272 Flint's natural histoet, [Book XXXV. 



CHAP. 38. (11.) — AN EFFECTUAL WAT OF PUTTING A STOP TO THE 

 SINGING OF BIEDS. 



I must not omit here, in reference to painting, a celebrated 

 story that is told about Lepidus. During the Triumvirate, 

 "when he was entertained by the magistrates of a certain place, 

 he had lodgings given him in a house that was wholly sur- 

 rounded with trees. The next day, he complained to them in 

 a threatening tone, that he had been unable to sleep for the 

 singing of the birds there. Accordingly, they had a dragon 

 painted, on pieces of parchment of the greatest length that 

 could possibly be obtained, and surrounded the grove with it ; 

 a thing that so terrified the birds, it is said, that they became 

 silent at once ; and hence it was that it first became known 

 how this object coidd be attained. 



CHAP. 39. AETISTS WHO HAVE PAINTED IN ENCAUSTICS OK WAX, 



WITH EITHEU THE CESTEUM OE THE PENCIL. 



It is not agreed who was the inventor of the art of painting 

 in wax and in encaustic.'''* Some think that it was a discovery 

 of the painter Aristides,^^ and that it was afterwards brought to 

 perfection by Praxiteles : but there are encaustic paintings in 

 existence, of a somewhat prior date to them, those by Polyg- 

 notus,*^ for example, and by Meaner and Arcesilaiis,^'' natives 

 of'Paros. Elasippus too, has inscribed upon a picture of his 

 at -^gina, the word svsxazv ;*^ a thing that he certainly could 

 not have done, if the art of encaustic painting had not been 

 then invented. 



CHAP. 40. THE FIRST INVENTOES OF VAEIOUS KINDS OF 



PAINTING. THE GEEATEST DIFFICULTIES IN THE AKT OP 

 PAINTING. THE SEVEEAL VAKIETIES OF FAINTING. THE FIEST 



** See Chapter 41 of this Book, where the difficulties attending this de- 

 scription will be considered. ^^ See Chapter 36 of this Book. 



''s See Chapter 35 of this Book. 



^■^ Possibly the artist of that name mentioned by Athenseus, B. x., as a 

 tutor of ApeUes. If so, he must have flourished about the ninety-seventh 

 Olympiad. 



*s Elasippus "inburned" this picture, i. e. executed it in encaustic. 

 From the Attic form of this word,, it has been concluded that he was an 

 Athenian. The speUing of his name is very doubtful. 



