336 
PLINY's KATUEAL HISTOEY. [Book XV. 
in the habit of putting on a wreath of laurel to allay his ap- 
prehensions of disastrous effects from the lightning.^^ There 
are also some remarkable facts connected with the laurel in 
the history of the late Emperor Augustus : once while Livia 
Drusilla, who afterwards on her marriage with the Emperor 
assumed the name of Augusta, at the time that she was 
affianced to him, was seated, there fell into her lap a hen of 
remarkable whiteness, which an eagle let fall from aloft with- 
out its receiving the slightest injury : on Livia viewing it 
without any symptoms of alarm, it was discovered that miracle 
was added to miracle, and that it held in its beak a branch of 
laurel covered with berries. The aruspices gave orders that 
the hen and her progeny should be carefully preserved, and 
the branch planted and tended with religious care. This was 
accordingly done at the country-house belonging to the Caesars, 
on the Flaminian Way, near the banks of the Tiber, eight 
miles from the City ; from which circumstance that road has 
since received the title ^^Ad gallinas."^^ Erom the branch 
there has now arisen, wondrous to relate, quite a grove : and 
Augustus Csesar afterwards, when celebrating a triumph, held 
a branch of it in his hand and wore a wreath of this laurel on 
his head ; since which time all the succeeding emperors have 
followed his example. Hence, too, has originated the custom of 
planting the branches which they have held on these occasions, 
and we thus see groves of laurel still existing which owe their 
respective names to this circumstance. It was on the above 
occasion, too, that not improbably a change was effected in 
the usual laurel of the triumph.^^ The laurel is the only one 
among the trees that in the Latin language has given an 
appellation to a man,^^ and it is the only one the leaf of which 
has a distinct name of its own, — it being known by the name 
of '4aurea." The name of this tree is still retained by one 
place in the city of Eome, for we find a spot on the Aventine 
^ Suetonius, c. 6^, confirms this. Fee says that the same superstition 
still exists in some parts of France. See B. ii. c. 56. 
80 The Poultry." 9i See c. 39 of this Book. 
92 See B. xxxi. c. 3. As Poinsinet remarks, this is not strictly true ; 
the name Vinucius " most probably came from vinea," a vineyard- 
Numerous names were derived also from seeds and vegetables; Piso, 
Cicero, and Lactuca, for instance, among a host of others. Scipio," too, 
means a walking-stick." 
