In addition to the persons already mentioned, the honour of this crown has been awarded to M. Calpurnius Flamma,[2479] then a military tribune in Sicily; but up to the present time it has been given to a single centurion only, Cneius Petreius Atinas, during the war with the Cimbri. This soldier, while acting as primipilus[2480] under Catulus, on finding all retreat for his legion cut off by the enemy, harangued the troops, and after slaying his tribune who hesitated to cut a way through the encampment of the enemy, brought away the legion in safety. I find it stated also by some authors, that, in addition to this honour, this same Petreius, clad in the prætexta, offered sacrifice at the altar, to the sound of the pipe,[2481] in presence of the then consuls,[2482] Marius and Catulus.
The Dictator Sylla has also stated in his memoirs, that when legatus in the Marsic War he was presented with this crown by the army, at Nola; an event which he caused to be commemorated in a painting at his Tusculan villa, which afterwards became the property of Cicero. If there is any truth in this statement, I can only say that it renders his memory all the more execrable, and that, by his proscriptions, with his own hand he tore this crown from his brow, for few indeed were the citizens whom he thus preserved, in comparison with those he slaughtered at a later period. And let him even add to this high honour his proud surname of “Felix,”[2483] if he will; all the glories of this crown he surrendered to Sertorius, from the moment that he put his proscribed fellow-citizens in a stage of siege throughout the whole world.
Varro, too, relates that Scipio Æmilianus was awarded the obsidional crown in Africa, under the consul Manilius,[2484] for the preservation of three cohorts, by bringing as many to their rescue; an event commemorated by an inscription upon the base of the statue erected in honour of him by the now deified Emperor Augustus, in the Forum which bears his name. Augustus himself was also presented by the senate with the obsidional crown, upon the ides[2485] of September, in the consulship[2486] of M. Cicero the Younger, the civic crown being looked upon as not commensurate with his deserts. Beyond these, I do not find any one mentioned as having been rewarded with this honour.
CHAP. 7.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM OTHER CHAPLET PLANTS.
No plant[2487] in particular was employed in the composition of this crown, such only being used as were found growing on the spot so imperilled; and thus did they become the means, however humble and unnoted themselves, of conferring high honour and renown. All this, however, is but little known among us at the present day; a fact which I am the less surprised at, when I reflect that those plants even are treated with the same indifference, the purpose of which it is to preserve our health, to allay our bodily pains, and to repel the advances of death! And who is there that would not visit with censure, and justly visit, the manners of the present day? Luxury and effeminacy have augmented the price at which we live, and never was life more hankered after, or worse cared[2488] for, than it is at present. This, however, we look upon as the business of others, forsooth; other persons must see to it, without our troubling ourselves to request them, and the physicians must exercise the necessary providence in our behalves.[2489] As for ourselves, we go on enjoying our pleasures, and are content to live—a thing that in my opinion reflects the highest possible disgrace—by putting faith in others.[2490]
Nay, even more than this, we ourselves are held in derision by many, for undertaking these researches, and are charged with busying ourselves with mere frivolities! It is some solace, however, in the prosecution of these our boundless labours, to have Nature as our sharer in this contempt: Nature who, as we will prove beyond a doubt, has never failed in coming to the assistance of man, and has implanted[2491] remedies for our use in the most despised even of the vegetable productions, medicaments in plants which repel us with their thorns.
It is of these, in fact, that it remains for us now to speak, as next in succession to those which we have mentioned in the preceding Book; and here we cannot sufficiently admire, and, indeed, adore,[2492] the wondrous providence displayed by Nature. She had given us, as already[2493] shewn, plants soft to the touch, and agreeable to the palate; in the flowers she had painted the remedies for our diseases with her varied tints, and, while commingling the useful with the delicious, had attracted our attention by means of the pleasures of the eye. Here, however, she has devised another class of plants, bristling and repulsive to the sight, and dangerous to the touch; so much so, indeed, that we fancy we all but hear the voice of her who made them as she reveals to us her motives for so doing. It is her wish, she says, that no ravening cattle may browse upon them, that no wanton hand may tear them up, that no heedless footstep may tread them down, that no bird, perching there, may break them: and in thus fortifying them with thorns, and arming them with weapons, it has been her grand object to save and protect the remedies which they afford to man. Thus we see, the very qualities even which we hold in such aversion, have been devised by Nature for the benefit and advantage of mankind.
CHAP. 8. (7.)—THE ERYNGE OR ERYNGIUM.
In the first rank of the plants armed with prickles, the erynge[2494] or eryngion stands pre-eminent, a vegetable production held in high esteem as an antidote formed for the poison of serpents and all venomous substances. For stings and bites of this nature, the root is taken in wine in doses of one drachma, or if, as generally is the case, the wound is attended with fever, in water. It is employed also, in the form of a liniment, for wounds, and is found to be particularly efficacious for those inflicted by water-snakes or frogs. The physician Heraclides states it as his opinion that, boiled in goose-broth, it is a more valuable remedy than any other known, for aconite[2495] and other poisons.[2496] Apollodorus recommends that, in cases of poisoning, it should be boiled with a frog, and other authorities, in water only. It is a hardy plant, having much the appearance of a shrub, with prickly leaves and a jointed stem; it grows a cubit or more in height. Sometimes it is found of a whitish colour, and sometimes black,[2497] the root of it being odoriferous. It is cultivated in gardens, but it is frequently to be found growing[2498] spontaneously in rugged and craggy localities. It grows, too, on the sea-shore, in which case it is tougher and darker than usual, the leaf resembling that of parsley.[2499]