More recently, M. Æmilius, who was consul[1812] with Quintus Lutatius, not only erected these shields in the Æmilian Basilica,[1813] but in his own house as well; in doing which he followed a truly warlike example. For, in fact, these portraits were represented on bucklers, similar to those used in the Trojan War;[1814] and hence it is that these shields received their present name of “clypei,” and not, as the perverse subtleties of the grammarians will have it, from the word “cluo.”[1815] It was an abundant motive for valour, when upon each shield was represented the features of him who had borne it. The Carthaginians used to make both their bucklers and their portraits of gold, and to carry them with them in the camp: at all events, Marcius, the avenger of the Scipios[1816] in Spain, found one of this kind on capturing the camp of Hasdrubal, and it was this same buckler that remained suspended over the gate of the Capitoline Temple until the time when it was first burnt.[1817] Indeed, in the days of our ancestors, so assured was the safety of these shields, that it has been a subject of remark, that in the consulship of L. Manlius and Q. Fulvius, in the year of the City, 575, M. Aufidius, who had given security for the safety of the Capitol, informed the senate that the bucklers there which for some lustra[1818] had been assessed as copper, were in reality made of silver. CHAP. 5.—THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE ART OF PAINTING. MONOCHROME PAINTINGS. THE EARLIEST PAINTERS. We have no certain knowledge as to the commencement of the art of painting, nor does this enquiry fall under our consideration. The Egyptians assert that it was invented among themselves, six thousand years before it passed into Greece; a vain boast, it is very evident.[1819] As to the Greeks, some say that it was invented at Sicyon, others at Corinth; but they all agree that it originated in tracing lines round the human shadow.[1820] The first stage of the art, they say, was this, the second stage being the employment of single colours; a process known as “monochromaton,”[1821] after it had become more complicated, and which is still in use at the present day. The invention of line-drawing has been assigned to Philocles, the Egyptian, or to Cleanthes[1822] of Corinth. The first who practised this line-drawing were Aridices, the Corinthian, and Telephanes, the Sicyonian, artists who, without making use of any colours, shaded the interior of the outline by drawing lines;[1823] hence, it was the custom with them to add to the picture the name of the person represented. Ecphantus, the Corinthian, was the first to employ colours upon these pictures, made, it is said, of broken earthenware, reduced to powder. We shall show on a future[1824] occasion, that it was a different artist of the same name, who, according to Cornelius Nepos, came to Italy with Demaratus, the father of the Roman king, Tarquinius Priscus, on his flight from Corinth to escape the violence of the