Talk:Palm branch

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Judaism

I removed the unreferenced statements about Kabbalah and the date palm representing peace (which seem to be an invention of the editor who put them in) and have added some material from Four Species. Marshall46 (talk) 13:05, 6 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In traditional African religions it is a very common symbol. JMGM (talk) 16:53, 8 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Roman lawyers palm branches

The footnote accompanying the sentence "A lawyer who won his case in the forum would decorate his front door with palm leaves" under the heading 'Antiquity' cites a commentary on Martial's Epigrams. Whilst I have not reviewed the paywalled source, the only epigraph of Martial I have found which mentions palm branches adorning doors is in Book 7, Epigram 28. This epigram to Fuscus says only that Sic fora mirentur, sic te palatia laudent, Excolat et geminas plurima palma fores ("Thus the forums admire... many palms adorn your twin doors"). However, Fuscus is a victorious military man whose military success is noted by the forum and marked by many palms adorning his doors. He is not a successful lawyer returning from winning his case at the forum. Martial's Fuscus is commonly identified with Cornelius Fuscus.

Likewise, Juvenal's Satire VII contains a mocking passage concerning a skilled lawyer's modest fees. In that context, Juvenal compares the actual earnings of a skilled lawyer (who does not engage in ostentatious public displays of his wealth and so loses out to showy lawyers who parade their wealth publicly and so attract more clients), with the meagre reward of a charioteer of the Reds, nicknamed 'Lizard' (Lacertae, perhaps a mocking nickname). The lawyer's only reward is his staircase being adorned with green palms and some scraps of food. It is not clear from that passage whether successful lawyers ordinarily adorned their doorways with palm branches after a victory, or whether this is simply an allusion to the practice of a successful charioteer, which is widely known and attested.

In Walter Menzies's "Pliny and the Roman Bar Under Trajan," Juridical Review 36, no. 3 (1924): 197-217 at page 203, Menzies refers to this passage from Juvenal noting the palm branches at the successful lawyer's door as a custom in Rome. However, it is not clear what authority there is for this proposition:

"It may be remarked here that in his Seventh Satire Juvenal refers to the custom of fixing up a palm branch before their poor door by those who had won a case in the Courts, in a vaunt of their success. No fees of six thousand sesterces for them; but perhaps a gift from their client of some "shrunk gammon, a dish of tunnies, some stale fish, or some indifferent wine." This would seem but a sorry reward for the poor advocate who had left his home in Spain or Africa to make his fortune-a bitter sight for him to behold the successful and wealthy Tongillus carried to the baths on a litter by his Moesian slaves, ostentatiously producing his rhinoceros oil horn in place of the bull's horn commonly used as an oil-flask." PoblddimyndeallCymraeg (talk) 15:12, 25 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]