152 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXXIV. 



Tonans, in the Capitol, is of the Delian. Myron t9 used the 

 former metal and 1'olycletus 30 the latter ; they were contem- 

 poraries and fellow-pupils, but there was great rivalry between 

 them as to their materials. 



CHAP. G. (3.) STANDS FOU LAMPS. 



./Eptina was particularly famous for the manufacture of 

 sockets only for lamp- stands, as Tarcntum was for that of the 

 branches;* 1 the most complete articles were, therefore, pro- 

 duced by the union of the two. There are persons, too, who 

 are not ashamed to give for one a sum equal to the salary of 

 a military tribune,* 1 although, as its name indicates, its only 

 use is to hold a lighted candle. On the sale of one of these 

 lamp-stands, Theon the public crier announced, that the pur- 

 chaser must also take, as part of the lot, one Clesippus, a 

 fuller, who was hump-backed, and in other respects, of a 

 hideous aspect. The purchase was made by a female named 33 

 Gegania, for fifty thousand sesterces. Upon her exhibiting 

 these purchases at an entertainment which she gave, the 

 slave, for the amusement of her guests, was brought in naked. 

 Conceiving an infamous passion for him, she lirst admitted 

 him to her bed, and finally left him all her estate. Having 

 thus become excessively rich, he adored the lamp-stand as 

 much as any divinity, and the story became a sort of pendant 

 to the celebrity of the Corinthian lamp-stands. Still, how- 

 ever, good morals were vindicated in the end, for he erected a 

 splendid monument to heririemory, and so kept alive the eternal 

 remembrance of the misconduct of Gegania. 15ut although 

 it is well known that there are no lamp-stands in existence 

 made of the Corinthian metal, yet this name is very generally 

 attached to them, because, in consequence of the victory of 



9 A distinguished statuary and engraver on silver. lie lived in Olym- 

 piad 87. Further mention is made of him by Cicero, Ovid, Strubo, and 

 Pansanias. See also Chapter 19 of this Jiook. 



30 There were several artists of this name. The elder Polyclctus, a 

 native either of Sicyon or of Argos, is probably the one here referred to. 

 For further particulars of him, see Chapter 19. 



31 The words in the original arc, respectively candelabra, superficies, 

 and sc(ij>i. B. 



32 Probably a proverbial expression at Rome, as it is employed by Juve- 

 nal, in an analogous manner, upon another occasion ; Sat. Hi. 1. 132. 15. 



33 Plutarch speaks of the Oegaiiii as an niiciciit noble family at Home. 



