Note 45 — ESSAYS.
Reading edition
Pliny mentions that, in his time, Pontius, a lieutenant of Caligula, wished to have removed the pictures from Ardea, but found that the plaster or stucco upon which they were painted would not bear removal. These pictures could not have been painted merely in water colours, for they were not injured by exposure to the weather. Could they have been painted with the size of oil, mentioned in book xxxvi., chap. 24? or were they not rather true frescoes?