Tanquam Argivum Clypeum abstulerit, ita gloriatur.

He is as proud of the transaction, as if he had despoiled a Grecian warrior of his shield. The Greeks and Romans defended their shields with the greatest pertinacity, it being held in the highest degree dishonourable to suffer them to be taken from them. The adage was used to be applied to persons boasting of some insignificant exploit, and magnifying it, as if they had saved a friend, or their country from destruction.