228 plint's natural histort. [Book XXXV. 



subtleties of the grammarians will have it, from the word 

 " cluo."-^ It was an abundant motive for valour, when upon 

 each shield was represented the features of him who had borne 

 it. The Carthaginians used to make both their bucklers and their 

 portraits of gold, and to carry them with them in the camp : at 

 all events, Marcius, the avenger of the Scipios-^ in Spain, found 

 one of this kind on capturing the camp of Hasdrubal, and it 

 was this same buckler that remained suspended over the gate of 

 the Capitoline Temple until the time when it was first burnt.^^ 

 Indeed, in the days of our ancestors, so assured was the safety 

 of these shields, that it has been a subject of remark, that in 

 the consulship of L. Manlius and Q. Fulvius, in the year of 

 the City, 575, M. Aufidius, who had given security for the 

 safety of the Capitol, informed the senate that the bucklers 

 there which for some lustra^^ had been assessed as copper, 

 were in reality made of silver. 



CHAP 5. THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE AET OF PAINTING, MO- 

 NOCHROME PAINTINGS. THE EARLIEST PAINTERS. 



"We have no certain knowledge as to the commencement of 

 the art of painting, nor does this enquiry fall under our con- 

 sideration. The Egyptians assert that it was invented among 

 themselves, six thousand years before it passed into Greece ; a 

 vain boast, it is very evident.^- As to the Greeks, some say 

 that it was invented at Sicyon, others at Corinth ; but they 

 all agree that it originated in tracing lines round the human 

 shadow.^^ The first stage of the art, they say, was this, the 



28 He implies that the word is derived from the Greek y\v(l>eiv, " to 

 carve" or " emhoss," and not from the old Latin " cluo," •* to be famous." 

 Ajasson suggests the Greek KaXuTrrw," to cover." 



29 Cneius and Publius Scipio, who had been slain by Hasdrubal. — B, 

 As to L. Marcius, see B. ii. c. 3. 



30 See B. xxxiii. c. 5. 



31 " Lustrations." Periods at the end of the census, made by the cen- 

 sors every five years. The censors were the guardians of the temples, 

 and consequently these bucklers would come under their supervision. 



32 This period for the invention of painting by the Egyptians is evi- 

 dently incorrect ; but still there is sufficient reason for concluding that 

 there now exist specimens of Egyptian art, which were in existence pre- 

 vious to the time of the earliest Grecian painters of whom we have any 

 certain account. — B. 



23 All the ancients who have treated of the history of the art agree, 

 that tlie first attempt at what may be considered the formation of a pic- 



