332 
PLINX'S KATUEAL HISTOHT. 
[Book XV. 
Papirius Maso, who was the first to enjoy a triumph for a 
victory over the Marsi — it was on the Alban Mount — was 
in the habit of attending at the games of the Circus, wearing 
a wreath of myrtle : he was the maternal grandfather of the 
second Scipio Africanus. Marcus Valerius wore two wreaths, 
one of laurel, the other of myrtle ; it was in consequence of 
a vow which he had made to that effect. 
CHAP. 39. (30.) — THE laurel; thirteen varieties of it. 
The laurel is especially consecrated to triumphs, is remarkably 
ornamental to houses, and guards the portals of our emperors 
and our pontiffs : there suspended alone, it graces the palace, and 
is ever on guard before the threshold. Cato^'^ speaks of two 
varieties of this tree, the Delphic and the Cyprian. Pompeius 
Lenaeus has added another, to which he has given the name of 
mustax,'^ from the circumstance of its being used for putting 
under the cake known by the name of mustaceum.^^" He 
says that this variety has a very large leaf, flaccid, and of a 
whitish hue ; that the Delphic laurel is of one uniform colour, 
greener than the other, with berries of very large size, and of 
a red tint approaching to green. He says, too, that it is with 
this laurel that the victors at Delphi are crowned, and warriors 
who enjoy the honours of a triumph at Borne. The Cyprian 
laurel, he says, has a short leaf, is of a blackish colour, with 
an imbricated edge, and crisped. 
59 The Senate refused him a triumph ; and he accordingly celebrated 
one on the Alban Mount, b.c. 231. Paulus Diaconus says that his 
reason for wearing a myrtle crown was his victory over the Corsicans on 
the Myrtle Plains, though where they were, or what victory is alluded to, 
is not known. 
60 Tlie brother of Valerius Puhlicola. 
6^ We learn from two passages in Ovid that the laurel was suspended 
over the gates of the emperors. This, as Fee remarks, was done for two 
reasons : because it was looked upon as a protection against lightning, and 
because it was considered an emblem of immortality. 
63 De Ee Rust. 133. 
63 Or laurel of Apollo :** it was into this tree that Daphne was fabled 
to have been changed. See Ovid's Met. B. i. 1. 557, et seq. 
6* Cato, De Re Rust. c. 121, tells us that this cake was made of fine wheat, 
must, anise, cummin, suet, cheese, and scraped laurel sprigs. ^ Laurel leaves 
were placed under it when baked. This mixture was considered a light 
food, good for the stomach ! 
65 At the Pythian Games celebrated there. 
66 Meaning'that it curves at the edge, something like a pent-house. 
