PALMS
PALMS
Branches of palm trees are the symbol of joy after a victory, attended with antecedent sufferings.
By the Mosaical Law, Lev 23:40, they were used as a token of joy at the feast of tabernacles. And they were used upon any solemn occasion of joy, as after a victory or deliverance, 1Ma 13:51; Joh 12:13.
With Philo, the palm is the symbol of victory.f1 And Plutarch gives the same signification;f2 assigning the reason of it, from the natural property of the palm-tree to rise up against pressure. Hence palma for victory, of which examples might be given in great numbers from Tully, Plautus, Ovid, Terence, and others. And hence the toga of a triumphing emperor was called palmata, as having branches of palms painted thereon.f3
F1 Ph. Alleg. L. ii. p. 50.
F2 Plut. Sympos. L. viii. c. 4. p. 887. Ed. Ald. Aul. Gell. L. iii. c. 6. Strab. Geogr. L. xv. p. 731.
F3 Martial. L. vii. Ep. 3. Servius ad lEn. L. ii.