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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: the Pharisees, who refused to wear the wreaths, regarding them as a
symbol of Roman voluptuousness and vice. They shuddered when the
attendants sprinkled them with galburnum and incense, the use of which
the Pharisees reserved strictly for services in the Temple.
Antipas observed that Aulus rubbed himself under the arms, as if
annoyed by heat or chafing; and promised to give him three flasks of
the same kind of precious balm that had been used by Cleopatra.
A captain from the garrison of Tiberias who had just arrived, placed
himself behind the tetrarch as protection in case any unexpected
trouble should arise. But his attention was divided between observing
the movements of the proconsul and listening to the conversation of
Herodias | 
