230 PLINY'S >*ATUKAL IIISTOUY. [Book 



same artist. They are both of llio greatest beauty, tlio former 

 beiii evidently the figure of a virgin, and they still remain 

 uninjured, though the temple is in ruins. The Emperor 

 Caius, 40 inflamed with lustfulness, attempted to have them 

 removed, but the nature of the plaster would not admit of it. 

 There are in existence at Cierc, 41 some paintings of a still higher 

 antiquity. Whoever carefully examines them, will be' forced 

 to admit that no art lias arrived more speedily at. perfec- 

 tion, seeing that it evidently was not in existence at the time 

 of the Trojan War. 42 



CHAP. 7. (4.) noMAX PAINTEIIS. 



Among the Romans, too, this art very soon rose into esteem, 

 f-r it was from it that the Fabii, a most illustrious family, de- 

 rived their surname of " Pit-tor;*' indeed the iirst of the family 

 who bore it, himself painted the Temple of Salus, 43 in the year 

 of the City, 450; a work which lasted to our own times, but was 

 <li.-'ioyed when the temple was burnt, in the reign of Claudius. 

 XfXt in celebrity were the paintings of the poet 1'acuvius, in 

 the Temple of Hercules, situate in the Cattle Market : u he was 

 a son of the sister of Ennius, and the fame of the art was 

 enhanced at Home by the success of the artist on the sl;.ge. 

 After this period, the art was no longer practised by men of 

 rank; : 'ess, indeed, we would make reference to Turpilius, 

 in our y,.n times, a native of Venetia, and of equestrian rank, 

 sever;: i of whose beautiful works are still in existence at 

 Ver u;i. He painted, too, with his left hand, a thing never 

 knov. ' to have been done by any one before. 41 * 



T. dius Labeo, a person of praetorian rank, who had been 

 fonv rly proconsul of the province of GalliaKarbonensis, and 

 wh< lately died at a very advanced age, used to pride himself 

 upon the little pictures which he executed, but it only caused 

 him to be ridiculed and sneered at. I must not omit, too, to 

 mention a celebrated consultation upon the subject of paint- 

 ing, which was held by some persons of the highest rank. 



ilj Caligula. il See B. iii. c. 8. 



: - "\\*c have already remarked that painting was practised very exten- 

 ively by the Egyptians, probably long before the period of the Trojan 



sv 



. . 



* 5 Or " Health." It was situate on the Quirinal Hill, in the Sixth Ho- 

 *<TI of the City. 



;i *' Forum fcoarium." In the EijjUli Region of the City. 



4i * Holbein and Mignard did the ume. 



