Grass Crown

[1] It was presented only to a general, commander, or officer whose actions saved a legion or the entire army.

One example of actions leading to awarding of a grass crown would be a general who broke the blockade around a beleaguered Roman army.

The crown took the form of a chaplet made from plant materials taken from the battlefield, including grasses, flowers, and various cereals such as wheat; it was presented to the general by the army he had saved.

[2] Pliny wrote about the grass crown at some length in his Natural History (Naturalis Historia): ...but as for the crown of grass, it was never conferred except at a crisis of extreme desperation, never voted except by the acclamation of the whole army, and never to any one but to him who had been its preserver.

If we are to regard as a glorious and a hallowed reward the civic crown, presented for preserving the life of a single citizen, and him, perhaps, of the very humblest rank, what, pray, ought to be thought of a whole army being saved, and indebted for its preservation to the valour of a single individual?