Note 1077 — BOOK VII.835 MAN, HIS BIRTH, HIS ORGANIZATION, AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS.
John Bostock translation
Cicero, Acad. Quæst. B. iv. c. 120, speaks of “one Myrmecides, a maker of minute objects of art;” Ælian, Vac. Hist. B. i. c. 17, also speaks of these minute performances of Myrmecides, and styles them “a waste of time.” Pliny, in a subsequent part of his work, B. xxxi. c. 4, speaks of similar minute works, executed by these artists in marble; but the account which he gives is scarcely credible.—B.