Next in repute to him were Cornelius Pinus and Attius Priscus, who painted the Temple of Honour and that of Virtue,[2094] on their restoration by the Emperor Vespasianus Augustus. Priscus approaches more closely to the ancient masters. CHAP. 38. (11.)—AN EFFECTUAL WAY OF PUTTING A STOP TO THE SINGING OF BIRDS. I must not omit here, in reference to painting, a celebrated story that is told about Lepidus. During the Triumvirate, when he was entertained by the magistrates of a certain place, he had lodgings given him in a house that was wholly surrounded with trees. The next day, he complained to them in a threatening tone, that he had been unable to sleep for the singing of the birds there. Accordingly, they had a dragon painted, on pieces of parchment of the greatest length that could possibly be obtained, and surrounded the grove with it; a thing that so terrified the birds, it is said, that they became silent at once; and hence it was that it first became known how this object could be attained. CHAP. 39.—ARTISTS WHO HAVE PAINTED IN ENCAUSTICS OR WAX, WITH EITHER THE CESTRUM OR THE PENCIL. It is not agreed who was the inventor of the art of painting in wax and in encaustic.[2095] Some think that it was a discovery of the painter Aristides,[2096] and that it was afterwards brought to perfection by Praxiteles: but there are encaustic paintings in existence, of a somewhat prior date to them, those by Polygnotus,[2097] for example, and by Nicanor and Arcesilaüs,[2098] natives of Paros. Elasippus too, has inscribed upon a picture of his at Ægina, the word ἐνέκαεν;[2099] a thing that he certainly could not have done, if the art of encaustic painting had not been then invented. CHAP. 40.—THE FIRST INVENTORS OF VARIOUS KINDS OF PAINTING. THE GREATEST DIFFICULTIES IN THE ART OF PAINTING. THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF PAINTING. THE FIRST ARTIST THAT PAINTED CEILINGS. WHEN ARCHED ROOFS WERE FIRST PAINTED. THE MARVELLOUS PRICE OF SOME PICTURES.