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CHAP. 4.—WHEN THESE SHIELDS WERE FIRST PLACED IN PRIVATE HOUSES.

More recently, M. Æmilius, who was consul1 with Quintus Lutatius, not only erected these shields in the Æmilian Basilica,2 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;3 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."4 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 Scipios5 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.6 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 lustra7 had been assessed as copper, were in reality made of silver.

1 A.U.C. 671.—B. See B. vii. c. 54.

2 See B. xxxvi. c. 24.

3 It is scarcely necessary to refer to the well-known description of the shield of Achilles, in the Iliad, B. xviii. 1. 478 et seq., and of that of Æneas, Æn. B. viii. 1. 626, et seq.—B.

4 He implies that the word is derived from the Greek γλύφειν, "to carve" or "emboss," and not from the old Latin "cluo," "to be famous." Ajasson suggests the Greek καλύπτω, "to cover."

5 Cneius and Publius Scipio, who had been slain by Hasdrubal.—B. As to L. Marcius, see B. ii. c. 3.

6 See B. xxxiii. c. 5.

7 "Lustrations." Periods at the end of the census, made by the censors every five years. The censors were the guardians of the temples, and consequently these bucklers would come under their supervision.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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