Besides the guests at feasts, the attendants were decorated with wreaths, and the wine-cups and apartments adorned with flowers. From an anecdote related by Pliny we learn that it was a frequent custom, common to both Greeks and Romans, to mix the flowers of their chaplets in their wine, when they pledged the healths of their friends. Cleopatra, to ridicule the mistrust of Antony, who would never eat or drink at her table without causing his taster to test every viand, lest any should be poisoned, commanded a chaplet of flowers to be prepared for the Roman General, the edges of which were dipped in the most deadly poison, whilst that which was woven for her own brow was, as usual, mixed with aromatic spices. At the banquet Antony received his coronet of flowers, and when they had become cheerful through the aid of Bacchus, Cleopatra pledged him in wine, and taking off the wreath from her head, and rubbing the blossoms into her goblet, drank off the contents. Antony was following her example, but just as he had raised the fatal cup to his lips, the Queen seized his arm, exclaiming, “Cure your jealous fears, and learn that I should not have to seek the means of your destruction, could I live without you.” She then ordered a prisoner to be brought before them, who, on drinking the wine from Antony’s goblet, instantly expired in their presence. The Romans wore garlands at sacred rites, games and festivals, on journeys and in war. When an army was freed from a blockade its deliverer was presented with a crown composed of the Grass growing on the spot. In modern heraldry, this crown of Grass is called the Crown Obsidional, and appertains to the general who has held a fortress against a besieging army and ultimately relieved it from the assailants. To him who had saved the life of a Roman soldier was given a chaplet of Oak-leaves: this is the modern heraldic civic crown bestowed on a brave soldier who has saved the life of a comrade or has rescued him after having been taken prisoner by the enemy. The glories of all grand deeds were signalized by the crown of Laurel among both Greeks and Romans. This is the heraldic Crown Triumphant, adjudged in our own times to a general who has achieved a signal victory. The Romans were not allowed by law to appear in festal garlands on ordinary occasions. Hence Cæsar valued most highly the privilege accorded him by the Senate of wearing a Laurel crown, because it screened his baldness, which, both by the Romans and Jews, was considered a deformity. This crown was generally composed of the Alexandrian Laurel (_Ruscus Hypoglossum_)--the Laurel usually depicted on busts and coins. The victors at the athletic games were adjudged crowns differing in their composition according to the place in which they had won their honours. Thus, crowns of