rose especially, and of flowers 



* " The soft and luxurious thought themselves not sufficiently refined, unless 

 their extravagance changed the course of the seasons, unless winter roses 

 floated in their cups." 



