Parsons on the Rose / A Treatise on the Propagation, Culture and History of the Rose

by Samuel Browne Parsons

At Baiæ, when fêtes were given upon the water, the whole surface of the lake of Lucina appeared covered with roses.

The custom of encircling the head, of surrounding the neck, and also the breast, with crowns and garlands of roses, on different occasions, and particularly during the last days of a gay festival, when, after the solid dishes, they passed to the dessert and the rare wines, is well known by the odes of Anacreon, and from the writings of several of the ancient poets.

The voluptuous Horace, when he abandoned himself to pleasures, was always supplied with roses. In congratulating one of his friends on his safe return from Spain, he recommended that these flowers should not be wanting at the festival. On another occasion, he told his favorite servant that he cordially disliked the pompous displays of the Persians, and escaped them by searching in what place the late Rose was found. Drawing a picture of luxurious ease for his friend Hirpinus, he speaks of “lying under the shade of a lofty Plane or Pine tree, perfuming our spotless hair with Assyrian spikenard, and crowning ourselves with roses.” We can very well judge how general had become the custom of making crowns of roses, from the number of times which it is mentioned in Pliny, and the frequency with which Martial speaks of it in his epigrams. The latter author also informs us, that in the very height of Roman luxury and revealing, the most favorable time for soliciting and obtaining a favor was when the patron was entirely given up to the pleasures of the table and of roses.[4]

Whatever doubt may exist of the use of crowns of roses, as objects of luxury, it is well authenticated, that among medical men of antiquity, endeavors were made to determine what kinds of flowers were suitable to place in crowns without detriment to health; and according to the report made on this subject, the parsley, the ivy, the myrtle, and the Rose, possessed peculiar virtues for dissipating the fumes of the wine. According to Athenæus, a crown of roses possessed not only the property of alleviating pain in the head, but had a very refreshing effect.

Pliny mentions two Greek physicians—Mnesitheus and Callimachus,—who wrote on this subject.

The custom of crowning with roses had passed from the Greeks to the Romans, and it also existed among the Hebrews, who had probably borrowed it from some of the neighboring nations, either from the Egyptians, in the midst of whom they had spent many years, or from the Babylonians, with whom they had in the captivity much connection. The practice of this custom among the Israelites is attested by the previously quoted passage, in the apocryphal “Wisdom of Solomon.”

At Rome it was not only at the religious festivals that they crowned themselves with roses and other flowers, but it was the custom to wear these crowns during public and private fêtes; they were strictly forbidden at some other times, and above all on certain public occasions, where to appear with such an ornament would pass for an insult to a public calamity. Pliny informs us, that during the second Punic war, which lasted sixteen years, a banker named Lucius Fulvius, for looking from his gallery on the Forum, and wearing a crown of roses on his head, was, by order of the Senate, sent to prison, from which he was not liberated until the end of the war.

This anecdote, moreover, proves that crowns of roses were in fashion at Rome at an early period, and before licentiousness and luxury had yet made many inroads upon the national character.

It may readily be supposed, that at Rome, under the emperors, the use of crowns of flowers was, like every other species of luxury at that time, constantly on the increase. At first they wore the crowns interwoven with leaves of flowers, then they wore them composed partly of roses, and finally they were not satisfied unless they consisted of these flowers only.

Martial, as we have already mentioned, speaks often of his crowns of roses. The crown sent by this poet to his friend Sabinus was composed entirely of these flowers, and he was desirous that they should be considered the production of his own gardens.