LUXUKIOUS USE OF THE EOSE. 



163 



although it was in tlie midst of winter, he caused them to 

 be collected from every quarter. 



The gallants of Rome were in the habit of presenting 

 their favorite damsels with the first roses that appeared 

 in spring ; and " Mea rosa " was an affectionate expres- 

 sion they often used to their betrothed. 



We frequently find in old Latin authors an entire aban- 

 donment to pleasure and excessive luxury, signified by 

 such expressions as " living in the midst of roses," "sleep- 

 ing on roses," etc. (" Vlvere in rosa^'^ ^^dormire in rosay^ 



Seneca speaks of Smyndiride, the most wealthy and 

 voluptuous of the Sybarites, who could not sleep if a sin- 

 gle one of the rose-petals with which his bed was spread, 

 happened to be curled. 



Cicero, in his " De finibus^^ alludes to the custom which 

 prevailed at Rome at that time, of reclining at the table 

 on couches covered with roses ; and comparing the happi- 

 ness which virtue gives to the pleasures of luxury says, 

 that Regulus, in Ijis chains, was more happy than Thori- 

 us drinking on a couch of roses, and living in such a man- 

 ner that one could scarcely imagine any rare and ex- ^ 

 quisite pleasure of which he did not partake." 



The same author, in his celebrated speech against 

 Verres, the greatest extortioner whose name is recorded 

 in history, reproached liim not only with the outrageous 

 robberies and cruelties which he committed during the 

 three years that he was governor of Sicily, but yet more 

 with his effeminacy and licentiousness. When spring 

 commenced," said the Roman orator, " that season was 

 not announced to him by the return of Zej^hyr, nor by the 

 appearance of any heavenly sign ; it was not until he had 

 seen the roses bloom that spring was visible to his volup- 

 tuous eye. In the voyages which lie made across the 

 province, he was accustomed, after the example of the 

 kings of Bithynia, to be called in a litter borne by eight 

 men, in which he reposed, softly extended upon cushions 



