🔘 WHY DO THE ROMANS GIVE A CHAPLET OF OAK LEAVES TO THE MAN WHO HAD SAVED THE LIFE OF A CITIZEN IN TIME OF WAR? “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.” Plutarch, Roman Questions