IT is not our intention to discuss in its fullest extent and several relations the use made by the ancients of chaplets,—a subject entering deeply into civil and religious life, as the simple ornament of leaves became a symbol of martial renown and civil virtue. There is no lack of works upon the subject. Paschalius, in his Coronœ, gives a tolerable collection of badly elaborated materials; the work of Lanzoni, De Coronis et Unguentis in ant. Conv., confines itself to the banquets; and still less important is that of Schmeizel, De Coronis. The notices, however, given directly by ancient authors are of more consequence. As the work upon chaplets by Ælius Asclepiades, and the writings of the physicians Mnesitheus and Callimachus, are lost, our information is mainly derived from Athenæus (xv), Pliny, xxi. 1, 4, and other scattered passages.

It would be difficult to assign any year or period when the use of chaplets at meals, or rather at the carousal, was first introduced at Rome; but we learn from Pliny, that as early as the second Punic war, chaplets of roses were worn. The walls of the triclinium only were, however, privy to this decoration, which, although so harmless in itself, was considered incompatible with sobriety of character, and he who appeared in public so adorned was liable to punishment.