According to Pliny, Saurus and Batrarchus, two Lacedemonian architects,
erected conjointly at their own expense, certain temples at Rome, which
were afterwards enclosed by Octavius. Not being allowed to inscribe
their names, they carved on the pedestals of the columns a lizard and a
frog, which indicated them--_Saurus_ signifying a lizard, and
_Batrarchus_ a frog. Milizia says that in the church of S. Lorenzo there
are two antique Ionic capitals with a lizard and a frog carved in the
eyes of the volutes, which are probably those alluded to by Pliny,
although the latter says _pedestal_. Modern painters and engravers have
frequently adopted similar devices as a _rebus_, or enigmatical
representation of their names. See Spooner's Dictionary of Painters,
Engravers, Sculptors, and Architects; Key to Monograms and Ciphers, and
the twenty-four plates.