Chap. 40.] ANECDOTES COKNECTED WITH THE LAUREL. 335 
versal gladness. This is done, not because it is always green, 
nor yet because it is an emblem of peace — for in both of those 
respects the olive would take the precedence of it — but because 
it is the most beauteous tree on Mount Parnassus, and was 
pleasing for its gracefulness to Apollo even ; a deity to whom 
the kings of Eome sent offerings at an early period, as we 
learn from the case of L. Brutus.^^ Perhaps, too, honour is 
more particularly paid to this tree because it was there that 
Erutus^* earned the glory of asserting his country's liberties, 
when, by the direction of the oracle, he kissed that laurel- 
bearing soil. Another reason, too, may be the fact, that of all 
the shrubs that are planted and received in our houses, this is 
the only one that is never struck by lightning. It is for 
these reasons, in my opinion, that the post of honour has been 
awarded to the laurel more particularly in triumphs, and not, 
as Massurius says, because it was used for the purposes of 
fumigation and purification from the blood of the enemy. 
In addition to the above particulars, it is not permitted to 
defile the laurel and the olive by applying them to profane 
uses ; so much so, indeed, that, not even for the propitiation of 
the divinities, should a fire be lighted with them at either 
altar or shrine. Indeed, it is very evident that the laurel pro- 
tests against such usage by crackling^^ as it does in the fire, 
thus, in a manner, giving expresssion to its abhorrence of such 
treatment. The wood of this tree when eaten is good as a 
specific for internal maladies and affections of the sinews.^® 
It is said that when it thundered, the Emperor Tiberius was 
L. J unius Brutus, tke nephew of Tarquin. Pliny alludes to the message 
sent to Delphi, for the purpose of consulting the oracle on a serpent being 
seen in the royal palace. 
He alludes to the circumstance of the priestess being asked who should 
reign at Rome after Tarquin ; upon which she answered, " He who first 
kisses his mother on which Brutus, the supposed idiot, stumbled to the 
ground, and kissed the earth, the mother of all. 
^5 A mere absurdity ; the same has been said of the beech, and with 
equal veracity. 
8^ He makes a distinction between "altar" and ''ara'' here. The 
former was the altar of the superior Divinities, the latter of the superior 
and inferior as weU. 
The crackling of the laurel is caused by efforts of the essential oil to 
escape from the parenchyma or cellular tissue of the leaf, which it breaks 
with considerable violence when burning. 
^ Nervorum. See B. xsiii. c. 80. 
