[92] Why do they give a chaplet of oak leaves to the man who has saved the life of a citizen in time of war?[214]
Is it because it is easy to find an abundance of oak leaves everywhere on a campaign?
Or is it because the chaplet is sacred to Jupiter and Juno, whom they regard as guardians of the city?
Or is the custom an ancient inheritance from the Arcadians, who have a certain kinship with the oak? For they are thought to have been the first men sprung from the earth, even as the oak was the first plant.