Tertullian, On the Crown 12

Suppose, finally, that military service is permitted up to the point of the crown. But let us speak first about the crown itself. That laurel is sacred to Apollo or to Bacchus: to the one, as god of missiles; to the other, as god of triumphs. So Claudius teaches when he says that soldiers are also accustomed to be crowned with myrtle. For myrtle belongs to Venus, mother of Aeneas, not laurel — and also to the lovers of Mars, through Ilium and the Romuli of the Romans. But I do not believe Venus stands on the Romans' side with Mars, where the pain of flaying lies. When the olive also crowns military service, it is idolatry to Minerva, equally goddess of arms, but also of peace, established with Neptune from this tree. In these things the superstition of the military garland is polluted and polluting, and now all things will be polluted — causes included. Look at the annual declaration of vows: what does it look like? First at the principia, second at the capitolia. Take the places and the words: 'Then to you, Jupiter, with a bull with gold-adorned horns, we vow to be future.' Whose voice is that sentence? Certainly the voice of negation. Even if the Christian is silent there with his mouth, the crowned head answers. The same laurel, in the distribution of donatives, is plainly declared not to be gratuitous idolatry, selling Christ to some for gold, just as Judas did for silver. This will be: 'You cannot serve God and mammon' (Luke 16:13) — to hand yourself over to mammon and withdraw from God? This will be: 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's' (Matthew 22:21) — not to render a man to God, and to snatch the denarius away from Caesar? Is the laurel of triumphs constructed with leaves, or with corpses? Is it adorned with lamina, or with busts? Is it anointed with ointments, or with the tears of wives and mothers? Perhaps even of some Christians: for Christ is also among the barbarians. Whoever has borne this cause on his head, has he not also fought against it? There is also another military service, that of royal households. For the castrenses are called munificences, and they themselves belong to the solemnities of the Caesareans. But you, accordingly, are a soldier and a servant of another: and if of two, God and Caesar, then certainly not of Caesar, when you owe yourself to God, even in common matters, I believe, to the more important one.