BOOK XXXV. II. ii-iv. 13 



volumes portraits ot seven hundred famous people, 

 not allowing their likenesses to disappear or the 

 lapse of ages to pre\ ail against immortality in men. 

 Herein Varro was the inventor of a benefit that even 

 the gods might env}\ since he not only bestowed 

 immortality but despatched it all over the world, 

 enabling his subjects to be ubiquitous, like the gods. 

 This was a service \'arro rendered to strangers. 



III. But the first person to institute the custom 

 of privately dedicating the shields with portraits 

 in a temple or pul)lic place, 1 find, was Appius 

 Claudius, the consul with Publius Servilius in the 

 259th year of the city. He set up his ancestors in 495 b.o. 

 the shrine of the Goddess of War, and desired them 

 to be in full view on an elevated spot, and the inscrip- 

 tions stating their honours to be read. This is a 

 seemly device, especially if miniature likenesses of 

 a swarm of children at the sides display a sort of 

 brood of nestlings ; shields of this description every- 

 body views with pleasure and approval. IV. After 

 him Marcus Aemilius, Quintus Lutatius's colleague 78 b.o. 

 in the consulship, set up portrait-shields not only 

 in the Basilica Aemilia but also in his own home, 

 and in doing this he was following a truly warlike 

 example ; for the shields which contained the like- 

 iiesses resembled those " employed in the fighting 

 at Troy ; and this indeed gave them their name of 

 clupei,^ which is not derived from the word meaning ' to 

 be celebrated,' as the misguided ingenuity of scholars 

 has made out. It is a copious inspiration of valour 

 for there to be a representation on a shield of the 



** Pliny means that clupeus is derived from yXvcjxo, to carve 

 or emboss, not from the old Latin cluo or clueo, to be reputed 

 famoiis. 



269 



