[2081] They would be of no assistance whatever, and this statement is entirely fictitious.
[2082] He may possibly mean hernia.
[2083] In addition to all those particulars, he might have stated that the Lares, or household gods, were crowned with myrtle, and that it was not allowed to enter the Temple of Bona Dea.
[2084] A.U.C. 251.
[2085] See the Notes to c. [35] of this Book.
[2086] Because the enemy would be less likely to envy us a bloodless triumph.
[2087] He disdained the more humble myrtle crown, and intrigued successfully with the Senate to allow him to wear a wreath of laurel.
[2088] 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.
[2089] The brother of Valerius Publicola.
[2090] We learn from two passages in Ovid that the laurel was suspended over the gates of the emperors. This, as Fée 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.