Chaplets, however, were always held in a high degree of estimation, those even which were acquired at the public games. For it was the usage of the citizens to go down in person to take part in the contests of the Circus, and to send their slaves and horses thither as well. Hence it is that we find it thus written in the laws of the Twelve Tables: “If any person has gained a chaplet himself, or by his money,[1857] let the same be given to him as the reward of his prowess.” There is no doubt that by the words “gained by his money,” the laws meant a chaplet which had been gained by his slaves or horses. Well then, what was the honour acquired thereby? It was the right secured by the victor, for himself and for his parents, after death, to be crowned without fail, while the body was laid out in the house,[1858] and on its being carried[1859] to the tomb. On other occasions, chaplets were not indiscriminately worn, not even those which had been won in the games. CHAP. 6.—THE SEVERITY OF THE ANCIENTS IN REFERENCE TO CHAPLETS. Indeed the rules upon this point were remarkably severe. L. Fulvius, a banker,[1860] having been accused, at the time of the Second Punic War, of looking down from the balcony[1861] of his house upon the Forum, with a chaplet of roses upon his head, was imprisoned by order of the Senate, and was not liberated before the war was brought to a close. P. Munatius, having placed upon his head a chaplet of flowers taken from the statue of Marsyas,[1862] was condemned by the Triumviri to be put in chains. Upon his making appeal to the tribunes of the people, they refused to intercede in his behalf—a very different state of things to that at Athens, where the young men,[1863] in their drunken revelry, were in the habit, before midday, of making their way into the very schools of the philosophers even. Among ourselves, no such instance of a similar licentiousness is to be found, unless, indeed, in the case of the daughter[1864] of the late Emperor Augustus, who, in her nocturnal debaucheries, placed a chaplet on the statue[1865] of Marsyas, conduct deeply deplored in the letters of that god.[1866] CHAP. 7.—A CITIZEN DECKED WITH FLOWERS BY THE ROMAN PEOPLE. Scipio is the only person that ever received from the Roman people the honour of being decked with flowers. This Scipio received the surname of Serapio,[1867] from his remarkable resemblance to a certain person of that name who dealt in pigs. He died in his tribuneship, greatly beloved by the people, and in every way worthy of the family of the Africani. The property he left was not sufficient to pay the expenses of his burial; upon which the people made a subscription and contracted[1868] for his funeral, flowers being scattered upon the body from every possible quarter[1869] as it was borne along. CHAP. 8.—PLAITED CHAPLETS. NEEDLE-WORK CHAPLETS. NARD-LEAF CHAPLETS. SILKEN CHAPLETS.