Civic Crown

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Caesar Augustus with Corona Civica

The Civic Crown (Latin: corona civica) was a chaplet of common oak leaves woven to form a crown. During the Roman Republic, and the subsequent Principate, it was regarded as the second highest military decoration a citizen could aspire to (the Grass Crown being held in higher regard). It was reserved for men who saved the lives of fellow soldiers, and held the ground upon which he did this for the remainder of the engagement. After Sulla's constitutional reforms, any recipient of the Civic Crown was entitled entry into the 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 Emperors 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 and Caesar Augustus.

Pliny 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. [1]