2. Chap. 2. (2.)-Garlands And Chaplets.

CHAP. 2. (2.)—GARLANDS AND CHAPLETS.

The ancients used chaplets of diminutive size, called "struppi;"[1] from which comes our name for a chaplet, "stro- phiolum." Indeed, it was only by very slow degrees that this last word[2] became generalized, as the chaplets that were used at sacrifices, or were granted as the reward of military valour, asserted their exclusive right to the name of "corona." As for garlands, when they came to be made of flowers, they received the name of "serta," from the verb "sero,"[3] or else from our word "series."[4] The use[5] of flowers for garlands is not so very ancient, among the Greeks even.

1. According to Boettiger, the word "struppus" means a string arranged as a fillet or diadem.

2. Fée makes the word "vocabulum" apply to "corona," and not to "struppus;" but the passage will hardly admit of that rendering.

3. "To bind" or "join together."

4. A "connected line," from the verb "sero."

5. By "quod," Hardouin takes Pliny to mean, the use of the word sparto\n, among the Greeks, corresponding with the Latin word "sertum."