Note 1937 — BOOK XXIX.

Pluteus, tecta, testudines, are all military terms, and signify sheds, pent-houses, or mantlets, made of wood and hurdles covered with hides, under cover of which the soldiers advanced to the attack of a town. The vinea and musculus were of the same kind. (Cf. xxvi., Fr. 9.) Cf. Fest., in v. Pluteus., Veget., iv., 15. They are also used metaphorically, as perhaps here. Plaut, Mil. Gl., II., ii., 113, "Ad eum vineas pluteosque agam."