IV. 20 Perfumes serve the purpose of the most superfluous of all forms of luxury; for pearls and jewels do nevertheless pass to the wearer's heir, and cloths last for some time, but unguents lose their scent at once, and die in the very hour when they are used. Their highest recommendation is that when a woman passes by her scent may attract the attention even of persons occupied in something else- and their cost is more than 400 denarii per pound!

IV. 21 All that money is paid for a pleasure enjoyed by somebody else, for a person carrying scent about him does not smell it himself. Still, if even these matters deserve to be graded after a fashion, we find in the works left by Marcus Cicero that unguents that have an earthy scents are more agreeable than of things where corruption is most rife, nevertheless some degree of strictness in vice itself gives more enjoyment. But there are people who get most pleasure from unguent of a dense consistency, which they call 'thick essence,' and who enjoy smearing themselves with perfume and not merely pouring it over them.

IV.22 We have even some people put scent on the soles of their feet, a practice said to have been taught to the emperor Nero by Marcus Otho; pray, how could it be noticed or give any pleasure from that part of the body? Moreover, we have heard that somebody of private station gave orders for the walls of his bathroom to be sprinkled with scent, and that the Emperor Caligula had the bathtubs scented, and so also later did one of the slaves of Nero- so that this must not be considered a privilege of princes.

IV. 23 Yet what is most surprising is that this indulgence has found its way even into the camp: at all events the eagles and the standards, dusty as they are and bristling with sharp points, are annointed on holidays- and I only wish we were able to say who first introduced this custom! No doubt the fact is that our eagles were bribed by this reward to conquer the world! We look to their patronage forsooth to sanction our vices, so as to have this legitimation for using hair-oil under a helmet.

V. 24 I could not readily say when the use of unguents first made its way to Rome. It is certain that in 189 BC, the censors Publius Licinius Crassus and Lucius Julius Caesar issued a proclamation forbidding any sale of 'foreign essences' -that being the regular name for them. But, o' Hercules, nowadays, some people actually put scent in their drinks, and it is worth the bitter flavor for their body to enjoy the lavish scent both inside and outside. It is a well-known fact that Lucius Plotius, the brother of Lucius Plancus who was twice consul and censor, when proscribed be the Triumvirs (Octavian, Antonius, Lepidus in 43 BC) was given away in his hiding-place at Salerno by the scent of the unguent he had been using- a disgrace that acquitted the entire proscription of guilt, for who would not consider that people of that sort deserved to die?

Plinii Naturalis Historiae XIII.IV ad V.