CROWN, an ornament worn on the head by kings and sovereign princes, as a mark of their dignity.

In scripture there is frequent mention of crowns, and the use of them seems to have been common among the Hebrews. The high priest wore a crown, which was a fillet of gold placed upon the forehead, and fastened with a ribbon of hyacinth colour or azure blue. It seems also as if private priests and even common Israelites wore a sort of crown: since God commands Ezekiel not to take off his crown, nor to assume the marks of one in mourning. This crown was no more than a ribbon or fillet, with which the Jews and several nations of the East begirt their heads. And indeed the first crowns were no more than a bandelet drawn round the head and fastened behind, as we still see it represented in medals round the heads of Jupiter, the Ptolemies, and the kings of Syria. But afterwards they consisted of two bandelets, and by degrees they took branches of trees of different kinds, to which at length were added flowers, insomuch that Claudius Saturninus says there was not any plant of which crowns had not been made. The woods and groves were searched to find different crowns for the several deities; and they were used not only by the priests in sacrificing, and by kings and emperors, but also on altars, temples, doors of houses, sacred victims, ships, and so on.

The Roman emperors had four kinds of crowns, which are still seen on medals, namely, a crown of laurels, a radial or radiating crown, a crown adorned with pearls and precious stones, and a kind of bonnet or cap, something like the mortier.

The Romans had also various kinds of crowns, which they distributed as rewards of military achievements. The oval crown, made of myrtle, was bestowed upon generals who were entitled to the honours of the lesser triumph, called ovation. The naval or rostral crown, composed of a circle of gold, with ornaments representing prows of ships, was given to the captain who first grappled, or the soldier who first boarded, an enemy’s vessel. The crown called in Latin vallaris, or castrensis, a circle of gold raised with jewels or palisades, formed the reward of him who first forced the enemy’s entrenchments. The mural crown, a circle of gold indented and embattled, was given to him who first mounted the wall of a besieged place, and there planted a standard. The civic crown, made of the branch of a green oak, was awarded to him who had saved the life of a citizen. The triumphal crown, consisting at first of wreaths of laurel, but afterwards made of gold, belonged to the general who had the honour of a triumph conferred upon him. The crown called obsidionalis, or graminea, made of grass growing on the place, was the reward of a general who had delivered a Roman army from a siege. The radial crown was given to princes on their deification. We meet also with the corona aurea, often bestowed on soldiers without any other additional term; athletic crowns, and crowns of laurel, destined to crown victors at the public games, poets, orators, and others. All these crowns were marks of nobility to the wearers; and in competitions for rank and dignities, often determined the preference in their favour.

Crown, in an ecclesiastical sense, is used for the clerical tonsure, which is the mark or character of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics. This is a little circle of hair shaved off from the crown of the head, more or less broad, according to the quality of the orders received; that of a mere clerk being the smallest, and that of priests and monks the largest. The clerical crown was anciently .a list of hair, shaved off around the head, and representing a real crown. This is observable in several ancient statues, and in other monuments. Religious persons of the orders of St Dominic and St Francis still retain it.

Crown, in Astronomy, a name given to two constellations, the southern and the northern.

Crown, in Geometry, a plane ring included between two parallel or concentric peripheries of unequal circles.