Civic Crown

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Civic Crown

The Civic Crown was a chaplet of common oak

Oak

The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of about 400 species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus , which are listed in the List of Quercus species, and some related genera, notably Lithocarpus....
leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
woven to form a crown

Crown (headgear)

A crown is the traditional symbolic form of headgear worn by a monarch or by a deity, for whom the crown traditionally represents Political power, legitimacy, Crown of Immortality, righteousness, victory, Roman triumph, resurrection, honour and glory of life after death....
. During the Roman Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
, and the subsequent Principate

Principate

The Principate is the first period of the Roman Empire, extending from the beginning of the reign of Caesar Augustus to the Crisis of the Third Century, after which it was replaced with the Dominate....
, it was regarded as the second highest military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or Threat of force ....
decoration a citizen could aspire to (the Grass Crown

Grass Crown

The Grass Crown or Blockade Crown was the highest and rarest of all military decorations in the Roman Republic and early Roman empire. It was presented only to a general or commander who broke the blockade around a beleaguered Roman army, thus saving a legion or the entire army....
being held in higher regard).

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Encyclopedia

The Civic Crown was a chaplet of common oak

Oak

Leaf

Crown (headgear)

Roman Republic

Principate

Military

Grass Crown

Man

A man is a male human. The term man is used for an adult human male, while the term boy being the usual term for a human male child or adolescent human male....
who saved the lives of fellow citizens, and held the ground upon which he did this for the remainder of the engagement. After Sulla

Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , or simply Sulla, was a Roman general and politician, holding the office of consul twice as well as the Roman dictator....
's constitutional reforms, any recipient of the Civic Crown was entitled entry into the Senate

Senate

A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature or Parliament. There have been many such bodies in history, the first of which was the Roman Senate....
. Furthermore, the recipient was required by law to wear his crown at every public gathering, and was applauded even by men much senior to himself. It later became a prerogative for Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
s to be awarded the Civic Crown (originating with Augustus, who was awarded it for saving the lives of citizens by ending the series of civil wars). Famous recipients include Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
and Caesar Augustus.

Pliny

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
wrote about the Civic Crown at some length in Naturalis Historia:

To preserve an ally merely, even though it should be the life of a king that is so saved, confers no right to this high reward, nor is the honour at all increased, even if it is the Roman general that has been thus preserved, it being the intention of the framers of the law that it should be the status of the citizen that is everything. When a man has received this wreath, it is his privilege to wear it for the rest of his life. When he makes his appearance at the celebration of the games, it is customary for the Senate even to rise from their seats, and he has the right of taking his seat next to the senators. Exemption, too, from all civic duties is conferred upon him as well as his father and his father's father. Siccius Dentatus, as we have already mentioned on an appropriate occasion, received fourteen civic crowns, and Manlius Capitolinus one, among the rest, for having saved the life of his general, Servilius. Scipio Africanus declined to accept the civic crown for having saved the life of his father at the battle of Trebia. Times these, right worthy of our everlasting admiration, which accorded honour alone as the reward of exploits so mighty, and which, while other crowns were recommended by being made of gold, disdained to set a price upon the safety of a citizen, and loudly proclaimed thereby that it is unrighteous to save the life of a man for motives of lucre.

Civic Crown

See also

External links

Citations