321 PLIKY'S XATUKAL JIISTORT. [Bo<,k XX 



something magnificent; "I should admire them much more," 

 said ho, " if you had built them of the stone used at Tibur." 81 

 And, by Hercules ! the art of painting 37 never would have 

 been held in such esteem, or, indeed, in any esteem at all, if 

 variegated marbles bad been held in admiration. 



CHAP. C. WHO WERE THE FIUST TO CUT 3IAHBLE INTO SLABS, 



AND AT WHAT 1'KItIOI). 



I am not sure whether the art of cutting marble into slabs, 

 is not an invention for which we are indebted to the people of 

 Caria. The most ancient instance of this practice, so far as I 

 know of, is found in the palace of Mausolus, at Haliearnassus, 

 the walls of which, in brick, are covered with marble of Pro- 

 connesus. Muusolus died in the second year of the hundred 

 and seventh 3 '-' Olympiad, being the year of Koine, 403. 



CHAP. 7. WHO WAS THE FIUST TO KXCKUST THE WALLS OF HOUSES 



AT HOME WITH MAKItl.K. 



The first person at Home who covered tbe whole of the walls 

 of his house with marble, according to Cornelius Xepon, 40 was 

 Mamurra, 41 who dwelt upon the Cteliau Hill, a member of tbe 

 equestrian order, and a native of Formitc, who had been pne- 

 ft-ct of the engineers under C. Caesar in Gaul. Such was the 

 individual, that nothing may be wanting to the indignity 

 of the example, who tirst adopted this practice ; the same 

 Mamurra, in fact, who has been so torn to pieces in the verses 

 of Catullus of Verona. Indeed, his own house proclaimed 

 more loudly than Catullus could proclaim it, that he had come 

 into possession of all that Gallia Coinata had had to possess. 



30 This is generally explained as meaning ordinary stone, but covered 

 with elaborate paintings, as was then the practice in the magnificent villas 

 that were built at Tibur, the modern Tivoli. See, however, Chapter 4$, 

 and Note 36. 



7 As applied to the decorations of the ualls of houses. 



S9 This date does not ajjn-e with that given to Scopus, one of the artists 

 \rho worked at the Mausoleum, in the early part of 13. xxxiv. c. 1'J. Sillig, 

 howevi-r, is inclined to think that there were tico artists named Scopas, 

 and would thus account lor the diversity of about seventy years between 

 the dates. *" See end of I), ii. 



41 Owing to the liberality of Ca-sar, he amassed jrreat riches, lie is 

 repeatedly attacked by Catullus (Garni. xxix. t xliii., Ivii.), smd accused of 

 extortion, and other \ices. Horace also speaks of him in terms of ridicule, 

 I Sat. 6, 37. 



