Batrachus
Βάτραχος
(Βάτραχος), a Lacedaemonian sculptor and architect of the time of Augustus. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 36.5. s. 14) relates, that Batrachus and Sauras (Frog and Lizard), who were both very rich, built at their own expense two temples in Rome, one to Jupiter and the other to Juno, hoping they would be allowed to put their names in the inscription of the temples (inscriptionem sperantes). But being denied this, they made the figures of a frog and a lizard in the convolutions of the Ionic capitals (in columnarum spiris, comp. Thiersch, Epoch. Anm. p. 96.) That this tale is a mere fall founded on nothing but the appearance of the two figures on the columns, scarcely needs to be remarked.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.