#oxide-pmcmember

You mean this kind of symbol, right?

It’s a stylized depiction of a laurel wreath. I’ll be completely upfront and say I don’t have any insights to offer beyond what is available in secondary sources. The best source I could find that summarizes the symbolism, history, and meaning of the laurel wreath is this Ancient History Encyclopedia on triumphs. It has a lot of material about aspects of triumphs that aren’t relevant to your question, but if you just search the page for “laurel” you’ll find the relevant bits.

Since we’re on the subject and I suspect you might be interested, I’ll mention some wreaths that are similar to the laurel wreath but have a different meaning. All the quotes that follow below come from LacusCurtius. Also see there for depictions of all these.

The highest honor was the grass crown, which was awarded to a commander whose actions helped avoid the destruction / capture of a legion, such as by breaking an enemy siege. The crown was made of plant materials taken from the battlefield in question.

The second highest honor was the civic crown, which is made of oak leaves. The requirement was “to have preserved the life of a Roman citizen in battle, slain his opponent, and maintained the ground on which the action took place. The testimony of a third party was not admissible; the person rescued must himself proclaim the fact…”

The naval crown was awarded to the first sailor or marine who boarded an enemy ship in a sea battle. It may have been similar or identical to the beaked crown in form.

The beaked crown (where “beaked” refers to the shape of a trireme’s prow and ram) was awarded to an admiral “who destroyed the whole [enemy] fleet, or gained any very signal victory.” It was a conventional crown made of gold with the shape of trireme rams on top.

The mural crown was awarded to the first soldier who scaled the walls of an enemy city or fortress and placed the legionary standard thereon. It was a conventional crown made of gold with crenelations on top.

The camp crown is similar to the mural crown, except it is given to the first soldier to penetrate the enemy camp. It was also made of gold. The decoration on the crown looks sort of like palisade walls.

It’s kind of odd how the “crowns” of the highest honors (the laurel wreath, grass crown, and civic crown) weren’t the ones made of gold but instead just plant material. I interpret this as indicative of the importance of reputation, prestige, and civic duty in Roman culture. As in, Romans collectively agreed to assign higher social weight to awards made of plant materials than those made of gold purely because those awards represented greater achievements and contributions.

In theory, anyone could easily have made one of these plant-based crowns for themselves and worn it around, but the social repercussions to someone who tried to engage in “stolen valor” probably would have been quite high.