Mark 15:17

clothed him with purple Instead of the white robe, with which Herod had mocked Him, they threw around Him a scarlet sagum, or soldier's cloak. St Matthew, Matthew 27:38, calls it "a scarlet robe;" St John, John 19:2, "a purple robe." It was a war-cloak, such as princes, generals, and soldiers wore, dyed with purple; "probably a cast-off robe of state out of the prætorian wardrobe," a burlesque of the long and fine purple robe worn only by the Emperor. Lange, iv. 357.

a crown of thorns Formed probably of the thorny nâbk, which yet "grows on dwarf bushes outside the walls of Jerusalem." Tristram's Land of Israel, p. 429.

and put it about his head In mimicry of the laurel wreath worn at times by the Cæsars.