Egyptians biblus, quoting the statement of Theopompus, in the third book of his History of Greece, where he says, "That when Agesilaus the Lacedæmonian arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians sent him many presents, and among them the papyrus, which is used for making garlands." But I do not know what pleasure or advantage there could be in having a crown made of biblus with roses, unless people who are enamoured of such a wreath as this should also take a fancy to wear crowns of garlic and roses together. But I know that a great many people say that the garland made of the sampsychon or amaracus is the Naucratite garland; and this plant is very plentiful in Egypt, but the myrtle in Egypt is superior in sweetness to that which is found in any other country, as Theophrastus relates in another place.
19. While this discussion was going on, some slaves came in bringing garlands made of such flowers as were in bloom at the time; and Myrtilus said;—Tell me, my good friend Ulpian, the different names of garlands. For these servants, as is said in the Centaur of Chærephon—
Make ready garlands which they give the gods,
Praying they may be heralds of good omen.
And the same poet says, in his play entitled Bacchus—
Cutting sweet garlands, messengers of good omen.
Do not, however, quote to me passages out of the Crowns of Ælius Asclepiades, as if I were unacquainted with that work; but say something now besides what you find there. For you cannot show me that any one has ever spoken separately of a garland of roses, and a garland of violets. For as for the expression in Cratinus—
[Greek: narkissinous olisbous],
that is said in a joke.
And he, laughing, replied,—The word [Greek: stephanos] was first used among the Greeks, as Semos the Delian tells us in the fourth book of his Delias, in the same sense as the word [Greek: stephos] is used by us, which, however, by some people is called [Greek: stemma]. On which account, being first crowned with this [Greek: stephanos], afterwards we put on a garland of bay leaves; and the word [Greek: stephanos] itself is derived from the verb [Greek: stephô], to crown. But do you, you loquacious Thessalian, think, says he, that I am going to repeat any of those old and hacknied stories? But
