SPECIMENS ANTIENT SCULPTURE, ^EGYPTIAN, ETRUSCAN, GREEK, AND ROMAN: SELECTED FROM DIFFERENT COLLECTIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN, BY THE SOCIETY OF DILETTANTI. VOL. I. T OLg'/GU CT OfffSa, XOU TOL KO.IV SttTSl tTO. xrt £a?palpoit, 1it aAAoif, ttrti trxtipata xai erei* art» awifj-govTxi, xaikoropni, xf' tvntiin aX\' arra r,ta watfia xSi vuv lfm», w’ «» r»u7«f xt tf juva-cxv) PLAT. DE Leg. Lib. IT. 9. The want of this effect is peculiarly observable in all the works Egyptians, of the ^Egyptians, whether in sculpture or in architecture: for as art, when thus limited and restrained, became a mere handicraft business, the artist finished the part, upon which he was employed, according to a scale given him, without any consideration of the effect which it might have, from any other place besides that in which he stood to work it. Hence the small hieroglyphical figures on their obelisks and temples are finished in the flattest relief with all the minute accuracy of detail, though at the height of more than sixty feet from the eye; while the large statues, that stood on the ground, are executed with a degree of breadth and boldness bordering on neglect.® 10. The same mechanical arrangement in the orders of civil society, and strict hereditary limitation of every individual to a particular way of life, prevented their artists from having any living models of grace or elegance to copy: for men in such a state become, like the plants in a shorn hedge, each fashioned to his station and moulded to liis place, with all the distinctive charactcristicks of nature, except such only as belong to the detail of liis composition, cut down and destroyed. His limbs and features, when examined separately, are, indeed, as nature intended them to be: but all the general actions of his body are crampt and methodised like those of his mind; and are in reality as unlike those of a man, as the fantastic forms of a garden yew are to the real shape of a tree. 11. Travellers have observed that almost all savages are graceful in their actions and attitudes; the reason of which is, that their bodies follow the immediate impulse of their minds without any limitation or restraint; so that a general harmony of movement accompanies every exertion; and, in this harmony, grace principally consists. Their minds, too, never having been bent by methodical study, nor their bodies stiffened or mannerised by mechanical labour, all their conceptions are bold and vigorous, and all their acts and gestures free and animated. In the desultory efforts of fraud and violence, on which their whole attention is employed, the end of every artifice, and the object of every exertion is in view; so that the keenness with which it is pursued, being in proportion to its ‘See the rich collection of ./Egyptian sculpture in the British Museum, and the sculptured Obelisks of Rome, which have been repeatedly published. b pruximuy, gives y natty. Herodot. lib. Ü. 84. the mind which conceived the whole. To represent, too, the exter- .Egyptians, nal surface of a human body in action, with fSrce and precision, some knowledge of its internal structure is necessary; and this the ./Egyptian artists were prevented from acquiring, by the religious sanctity with which the remains of the dead were protected from violation. The same spirit of superstition, which thus limited their science, also cramped and fettered their taste; the jealous temper of the hierarchy suffering nothing gay, festive, or elegant, to enliven its solitary gloom.5 Poetry, music, and dancing, the delights of the Greeks, and the constant accompaniments of every act of public devotion, were cither unknown, or prohibited;1 so that the mind of the artist had no external stimulus to excite its internal energy, and call out invention as a substitute to science. Humble and timid imitation of particular parts in order to produce a crude unwieldy whole, of which the general forms and outlines were limited by custom and superstition, was all that he had to hope; and that he might not excel, even in this paltry detail. Nature was as niggardly in her models, as society was adverse in its institutions: for it is generally agreed that the /Egyptians, though healthy, large, and robust, were clumsy in their forms, and coarse in their features. Like other African tribes, they-were wool-haired, flat-nosed, thick-lipped, and bow-legged; and, if not absolutely blacks, very nearly approaching to it in their colour.1 The women, too, were remarkable for the disgusting deformity of extremely large breasts.1 13. Contrary to the generally received opinion, wc are inclined to think that the /Egyptians contributed little or nothing to the rise or progicss of the arts in other countries. Their superstitious abhorrence of navigation, and unsociable exclusion of strangers from their territory, restrained all the skill and science, which they ever possessed, within the boundaries of the sandy desarts and saline marshes which surrounded them. Their arts and artists appear to have been wholly unknown to the Greeks at the time when the 'tEgyptiaca numinum fana plena plangoribus, Gneca plemmque choreis. Apu]: de Genio SocraL h Eu h ™ .'P, t, Oe.pJ,; .T, ,,, a-qpp.-ea, ,, Sf,, TSlf a,,., tier. Strab. lib. xvii. p, 814. 'MfAavoxp«!« xa, Hcrodot. lib. ii. 304. Aristot. Phys. Problem, sect. xiv. * Wmlcelman. ib. Iliad and Udyssey were coniposeu; uiuugu ^ is celebrated in the latter poem.1 The Phoenicians, particularly those of Sidon, were then the great masters in all works of taste and elegance, from the texture of the tissue robe, and embossment of the enchased eup,” to the amber beads and toys which their merchants brought from Sidon, and exposed to sale wherever there was a probability of finding purchasers." In the time of Solomon, Tyre seems to have possessed the superiority in these arts, and to have kept it till her daughter Carthage rivalled and surpassed her. The sculptures in the temple built by that prince, which appear, in defiance of the Mosaical law, to have been very costly and magnificent, were made by Tyrian artists; but, in the early time of Rome, that republic's, and probably all the south-west of Europe, were supplied with articles of costly furniture and elegant luxury from Carthage." 14. Of what kind or materials these articles principally were, and in what their excellence chiefly consisted, we are not informed; and indeed the whole history of the arts and commerce of Carthage, and its parent Tyre, is so imperfect and obscure, as not to amount collectively to the sum of what we learn from the Odyssey only concerning those of the preceding seat of mercantile activity, Sidon. Wars, insurrections, and revolutions, by which states have been subverted and destroyed, interest the passions and attract the attention: but the slow aud silent arts of industry and ingenuity, by which they have arisen to that splendour which has rendered their fall important, have remained unnoticed, though capable of affording materials for history, far more useful and instructive than all the military achievements of all the mighty warriors who have successively desolated the earth. 15. The only monuments, known to be of Phoenician or Punic art, now extant, are coins; all which, excepting those made for the Carthaginians by Greek artists, are in a minute sharp style, executed with much neatness and precision, but without any of the higher characters of art. Neither does it appear, that, either in the destruction of Tyre by the Macedonians, or of Carthage by the Romans, 'Od. A. 231. "II. Z. 290. V. 743. 'Od. O. 414. 458. •Scaliger. in Yarr. de re rustic, p. 201, 2. Winkebnan, Hist, des Arts. lib. ii. c. 3. any statue worthy of notice was discovered, except those, which the Phoenicians, plunder of the Sicilian Greeks had afforded, and which the Avise conquerors restored to their original owners.p Even the great brazen statue of Apollo at Tyre had been taken from Gela in Sicily by the Carthaginians, and sent as a present, or votive offering, to the parent state.q 15. We are, therefore, persuaded that the Phoenicians were rather artizans than artists-, a distinction more easily felt than explained: for, though every person conversaut in Avorks of art, whether in sculpture, painting, or drawing, instantly feels the difference between the work of a master aud that of a mechanic, it is extremely difficult to make it intelligible to any one, who does not feel it. It docs not at all consist in the exactitude of the imitation: for a wax-work portrait, or a snuff-box miniature, arc generally much truer representations of their objects than the most studied and elaborate works of the greatest artists; and it is only the pertness of the superficial pretender to taste, that appeals to the rule and compass, to prove the nicety of his eye in detecting a fault. Such criticks only attempt to cover the defects of nature by the parade of science; the powers of feeling and understanding being scarce, but those of measuring and counting common. The greatest sculptor of Greece boldly elaimed as the privilege of his art, to make men as they seemed to be, and not as they really were-/ a maxim, which shews such a deep insight into the theory of the art, and such an extensive knowledge of its spirit and principles, that it will be more fully considered, when we come to treat of the happy period, in which that great artist lived. At present it may be sufficient to observe, that it is this deep theoretical knoAvledge brought into practice, and embellished with that facility of execution which results from much exercise and experience, that peculiarly distinguishes the Avork of a master from that of a mechanick; and, to the real judge, discloses the characters of a liberal profession instead of those of a sordid trade. It is this Avhich constitutes the difference between the original and the copy: for it can only appear in perfection in works which the hand f Cicer. in Varr. iv. «Diodor. Sic. Lib. xiii. ’Fliu. (de Lvsippo) Lib. xxxiv. c. viii. Phoenicians. nas executed under tne immediate innuenee or the mind that conceived them. 16. This high character of excellence seems to have been unknown to the Phoenicians; and probably to every other people, except the Greeks, and such as have received the rudiments and style of it from them. Some persons, perhaps, may think that an Etruscans. exception should be made in favor of the Etruscans: but the high pretensions, which the national vanity of the modern Tuscan writers first gave them, and the credulity of foreigners afterwards allowed them, have, wc believe, been very generally abandoned since the Abbe Lanzi's very learned and satisfactory treatise on the subject appeared. The stories of almost all their compositions are from the Greek poets, exhibiting the actions and adventures of Greek deities and heroes; and all the more elegant examples of their art now remaining were manifestly executed long after their subjection to the Romans.* The more rude and antient specimens are exactly in the same style as those of the very antient Greeks; from whom they appear to have learnt all that they knew; and whose primitive style they continued to copy, after a more elegant and dignified manner, founded upon more enlarged principles, had been adopted by the Greeks themselves. Hence their works may be justly considered as Greek; or, at least, as close imitations of the Greek; they having always followed their archetypes strictly and servilely, though at a great distance, if reckoned by the scale of merit. The proximity of the Italian colonies, where the arts were cultivated with the most brilliant success at a very early period, afforded them the most favourable opportunities of obtaining instruction; and, as they availed themselves of it at all, it is rather wonderful that their progress should have heen so slow, and comparatively imperfect. Greeks. 1/. The prodigious superiority of the Greeks over every other nation, in all works of real taste, and genius, is one of the most eurious moral phenomena in the history of man. A small country, possessing no particular advantages of soil, climate, or situation, and occupied by a number of little communities, perpetually at variance with each other, and none of them so constituted as to afford any very secure * See Lanzi, Dissert. protection to the persons or properties of the inhabitants, was the Greeks, original seat of this excellence, and the source, from whieh all the rest of the world have derived the little, whieh they have ever acquired of it. Extraordinary as this may seem, the causes of it are not wholly unaseertainable, even at this remote period, when only the wrecks and fragments of their literature, and still less of their arts remain. 18. Among the first and most efficient, we may plaee their language; whieh was originally formed upon a plan more perfect than any other ever spoken by man. Words are not only the signs, by which we eomnmnicate ideas to each other, but the counters, by which we distinguish, arrange, and subdivide them in our own minds; so that their being more or less perfect in their structure and analogy, contributes to render the understandings of those, who use them, more or less elear or confused.1 Hence we are persuaded, that languages have considerable influence in forming national characters, though to what degree ean never be ascertained in any particular instance, oil aeeount of the number of other causes, which every where cooperate, or obstruct. The peculiar and original character of that of Greece was extreme suppleness and flexibility; from whieh it naturally derived every other excellence that language ean possess: for, by varying its terminations to express every marked variation of time in action, or of mode in existence, it acquired at once degrees both of strength and melody unknown to every other; and by the facility, with whieh it joined one word to another, it continually increased its stock in proportion to its wants, without breaking its harmony, or disturbing its regularity by the adoption of uneouth or uncongenial sounds from other idioms. As the various forms, which resulted from this variety of termination and composition, were used either at length or contracted, its tones, in the time of its perfection, whieh was that of its most perfect and most antient writer, beeame either smooth and flowing, or rough and condensed, as best suited the subject on which they were employed; and as the primitive words were struek out warm from the mind, to express what they were meant to signify, they had, in every instance, Longin. de Subl. s. xxx. of nature than signs of convention, not only giving force and originality to every sentence, but sustaining, with an adequate foundation, the rich and complicated structure of melody, which had been raised upon them. 10. This language started up suddenly to perfect maturity, in societies scarcely civilized, partly by means of this intrinsic flexibility; and partly by being the only energetic engine in the little government, which then existed. Every state had, indeed, its hereditary chief, and a council of elders, consisting of all such citizens as were distinguished for their past deeds or present possessions: but nevertheless, as there were no written, or fixt laws; and as all offences against individuals were atoned for by compensation made to those individuals or to their families, and not to the state, the authority of the chiefs and magistrates was extremely lax and undefined, rather what they could persuade the people to allow them, than what they eould regularly claim, under any established or permanent institution. Next to personal strength and bravery in war, eloquence afforded the most effective means of maintaining and extending that authority; wherefore it was regularly taught with the use of arms, even before the Trojan times; and was considered as one of the most essential and honorable qualifications of a man of rank." Music, then always joined with poetry, and likewise some practical skill in surgery, were added to make a completely accomplished gentleman, such as the hero of the Iliad is meant to be;T the one, as the most rational and dignified source of amusement in leisure, and the other, as the most useful and beneficial science in war. 20. Poetry was at once the cause and effect of the improvement of their language: but nevertheless, the great influence of their poetry in expanding and elevating their minds, and in forming and polishing their taste, appears to have been owing to the transcendent genius of one individual; from'whom all, that is splendid, elegant, or exalted in the productions of man, seems to have flowed. Born in an age, of which we know nothing; and not only his eountry, his " II. ix. 440. ' lb. 186. A. 830. family, and his fortunes, but even his name uncertain, the effulgence of his mind still bursts upon us like the rays of the sun, which traverse the immensity of space with undiminished brightness, and diffuse life and motion through the uuivcrse, though we know not the nature of the body, which emits them, nor the regions of inanity, through which they pass. Empires have arisen, flourished, and disappeared ; systems of philosophy and dogmas of religion have diffused their trausitory lights, and been extinguished and forgotten; but the impassioned glow of sentiment, and unfading brilliancy of imagery, which the author of the Iliad breathed into his numbers, and embodied in his fictions, have still continued to spread their animating and exciting influence through successive ages and generations of men, and ever shall continue to spread it, so long as the powers of sympathy and perception remain in the human mind. 21. Great as this influence is in elevating, enlarging, and refining the soul in all its functions and faculties, there is nothing that it is more adapted to form and improve, than a taste for imitative art. The attitude, action, and expression of every figure, introduced or described, are so just, and brought so completely before the eyes of the reader, that a picture or statue is spontaneously formed in the mind; and a wish to execute it, in some visible or tangible material, excited. The high ideas, too, entertained of the power and compass of art, and exemplified in the shield of Achilles, (certainly surpassing any thing then produced, and therefore apparently intuitive,) must have excited the emulation, directed the industry, and stimulated the invention of succeeding artists to aim at ideal excellence, by constantly presenting to their minds this imaginary model of ideal perfection."1 22. The state of society and manners, both in that, and the succeeding ages, was peculiarly well adapted to receive and foster these favourable impressions; and to give full effect to the sublime and elegant ideas, which they excited. In all their fashions of dress, address, and personal demeanor, the Greeks were polished, and yet ’ Professor Heyne has employed many learned arguments to prove that this episode is an interpolation of the age of Pisistratus. We shall not now enter into an examination of them: but only observe that the archaic language and laws of antient prosody, no .longer understood in the age of Pisistratus, sufficiently prove its authenticity to those who are competent to judge of them. <] embellish her; so that they united the advantages ot savage and social life, in the models which they presented for imitation. In their arms and horses, indeed, they were splendid, ostentatious, and expensive: but, in civil life, all personal finery and showy decoration were reckoned signs of barbarism and effeminacy/ After the rise of the Lacedaemonian power, and consequent prevalence of their manners, not only the use of all ornaments of gold or silver in dress, but even the wearing of linen, incurred this disgraceful imputation/ Their houses and furniture were in the same style of frugal simplicity; so that the whole of their superfluous wealth was left for the encouragement of liberal art, to which taste and vanity at once directed them. The magnificent porticos, which surrounded their temples, not only honoured the deities, and decorated the cities, to which they belonged; but afforded the inhabitants of those warm climates the most comfortable and agreeable places to walk and converse in, protected from the rays of the sun, and yet open to the breezes of the air. The statues and paintings which adorned them, showed at once their wealth, their taste, and their piety; whilst the smaller works of this kind, which private munificence or devotion consecrated in private houses or public sacristies, gratified personal, as the others did national vanity. Even where the more selfish and ostentatious gratifications of rich dress and furniture were aimed at, they were not sought for in splendid and costly materials, which could ouly show the wealth of the possessor; but in that elegance of design and delicacy of execution, which might at once gratify and display his taste and intelligence. The lamps, which lighted their apartments, were not of silver and gold variously burnished; but of brass, wrought by the best sculptor that the purchaser could afford to employ; and left to its natural tarnish to shew the work to advantage. The gems, too, which they wore in their rings and tibulse, were not diamonds and rubies highly polished; but onyxes and cornelians skilfully engraved with elegant and learned devices: for a mere shining stone, adapted only to dazzle the sense, without * * Thucydid. lib. i. s. 5. »Ibid. having any thing either to please the imagination or inform the understanding, was too puerile a toy to merit the attention of an antient Greek. 23. Whilst private manners thus cooperated with established religion to encourage art, public institutions were equally calculated to form artists worthy of such encouragement. The periodical gymnastic festivals called together, from every part of Greece and her colonies, all the young men distinguished for personal strength and agility; and exhibited them in various trials of force and dexterity, without any covering, but a zone or girdle, at first; and, afterwards, under the prevalence of Lacedaemonian manners, without any covering at all.* Here the artists had opportunities of observing the human form in every variety of action and attitude, not placed as a model in an academy, but impelled and directed by the spontaneous impulse of the mind, and ennobled by the conscious dignity of the person: for in these honourable contests, men of the highest rank, both of birth and situation, entered the lists, and displayed their feats of agility and strength, in a style suitable to their characters; and with joints and muscles, that had neither been stiffened by labour, nor bloated by intemperance. 24. It was long however, before art, even with all these advantages, learned to catch those momentary actions and transitory graces, for which it can have no stationary models; and which, therefore, can only be imitated by memory and science, directing a hand perfected by long practice; so as to be able to give at once form and dimensions to the conceptions of the mind, without obliging the eye to reciir to its archetypes. Every mechanick can, by means of his rule and his compasses, copy what he sees before him; but the real artist is he, who has learnt to generalize his ideas of nature; to look at her in the abstract, as well as the detail; and then to embody in one figure, by means of a skilful hand and just eye, those excellences, which his observation has gleaned from many. If he is obliged, in the formation of every limb, joint, or feature, to recur for instruction to individual bodies, he will be in the same predicament * * Thucydid. lib. i. consult his dictionary ana nis grammar, J^acn may proauce something perfectly correct and true; but it will necessarily be cold, stiff, and uninteresting. 25. This real artist, however, is not to be formed at once, even under the happiest circumstances; nor, indeed, would men be ready to receive him, until their tastes had been gradually formed and refined by the progressive improvements of many succeeding generations; and they had thus learnt to look at nature as he did. Among the Greeks, the art of Sculpture was distinguished as a liberal profession at least nine hundred years before it reached this point of excellence; if any reliance is to be placed on those historical traditions, from whose doubtful and unsteady light all the information that can be had concerning those remote periods, must be received. „ 2Ö. Daedalus, the first artist, who acquired sufficient celebrity to A. C. a. 1400— ^ J looo. have his name delivered down to posterity, is said to have flourished three generations before the Trojan war; and, according to the most generally received chronology, about fourteen hundred years before the Christian aera. His principal and best authenticated works were large statues in wood, some of which remained until the general destruction of art under the later Roman Emperors; and in spite of the rudeness of their forms, struck an intelligent traveller with the grandeur and dignity of their air and character, even in an age, when almost every city was crowded with masterpieces.® Such, indeed, are the productions of all the first founders, or first revivers of art: for the very effort of original invention, or effective reformation, bespeaks a mind of no ordinary capacity; and though the hand may not have learned to express its conceptions accurately, the vigour and elevation of them will always appear to a skilful observer. He made his figures with the eyes half closed ;b as the Chinese artists now do; and as they appear in the very antient Hercules in relief engraved in Plate XI of this volume, as well as upon many of the very early Greek and Phoenician coins. * A(mi St opu; t* «väsov nr015. Pausan. lib. Ü. c. 4. b Diodor. Sic. lib. iv. 27- Contemporary with Daedalus, we find the name of Smilis or A. c. n.1400-Scelmis of iEgina; who is said to have made the statue of Juno at Samos; plaeed there, according to some traditions, by the Argonauts, who had brought it from Argos.' 38. The Telchinians of Rhodes then obtained the highest reputation in seulpture, and retained it for a long time;J but of what kind their excellence was, or in what degree they possessed it, it is impossible now to form any probable conjeeture; there being no descriptions of their works extant, nor any contemporary productions, from whieh we can form any estimate by analogy. Pindar has, indeed, eelebrated the general preeminenci; of the Rhodians in art; but his compliments arc too poetieal to afford any correet historical information.' 20. Endeeus, an Athenian, the scholar of Daedalus, is said likewise to have made some statues in wood, ivory, and marble, which existed in the time of Pausanias;f who also speaks of sculptures in stone on the monument of Chorcebus at Megara, as the oldest in Greece; and if the monument was erected immediately after the death of the. person whose name it bore, they must have been at least a century before Daedalus; but from the particulars whieh he mentions, it appears to have been of a much later age.5 We suspeet too that the dance of Ariadne at Knossus in Crete, attributed to Daedalus, was of a mueli more recent period; and that the two lines in the Iliad alluding to it are an interpolation.1' 30. The most antient monument of Grecian seulpture now extant is unquestionably the broken pieee of natural relief in the ancient portal to the gates of Myeente, which is probably the same that belonged to the capital of Agamemnon, and may therefore be at least as old as the age of Daedalus, ft represents two lions rampant, sufficiently entire to afford a very tolerable idea of the style of the work. The plate of it given in the tail-piece to this discourse, is engraved from a sketch made upon the spot, and eorreeted by admeasurement, ■ Pausan. lib. vii. c. 4. Caiiirn. Fragm. 105. ■ Diorlor. Sic. lib. v. Winlielman. Hist, ties Arts, Lie. vi. c. 1. ■ See Olymp, vii. 91. &c. ' See lib. 1, c. 26. lib. vii. c. 5. lib. viii. c. 46. 1 KofoiCu St rn ratpoc tv »t? hUysqtut «yof»■ yty^xnrxi St tAtyci« r* t$ xcu ra t{ aurou ij^oyra KofoiCov1 x*i & xai firiSap« tr* tm ratfk/ KofoiCo; Qnmu tjsv ir«i>W nma a,y*Xpxra v*\*iOT*ra, qttoit* *i9v TTfiroinp.lv* tri»'EMwrm, iSuu oil*. Lib. i. c. 43. " II. 2. 591—2. e curate information as to the details of the work, the three compositions of the engraved gem given with it are perfectly competent to supply sueh information; they being in exactly the same style, and having been found in the same country by the same intelligent and industrious traveller. The head of Minerva on the silver tetra-drachni of Athens engraved in the tail-piece to this volume, fig. 1. is probably eopied from the sitting figure of Minerva, made by Endaeus above mentioned;5 it being far the most archaic of the three variations of the head of that goddess observable on the Athenian coins, previous to those which seem to have been copied from the great statue of brass made by Phidias, and placed in the Acropolis. 31. Next to these, the most antient specimens of Grecian art are probably to be found on coins; and as the dates of many of these can be fixed with tolerable accuracy, they may serve to show the style and degree of merit of many more important objects mentioned by antient authors; and to ascertain the periods when others now existing were produced. Coins are said to have been first struck in Greece by Pliido of Argos, in the island of JEgina, eight hundred and sixty-nine years before the Christian sera;k and we have coins still extant of that island, which seem, both by the rudeness of the sculpture, and the imperfection of the striking, to be of nearly as early a date: but as the device is only a tortoise, with an angulatcd incuse on the reverse, they do not throw much light upon the general style of art. 32. Coins however of a form and fabrick equally simple and archaic, bearing the devices of other Greek cities both of Europe and Asia, arc found with the figures both of men and animals; but as they have no letters, there are no means of ascertaining their respective dates; though they exhibit evident proofs of the infancy of the art; being shapeless masses, generally of native gold, not stamped with the die, but rudely driven into it, first by a blow of a hammer, and then by a square punch or rammer.1 According to Herodotus ’ Pausan. 1. i. 26. * Marm. Arundell. * See specimens of them in Mus. Hunter. Plate 66. Fig. 1. &c. Others with different devices are in the collections of Lord Northwick, Mr. Payne Knight, and Dr. Clarke of Cambridge. the Lydians were the first who struck coins or made use of money;“ but it is probable that Greek artists were employed in sinking the dies, as they were afterwards in other works of sculpture by the sovereigns of that empire.® Stamped money in brass was not in use till long after, none of the Greek being of an early date, and that of the Etruscans and early Romans being all cast in moulds. 33. The invasion of the Dorians seems to have given a long interruption to the progress of art and civilization in Greece; which however arose with redoubled splendour among the fugitives in the Asiatic colonies, where Homer sang and from whence Hesiod came. So soured and hardened were the manners, and so debased and corrupted the language by the influence and domination of those semibarbarians, that, from Hesiod to Aeschylus, a period of at least four centuries and a half, Greece produced no poet of eminence; and even when the rising genius of Athens had awaked the tragic muse, how rude and boisterous is her tone; and how stiff and turgid her action and gesture, compared with the flowing melody, and easy but dignified simplicity of the antient bards! 34. Sculpture, however, depending less upon language and manners, and being nourished and supported by religion, seems to have revived sooner; and to have continued its progress slowly, but with little interruption. The employment of metal instead of wood in this art, probably began soon after Phido had introduced the stamping of money; Pausanias observing that there were several statues of brass remaining in his time at Lacedaemon, which were the work of one Gitiadas, a citizen of that republic, who flourished before the first Messenian war, which began about an hundred and twenty years after the time of Phido.0 He also describes a figure of Jupiter of the same metal, existing in the same city, the work of Learchus of Rhegium, which was still older, being the most antient statue of brass then known. It was of hammer work; and the component parts had been drawn out separately and then rivetted together.1* * Jlfttroi Si mu», ruv ijpnf iSy.iv, wyiffyx xxt Xfyup» xsicyrpnrziiro, Lib. i. 94. * Herodot. lib. i. 25 & 51. " Lib. iii. c. 17 & 18. ' T»i{ Sc j^aAxuix* tv Ais{ xyccXya ex %x?mi Tcmatmai, rraXxioramv vuvrut, i-rciva tn -/aXxt' Si iXt yaf *x erm ctgyuirytteci} cXr.Xcuryfvu oc tStp rut y.t^ut x&S'aura exxrt, nimfyurcti Sc TCfo( aXXtiXa, x«i «Asi autc^tcriv aura yti SiaXvSn-v«i- xai Atapyov Si ouSgx Pryttat srstwrai Xeywtv, ey Aiirsiyx xai XxuAAiJs{, ei Sc avrv AceiSaXt In the cabinet of Mr. Payne Knight. See tailpiece to this volume, Fig. 5. ■ Strabo, lib. vi. p. S78. f is, probably, the coin in question: its weight being according to the Cretan, rather than the Italian scale of money. 40. All the works of the first Greek sculptors in brass were executed in the manner of the Jupiter of Learehus above mentioned; that is, hammered out in separate pieces, and then l ivetted and soldered together. No considerable specimen of this kind is now remaining; but the small group in Plate IV. seems to be an Etruscan imitation executed upon the same principle. The manner of finishing the hair, and expressing the features of the face and muscles of the body, is exactly similar to that of the Cauloniau and Posidonian medals above cited: but the drapery is in a more broad and flowing style, and very richly engraved to imitate embroidery: wherefore we conclude that it is the productiou of a later period; but of an artist who copied the improvements that had taken place among the Greeks, without knowing the means, by which they had been wrought. The same kind of embroidered drapery is observable in another small Etruscan figure of a still more archaic style; but this has evidently been cast before it was carved.u 41. Though this method of working brass must have been extremely operose and difficult; and apparently incapable of producing works of any softness or elegance; the superior hardness, toughness, and sharpness of that material seem to have given it a decided preference over every other. The inventive genius, however, and refined taste of the Asiatic Greeks began about this time to employ marble; and we find the names of Malus of Chios and his son Micci-des recorded, as having acquired distinction by their works in that material:1 but no descriptions or detailed accounts of them are extant. From the eoins, nevertheless, which remain of Chios, Teos, and Samos/ and which may be traced upwards through their different stages of improvement to this period, we may form a tolerably correct idea of their style, which seems to have possessed a con- "See Gori Mus. Etrusc. Tab. ii.; the figure is now in die cabinet of R. P. Knight, Esq. The head of Minerva on the silver tetradrachm of Athens engraved in the tailpiece to this volume, fi». q. seems to have been copied from a statue in brass wrought in this manner; the character of which is very strongly marked in the hair. * * Plin. lib. xxx. c. 5. > See Mus. Hunt. Tab. 47—57. sidcrable degree of the hardness of their contemporary artists in a. c.n. 700— Europe; but to have been more grand and poetical in the design, and more masterly in the execution. The marble heads engraved in Plates V. VI. VII. and VIII, may perhaps be examples of it, though they appear to have been copied from works in brass. The head of Minerva also on the silver tetradrachm of Athens engraved in the tail-piece of this volume, fig. 3, has probably been copied from a statue of this period, either in marble or cast metal. 42. At what time the art of casting brass in moulds taken from models in clay was invented, is uncertain; the traditions mentioned by Pliny on the subject being neither quite consistent with each other, nor very clearly expressed.“ As the potter’s wheel was familiarly known in the earliest ages, of which we have any memorials; and as the elay tempered and prepared for it must have been one of the most obvious materials for imitative art, there can be no doubt that some rude attempts were made to model it into the human shape, in the very first stages of civil society. But the art of taking a mould or impression from a figure after it had become dry and hard, in order to cast other figures in it of fusible susbstanccs, was not so obvious; and therefore not known till many ages after. The Corinthians attributed the invention of it to Dibutadcs, a potter of their own city;“ but another tradition attributed it to Rhmcus and Theodoras, two very celebrated artists of Samos, who, according to Pliny, lived much -.arlier, even long before the expulsion of the Bac-chiadas from Corinth by Cypselus, which took place about the thirteenth Olympiad.1“ 43. Both these artists are mentioned by Herodotus; the first as having been the architect of the temple of Samos, the greatest work of the Greeks; and the other, as having engraved the celebrated ring of Polycrates, and also made the magnificent silver vase given * See lib. xxxv. c. 12. * Plin. lib. xxxv. c. 12. hSunt qui in Samo primos omnium plasticen invenisse Rhsecum efcTheodorum tradent, niulto ante Bacchiadas Corintho pulsas. Ib. Another tradition cited by Lucan, Phars. vi. 402. seems to attribute it to a prince of Thessaly, named I onus or Hyonus, and no where else mentioned; but this is probably some poetical fiction. Atffci«» it xulxn TrfuTOi x«i aya-X/xa:tx e^mronwTt Po,x«; « xai 0reSugm TnAmfei? Pausan..in Arcad.’c. xiv. s. 5. The golden statue of Jupiter dedicated by Cypselus at Olympia, between the years six hundred and fifty nine and six hundred and twenty nine before the Christian .Era, was of hammer work ijrwwfcT«. Ilerodot. lib. vii. 69. found in them, though much of the Egyptian, and something of the a. c. n. 6oo~ Phosnician;* nor is there any thing Grecian in the figures on the coins called Darics; of which many both in gold and silver are extant. 64. Concerning the improvements, which the great Samian artists introduced into the art of casting and working metals, we ean form no opinion, unless we can ascertain the date of some existing piece of sculpture of the age in which they lived, or that immediately succeeding it. By what Herodotus says of them, they were men of universal genius and talents in every branch of art; fflicecus having built the temple of Juno at Samos, the greatest work of the Greeks; and Theodoras wrought the superb sculptured vase of silver, which Croesus presented to the temple of Delphi; and also engraved the ring, which Polycrates threw into the sea, as the most precious of his moveables, and of value sufficient to counterbalance the uninterrupted successes of his life in war and policy; which appeared too great for that equal distribution of good and evil, which the justice of Providence was supposed to extend to each individual.1* Hence we may observe the very high estimation, in which art was then held; and account for the matchless degree of excellence, to which it soon arrived. That a great prince, the lord of powerful fleets, and numerous armies, should think a seal ring, engraved by one of his own subjects, an object of sufficient importance to counterbalance even the smallest success in the pursuits of ambition, will undoubtedly appear incredible to modern potentates: yet Polycrates was a man of great talents and ambition, as well as refined taste; and though a cruel and jealous tyrant, one who understood the interests of a state, as well as the verses of Anacreon, or the sculptures of Theodorus. 65. The engraving in Plates XX. and XXI. is from a head in brass, the fragment of a statue of the size of life; which probably represented Diomede pursuing Dolon; the leathern helmet without crest or ornament, being exactly the same as that, with which he is described in the tenth Iliad ;c and the expression of the countenance * See le Bruyn, Niebuhr, & c. b Herodot. lib. iil 41. *.....ayJpt Si ci hvhw xipatypir f3nxeu T«uf£ui>, ccpaAoi it, xm cthÄcpc«' jrt xara KtxAiwti* u. 237- curiosity, hope, and exnltation. There is, indeed, nothing of the grandeur of character, which Homer gives to his heroes; and which later Greek artists have so happily imitated; but art did not immediately learn to embody the sublime ideas of the poet. Its efforts were long confined to a skilful selection, and just imitation of nature, as she usually appeared, without attempting to elevate and embellish her by uniting the abstract perfections of the species in the particular form of an individual. This head, though proved to be ideal by the indenture of the forehead, depth and curvature of the brows, and shortness of the upper lip, has all the ease and truth of expression of ordinary nature; so that, at first sight, it appears to be a portrait moulded from the life. Even the irregularities, observable in the countenances of individuals, are imitated, the two sides of the face not being exactly the same; and the lips opening, and the mouth dilating more on the one side than on the other; as usually happens in the momentary and unguarded expressions of man much interested or agitated. The head has been cast separate from the body, and afterwards soldered to it; and within the cavity, exactly opposite the left ear, is very distinctly marked in relief, the Greek letter rho; which being the initial of the name of Rhoecus, and of no other antient artist of sufficient celebrity to be recorded, we think it not improbable that this singular fragment may have come from his hand. That it belonged to a work of very considerable distinction and celebrity, even in the finest times of the art, is sufficiently proved by the antient pastes and gems copied from it and now extant; one of which, a beautiful intaglio in cornelian, is in the superb collection of the Earl of Carlisle. The eyes have been of some different material, probably of silver; and the lips apparently either enamelled or gilt; the edges of them being very prominent, and the surface of the metal of a different colour from that of the rest of the face. The portrait, which Theodoras, the associate of Rhoecus, made of himself, was celebrated for the exactitude of its resemblance, and the truth of its imitation of nature; and the quadriga, which it held in one hand, so small, that a fly could cover It/ proves that the ut- A. c. n. 600-most refinement and subtility of execution was practised in this age; though, probably, only practised by a few, and those the most distinguished and pre-eminent. 66. The practice of making the features, upon which the character and expression of the countenance principally depend, of a more splendid material than the rest, appears to have been very general in the early stages of the art, and was again revived in its decline under the Roman emperors. In works, that are very highly finished, and in which the imitation of real life is very exact, its effect is peculiarly dazzling and imposing; and extremely well calculated to inspire sentiments of awe and devotion: but it does not succeed in sculpture of which the details are neglected, or which aims at general effects only: for then there appears to be a style of imitation employed in the parts, which is not preserved in the whole; and the effect becomes that of abortive trick, or unsuccessful attempt at deception.* 67. In Hate XXII. is represented a colossal head of Minerva, in marble, which has also had eyes of some different material; and probably the locks of hair, hanging from under the helmet, of metal; there being some marks on the temples, of the places to which they appear to have been fastened. This is probably a fragment of a statue of the same period; though the features are much more formal and regular, and the whole a much less exact imitation of nature than the head last described: but this difference seems to have arisen principally from the subject; which being a goddess, and the goddess too of wisdom and war, would naturally induce the artist to give a character of more reserve, dignity, and severity; and also to adhere more closely to the antient style, which the people had been a Theodorus, qui labyrintlium fecit Sami, ipse se ex sre fuel it, praeter similitudinem niirabileni famse magnffi subtilitatis celebratus. Dextra limam tenet, lieva tribus digitis quadrigulam tenuit translatem Prceneste, tantte parvitatis, ut talem earn, currumque et aurigam integeret alls simul facta musca. PI in. lib. xxxiv. c. 8. * Prom the following inscription, it seems that the art of putting the eyes into statues was, in later times, a distinct profession. M. RAPIL1ÜS. SERAPIO HIC AB. AHA. MARMORE A OCULOS. RFPOSU1T. STATUIS AD. VIX1T. BENE Buonarotti sulle Medaglioni antiche, p. xii. Qut. therefore, like to see changed. It has all the breadth, truth, and fleshy softness in the parts, that the most consummate finishing of the most skilful hand could give it; so that the stiffness of its general effect was probably intentional. The eyes, indeed, are very prominent, almost even with the brows, according to the more antient practice: but the mouth is finished in a manner, that unites the precision and accuracy of this early period, with the delicacy and softness of succeeding ages. Ö8. Anthermus of Chios was succeeded, and far surpassed by his two sons Anthermus and Bupalus, who distinguished themselves about the sixteenth Olympiad;“ and probably till about the time that the arts suffered a long suspension and interruption in the Greek colonies of Asia, by the severe calamities brought upon them by an unsuccessful revolt against Darius the son of Hystaspes. Their cities were then stormed and sacked, their temples destroyed, and themselves reduced to personal servitude. Numbers of the principal citizens were transported into the remoter provinces of the Persian empire, after having their sons and daughters torn from them to be made eunuchs and concubines for their conquerors; while the rest were committed to subordinate tyrants and satraps, who had a power to destroy without any interest to preserve them/ 69. In Europe, however, art rose as rapidly as it fell in Asia; the schools of iEgina, Sieyon, and Corinth, becoming celebrated for a number of eminent artists, that issued from them; and, as far as we can judge by coins, the colonies of Sicily, Italy, Macedonia and Thrace, keeping pace with, or even going before the mother country in improvement. Of the cities of Syracuse, Rhegium, Acanthos, Neapolis, /Enos, and Thasus, in particular, there are many medals still extant; which, both by the form and use of the letters in the inscriptions, and the style of composition in the devices, appear to be as early as this period; which are executed in the most grand and scientific manner.8 There is, indeed, a little hardness remaining; * Plin. lib. xxxv. c. 5. 1 Herodot. vi. 32. ' See Peleria, Plates XXX.—XXXIII. &c. The Plates indeed express very imperfectly the style of the coins; nor is it possible to have them engraved so as to express it accurately. They are however to be seen in the principal collections of this country. but hardness of that kind, which is almost inseparable from great force and precision; and such as seems naturally to characterise that stage of the art, which immediately precedes its perfection. fO. It is probable, however, that the artists of these colonies were principally eminent for works on a small scale: for both Gelo and Hiero, the sovereigns of the city most distinguished for the beauty of its coins, engaged artists from yEgina to execute the statues of themselves, their horses, and chariots, which they dedicated at Olympia, in commemoration of the victories obtained there in the gam es.h Pausanias, indeed, doubts whether the Gelo who dedicated the chariot, was the Prince of that name, or some private person; because he styles himself, in the inscription, of Gela, and not of Syracuse:1 but Pausanias forgets that the Syracusian monarch was born a citizen of Gela; where he first distinguished himself under its tyrant Hippocrates; and acquired that reputation, which opened the road for him to the sovereignty of the former city, and of almost all Sicily.k fl. The artists employed were Glaucias and Onatas; the former by Gelo, and the latter by Hiero. Little more is said of Glaucias or his works; but of Onatas, Pausanias mentions several statues; and speaks of some, particularly his colossal Apollo at Pergamos, in terms, which prove them to have been in a very high style of excellence.1 Probably the grand style of art, which endeavoured to express, in the human form and countenance, something which nature seems to have meant them to express, but has never granted to those of any individual, arose about this time. Both the head of Bacchus and the figure of Hercules on the old medals of Thasus, which have a single o in the genitive plural of the inscription, are full of the sublimest character: nor is the head of Mercury, on those of yEnos, any otherwise inferior than as representing a personage of less dignity and severity of countenance.“ The figures on the coins of Rhcgium, and the heads on those of Syracuse, which appear to be b Pausan. lib. vi. c. 9. lib. viii. & c. 42. 1 lb. lib. v. c. 9. k Herodot. vii. 153—4. 1 T* St Osar* t*t» Iltfyoifitmf ts~i* AiroAXus &aujua tv tvis ftaXira, (AcytSvt te eiscx«, xai tret tv te;^*!. Lib. viii. c. 42. “ See Pellerin, Plate XXXIII. Similar coins are in the Hunter collection, and those of Lord Northwick, Mr. Payne Knight, &c. k all are equally destitute of that soft elegance, and luxuriant grace and beauty, which wc shall find in the works of the next succeeding ages. In their embellishments of nature, the artists of this period endeavoured rather to make her appear more awful, than more attractive: for as their principal employment was in the service of religion, their business was to produce objects of devotion, rather than of delight. Of this kind are the heads exhibited in Plates XXIII. and XXIV. which are probably of about this time. A. c. n. 500— f2. In this favourable and improving state of the art, happened a great political event; which for a time threatened the total extinction of it; but which ultimately proved in its consequences, the most powerful incitement that it had hitherto met with. This was the memorable expedition of Xerxes; which, by its failure, discovered to the European Greeks both the wealth and the weakness of Asia; and roused their enterprising spirit, particularly that of the Athenians, to retaliate upon the subjects of the great king, the insults and injuries which they had experienced from him. Even the spoils of his defeated armies in Greece, a tenth of which by immemorial custom belonged to the Gods, afforded means of ample employment to the great sculptors who succeeded, among whom we find the names of Phidias, Alcamenes, Critias, Thestocles, Agoracritus, and Hegias; 40C)C' 45°~ w^° were soon after followed by Agelades, Callo, Polycletus, Phradmo, Gorgias, Laco, Myro, Pythagoras, Scopas, and Perelius.0 73- From these great artists, whose different modes and degrees of excellence we have now no means of discriminating, sculpture, in metal, ivory, and marble, appears to have reached its summit. Science and taste were united under the most liberal and magnificent public patronage, and all the charms of beauty, grace, majesty, and elegance, which the human mind can bestow on the human form, were vigorously conceived and most correctly executed. By personifying the different attributes and modes of action of the deity, and making them distinct objects of adoration, the widest field was opened for the display of this exalted style of excellence. Strength ... & ’ wisdom, power, benignity, justice, 8cc. with their various “ See Mus. Hunter, Tab. 53, fig. 0 Plin. lib. xxxiv. c. viii. modifications and effects, were represented under human forms; expressing in every position, gesture, or action, as much of those qualities, not as human nature does afford in any of its individual instances, but as it may afford according to the general laws of its constitution. The artist, who thinks that he has made a Hercules, when he has made an exact model of the strongest man that he has seen, works from notions and principles very different from those which directed the labours of the great luminaries of this period. It was not by copying individual nature in their works that they gave to those works a character so much above it; but by previously studying and copying it in detail till they had become completely possessed of it, and were enabled to decompose and recompose it as they pleased by memory only, so as to trust imagination in refining, embellishing, and exalting it, without incurring the risk of any other deviation from truth. Thus they exhibited the forms, as the great father of poetry has exhibited the minds and actions of men, only differing from those of which we have daily experience, by being upon a more exalted scale, and employing a more vigorous and perfect organization. 74. Of Phidias’s general style of eomposition, the friezes and metopes of the temple of Minerva at Athens, published by Mr. Stuart, and since brought to England, may afford us competent information; but as these arc merely architectural sculptures executed from his designs and under his directions, probably by workmen scarcely ranked among artists, and meant to be seen at the height of more than forty feet from the eye, they can throw but little light upon the more important details of his art. From the degree and mode of relief in the friezes they appear to have been intended to produce an effect like that of the simplest kind of monochromatic painting, when seen from their proper point of sight; which effect must have been extremely light and elegant. The relief in the metopes is much higher, so as to exhibit the figures ucarly complete; and the details are more accurately and elaborately made out: but they are so different in their degrees of merit, as to be evidently the works of many different persons; some of whom would not have been entitled to the rank of artists in a much less cultivated and fastidious age. ver coins of Alexander the great and several of his successors, were probably copied with slight variations from the magnificent colossal figure executed by this artist in ivory and gold at Olympia: for we have not observed it on any coins or other monuments anterior to this time, though so common afterwards. The general composition may however have been earlier; as no very extensive variety seems to have been allowed in the attitudes of the deities; and the statues of the Assyrian god, whom Herodotus calls Jupiter Belus, were equally in a sitting posture;1* such probably as appear on several Phoenician coins; the age of which is uncertain; though all that we have seen appear to be posterior to Phidias. Two sitting figures of Jupiter in marble, probably copied from that of Olympia above mentioned, are extant tolerably entire; one of which, formerly in the Verospi palace at Rome, is now at Paris; and the other at Marbrook Ilall in Cheshire, the seat of the late John Smith Barry, Esq. The latter is much the best; but having fallen upon its face, the eyebrows, nose, and lips, are restored. The circumstance of a very celebrated painter having been employed upon the original with the sculptor, to enrich still further with various eolours, especially in the draperies, materials in themselves so rich and splendid, proves that it must have been gorgeous to a degree, which wc should now think extravagantly glittering and gaudy. It also seems to have been too big for the temple, large as that was; the head nearly touehing the ceiling, so as to excite the unpleasant idea, that if it was to rise from its sitting posture, it must lift up the roof.’ It was nevertheless universally allowed to be a most grand and imposing object; though the works of Polycletus in the same materials were thought by competent judges to be more perfect examples of art than those of Phidias, which were superior in size and magnifience/ The figure of Minerva, engraved in Plate XXV. of this volume, seems to be a copy of the celebrated statue which the latter artist executed in these materials ' Lib. i. c. 183. Dutens Medailles, p. 1. Plate I. Spence’s Poly metis, dial. vi. Plate I. s Strab. lib. viii. p. 513, ed. Oxon. ' —rss IleXvxXiiTM fyxvx’ th pi» xaXAij-a rut irasTat, Tr»XimAna Sc, xai pey&ci to» Cficufix Xnropi»*. Strab. lib. viii. p. 539. ed. Oxon. for the Parthenon at Athens: and it is probable that the heads of the a. c. same goddess on the silver tetradrachms of that city, struck after the art had become mature, have been copied from the colossal statue of brass by the same hand, in the Acropolis. A specimen of these is given in the tail-piece to this volume, fig. 4; which, with the thrae preceding figures, may afford a competent idea of the progress of the art, employed upon the image of its guardian goddess in its favourite seat, through its four great stages of improvement, from the age of Daedalus to that of Phidias. The two last coins arc very common: but the first we believe to be unique, the second extremely rare, and both unpublished. They are from the cabinet of Mr. Payne Knight. 75. Of Myro’s Discobolus in brass, the statue most celebrated among the antients for its ostentatious display of science, several copies in marble arc extant; of which one, with a variation of the head, is engraved in Plate XXIX of this volume; where a full account of it, with its variations, is given. As a work of science it must have been most wonderful; the action being so violent as to put every muscle of the limbs and body into motion; and so momentary, that the artist could have obtained no assistance from academic models; but must have drawn all the accurate and extensive knowledge required, from the stores with which study and observation had enriched his mind. It was not however either graceful or pleasing: for the head of the original was turned back to look at the quoit in the right hand; so that the action and attitude must have appeared more violent, though more just and natural, than in the copy here published. Myro is said by Pliny to have finished the hair in the rude manner of the earliest times; but to have been in other respects more various, free, and luxuriant, in his art, than the most eminent of his contemporaries.' It is probable however that the naturalist here confounds the w orks of two artists, wdio lived at different periods: for the Myro celebrated in the verses of Erinna ! Primus hie multiplicasse varietatem videtur, numerosior in arte quam Polycletus, et symmetria dilit »ft» i*£fj Er» A /h* t# TsiKTs», o JVidi Tw TTfoxiptirtii, Sirticc ti{ *ri». Poet. sect. XV. another; where the exile had at least the consolation of finding his a. C. n. 350— 3°°. own language, his own manners, and his own religion. 85. The authors and completers of this revolution furnish, perhaps, the most extraordinary synod of the most extraordinary men that have ever met together upon the face of the earth: and the high style or tone of talent, which distinguishes the great achievements of war and policy in this age, is not less conspicuous in the less splendid but more permanent productions of refined genius and elegant art. With Philip, Alexander, Antigonus, Lysimachus, Sclcucus, and Ptolemy, arose artists worthy of such patrons, who formed a style of their own, uniting all the merits of their predecessors, and adding others peculiar to themselves. Of these, the most celebrated, and probably the founder of the improved style, was Lysippus of Sicyon, the favourite sculptor of Alexander the Great, and the only one allowed to make his portrait. As he only wrought in brass, all his works have now perished, though he is said to have executed no less than six hundred and ten, each of which was sufficient to have ennobled his name;d and it is doubtful whether even an entire copy of any of them lias escaped the universal wreck. The tradition attributing the four horses brought from the Hippodrome at Constantinople by the Venetians, about the year 1204, and now at Paris, to Lysippus, is wholly unfounded; they having been originally brought from Chios by the younger Theodosius;6 and being probably the work of some antient artist of that island: but there is reason to believe that the celebrated trank of a statue, called the Torso of the Bclvidcre, is a fragment of an antient copy of the colossal Hercules of this great artist; which was also one of the ornaments of the Hippodrome, and melted down, on the same occasion, by the same greedy adventurers, in conjunction with the more barbarous and fanatic plunderers of France/ It is described as in a sitting posture, leaning pensively on the club covered with the lion’s skin, with the light arm and right leg d Plin. lib. xxxiv. c. 7. 'Anonym. Antiq. Constant, lib. lit. c. 1. in Banduri Imper. Orient. Vol. I. 1'O* tv xaXv ««fare* C*f6afoi. Nicetas Choniatee Excerpta ap: Banduri Imp. Orient. Vol. I. p. 107, lie says it was the work of Lysimachus, the first and last that he did; but as there is no such sculptor mentioned either by Pliny or Pausanias; and as there was such a statue of Hercules by Lysippus originally brought from Taren turn, we can scarcely doubt but that this ignorant writer, or his more ignorant transcribers, have corrupted the one name into the other. See Strab. lib. vi. p. 278. support the left elbow, and enable the head to rest securely upon the hand above.6 86. The small figure of Jupiter in brass, engraved in Plates LII. and 111. may likewise be an antient copy from one of the statues of that god by Lysippus; or even an original, if we can admit that he ever condescended to put his hand to a work of this size; for its merit is in all respects of the highest class, and its execution as well as design, evidently of this age. Compared with the figure and head of the same god engraved in Plate XXXII. it may afford a competent idea of the style of Lysippus compared with that of the preceding periods; and show the nature of the alterations and improvements which he introduced into the art. The proportions of the limbs are longer, the action of the body less violent and more easy and graceful; less sharpness and detail in the finishing; less display of anatomical science in the parts; and perhaps less vigour and energy in the general character of the whole; but more dignity and grandeur of expression, more breadth and looseness in the com-position, and more elegance in the proportions; in which the modesty of ordinary nature is never departed from, even in a figure of the supreme god, except only in those parts which are peculiarly illustrative of his character and attributes. The heads on the large silver and gold coins of Lysimachus are probably portraits of Alexander, taken from the statues of him, which this artist executed at different periods of his life; and may therefore afford a further illustration of his style, and in these we principally observe more freedom and looseness in the disposition of the parts; more breadth and boldness in the massing of the hair; and more dignity and variety of character and expression in the features, than had been known to any of his predecessors.1* In his * Miyas /xcyxXwri x>ivw (lege xotivu) ivj rfynutvot, tik Xtovrrif «mStu, Jsimh ojwrnf xav tm x.y-'-yji. txaSnro Je. . .. .tu» (aid Jfjjiav Scctn» extcivuv, «trwfj xost tu» aurii# £»f otoi Ts» Je euosiq/aw toJb KXjATTTM» Elf TO J'SVU, XXi TI)» AxiW %tlgx £T* ayKUVOt fftijuil* fITit TO ^010011 T*!f J££l£0f XmTCHUV, XXI TU ItÄXTtl TaUTIJf, a$ujuia; irtaprs, xo&uiroxAnu» Jiofjxa tw XE^aAnv. Ibid. h Statuari® arti plurinnim traditiir contulisse (Lysippus) capillum exprhnendo, capita minora facie n do, quam antiqui, corpora graciliora siccioraque, per qua; proceritas signor um major videtur. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxiv. c. 8. This general character of the works of Lysippus, given probably upon the authority of better judges of art than the author himself, agrees sufficiently with that which we have deduced from proportions too, he trusted more to his eye, and less to admeasure- a-C. n. 350— ment; excusing his deviation from established rules on that subject, by observing that other artists made men as they actually were; but he made them as they appeared to be: ‘ that is, he allowed for the deceptions of vision, and represented the object such as it appeared to be at the distance, at which it was collectively seen; and not such as it was known to be by a closer and minuter inspection of its parts. Tn this sense we must understand what is said of his greater fidelity in imitating nature: k for if minuter exactitude in imitating the details of nature be meant, it is contradicted by all the existing monuments of this period, the universal principle of which is the direct contrary: but the boldness, the breadth, the looseness, and variety in the massing; with the disposition and proportion of the subordinate parts always adapted to the effect of the whole; and an appearance of case and negligence in the details of execution, give all that expression of life and motion, which characterises the productions of nature; and makes the most studied and elaborate results of art resemble the spontaneous effusions of creation. The style of imitation adopted by the great Venetian, Lombard, and Flemish painters, Gcorgione, Corregio, and Rubens; and the improvements iutroduced by them into the art of painting, are precisely of the same kind; and to this art they appear to be more natural and appropriate than to that of sculpture; which may, perhaps, have been originally indebted for them to hints taken from the productions of some of those great masters, whose names only are now known. 8/. As this breadth and freedom of style enabled Lysippus to trust more to his cast, and to employ the chisel and engraving tool less, than his predecessors had done, it may account for the otherwise incredible number of great works that he executed: for in the old elaborate manner, when the model seems only to have supplied the general forms, and all the details to have been hewn out of the metal after it had been cast, no length of life or intensity of industry existing monuments, if the epithet sicciora be understood to signify piu. svelti, more free from all unnecessary incumbrance or details: for, as we apply the word to art, they certainly were not dryer than those of earlier times, but the reverse. 1 Vul**oque dicebat ab illis factos, quales essent, homines; a se qualcs viderentur esse. Plin. lib. xxxiv. c. 8. k Plin. ib.—-Winkelman Hist, des Arts. Liv. vi. c. 3. cuillu nave uecn sumucui iui wuipicuuu ui nan ui uicm, even allowing him the assistance of his sons, three of whom, Euthyerates, Lahippos, and Bedas, are mentioned among the eminent artists of the succeeding period.1 Some of his celebrated works however appear to have been of a small size; such as the Hercules sitting, with the cup in one hand and the club in the other; which was the table deity of Alexander the Great, and afterwards of Hannibal and the Dictator Sylla; and of which the height was not a foot.1" 88. Of his sons the last was the most eminent; though he is said to have imitated the firmness and vigour, rather than the elegance of his father’s manner; and to have revived some of the austerity of earlier times.“ Contemporary with him was probably Agesander of Rhodes, who with the assistance of Athenodorus and Polydorus, seemingly his sons, made the celebrated group of Laocoon, a work preferable to all that either sculpture or painting ever have, or probably ever will produce.0 The Rhodians were during this period at the height of their prosperity; the quarrels between the Macedonian princes of the different dynasties having not only preserved their independence, but rendered them, next to the Carthaginians, the first naval and commercial republic of the age. The style however of this masterpiece of art, affords a better reason for supposing it a work of this time; it having too much freedom and laxity, both in the composition and execution, to be anterior to Lysippus; and too much vigour aud spirit to be much later. The execution is, indeed, of that peculiar kind, which seems to have begun with the preceding period, and ended with this; the surface of the marble remaining as it was left by the chisel; the masterly and scientific touches of which express, when seen at the proper distance, the trembling elasticity and palpitation of the flesh, and even the grain and texture of the skin. To this, or the preceding period, for it is impossible distinctly to separate them, we attribute the Barberini Faun, the head supposed to 1 Piin. lib. xxxiv. c. 8. " Statius Sylv. lib. iv. 3. ■ Constantiam patris potius semulatus, quam clegantiam, austero maluit genere, quam jucundo placere. Ibid. * Opus omnibus et picture et statuariae artis praferendum. Ib. lib. xxxvi. c. 5. The expression is absolute, without any reserve or exception; and probably conveys not merely the author’s own opinion, which would be of little value, but that of the most esteemed judges of bis time. be of Alexander, but which is more probably of Achilles, and the a. c. n. so— articles engraved in Plates LII,—LX. inclusive, of this volume. 80. Art, having thus reached its summit, began gradually to A. C. n. sso— decline. Through the weakness of some of the ^Macedonian dynasties, the tyranny of others, and the ambition and extravagance of all, revolts and dissentions were excited; and the funds which had been applied to nourish genius and develope talent, applied to les3 salutary purposes; to spread desolation, or pamper ostentatious vanity, or sordid luxury. In all former wars between Greeks and Greeks, the temples with all that they contained, even their treasures, had been generally respected, and, except in a few reprobated instances, remained inviolate, as being consecrated to the gods, and placed beyond the reach of human passions: but in the wars of this period, not only the sacred treasures were pillaged, but the edifices, that contained them, subverted and destroyed, and the statues broken and melted. In this manner the choicest ornaments of several distinguished cities of Greece perished, in the war between Philip the son of Demetrius, and the JEtolians; and among others, those of the venerable temple of Dodona.p 00. As monuments of art were thus less respected, the production of them was of course less encouraged;q and as artists saw, for the first time, their works perish before them; the prospect of immortality, the great stimulative to genius, was rendered dim and uncertain. The subjects, too, upon which it was called upon to exert itself were debased: for as every petty chief or tyrant was deified, the cities under his rule were crowded with his statues; and individual took the place of general nature. Instead of giving appropriate form and character to abstract perfections or poetical images, the artist was thus degraded to the mean and irksome labour of copying the features and embellishing the form of some contemptible despot; without, perhaps, a hope of any other reward than the price which he received for it; since there was always at least a probability that his work would perish with its archetype. Even the most dignified ? Polyb. iv. 67. i Taj ftixwxi «urn t* ßataiffu;) irÄmuf twii nartfwottxt ei (aS’IWioi) xm xaTi%u- «wrav. Strab. lib. ix. p. 577. ed. ().\on. A. c. n. eso— employment mat ne couia expeci, was 10 uupy, wiui sugm vauduuas perhaps, the great works of preceding periods; for in the decline of art, public opinion concerning living artists always declines faster than the art itself; and thus accelerates its fall by estimating the productions of past times, in a compound, and those of present in an inverse ratio to their comparative merits. Sculpture, too, which was then the leading art, is in its nature less various and inventive than painting, which has been the leading art in modern times; so that its powers of change are sooner exhausted; and it became necessary after so long a period of successful exertion, and amidst such a profusion of masterpieces, either not to deviate at all, or to deviate into vice and extravagance. Thus, though many magnificent works were executed under the patronage of the kings of iEgypt, Syria, and Per-gamus, they appear to have been chiefly repetitions; and the artists employed are allowed to have been upon a lower scale of merit than their predecessors. 01. Of these repetitions are probably the Farnese Hercules, the Torso of the Belvidere, and the statue called the Fighting Gladiator: for if works of such merit had been originals, we can scarcely doubt that the names inscribed upon them would have been recorded by some antient author. The last, indeed, is manifestly copied from a figure in brass; and the form of the letters in the names in the two others proves that they could not have been inscribed more than a century before the Christian mra; though the statues might have been wrought earlier: for it was no uncommon practice under the first Roman Emperors to inscribe the names of more antient artists upon their real or supposed works, either to enhance their value, or impose upon the credulity of wealthy and ignorant collectors.1 The execution of the Torso is certainly far above the age of the inscription; and its composition still above its execution. 92. Notwithstanding all these unfavourable circumstances, Grecian art maintained both the dignity of its style and the delicacy of its execution in a very high degree of excellence down to the last A. C. n. 144_ stage of the Macedonian power in Asia: the coins of Antioclius VI, Trypho, and Antiochus YIT, only differ from the portraits of the ' Phawlr. lib, v. fab, 1. finest times, in having more luxuriance and softness of manner, a. C. n.-Even some of those of Mithradates Eupater, king of Pontus, the A c n last independent monarch of the civilized world, have all the grandeur 50, of character peculiar to the Grecian style, though it be less skilfully and vigorously expressed than in happier periods. 03. To these ages of the decline and relaxation of art, from vigour a. C. n. and sublimity to luxuriance and softness, we attribute the articles engraved in plates LXT...VTII inclusive. And here we must pause Romans, to consider the effects of a great and disastrous change in the affairs of mankind, which brought all the learned and civilized nations of the earth under the hard dominion of one military republick; and, in its consequences, plunged them into barbarism and utter darkness. Q4. As the temper and constitution of this republick, the means of superiority, and the principles of its domination, affected the general condition of mankind, and imprinted a new character upon the subsequent productions of art, as well as upon the modes of government, and systems of morals, it may not be wholly foreign to our purpose to take a cursory view of them: for though the history of Roman transactions be universally read, the real principles of Roman polity, and the nature and extent of its influence upon other nations, are very little understood, or even attended to; though they are still felt by more than one half of the human race. 05. A daring adventurer of spurious birth,having collected a pro- A. C. n. miscuous rabble of robbers, fugitives, and outlaws, in an unhealthful and defenceless situation,8 amidst numerous and warlike tribes, was compelled by the necessity of self-preservation, and directed by the vigour of a superior genius, to form a system of civil and military subordination more perfect than any that had then been known; and yet so loosely constructed, as to leave openings on every side for the prompt admission of every improvement, which the experience or observation of succeeding ages might point out, as likely to invigorate its force, or condense its solidity. This constitution, like those of most other republieks of early times, was at first composed of three powers; a prince, or military chief, a senate of elders, and the general body of ‘ Strabo, lib. v. large proportion of the inhabitants. Like other constitutions of the times, it was of course replete with the seeds of discord and contention; by which it suffered, during the course of about four hundred years, almost every possible variety of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy; and at length settled, at the time of its greatest vigour and fullest maturity, in a well-balanced, though complicated mixture of all three. So vast a work is the formation of a free and efficient government, capable of giving protection to, and receiving support from every constituent part, that no prospective efforts of wisdom, either of one or many individuals, have ever been sufficient to produce it. All that they can do, is to set the different parts of the great machine in their proper places, and adapt them to existing circumstances: but time and exercise, mutual friction, and reciprocal pressure, ean alone produce that regular harmony and equal balance, which gives steadiness to power, and uniformity to exertion. 96. In the Grecian republicks, the struggles between aristocracy and democracy were almost always terminated by massacres, as they have lately been in France; the party, that was overpowered by numbers, influence, or talents, appealing to their daggers, and destroying their opponents, whom the security of conscious superiority had disarmed;1 but in all the civil contentions of the Romans, in forming and balancing the powers of their constitution, there was no blood shed. The destructive efforts of tumult and faction were all directed externally; so that they tended rather to accelerate and facilitate than retard or obstruct their progress to empire. Their military discipline never lost any of its energy, or even of its rigour, through their internal dissensions; though, after the expulsion of the kings, the eommanders were annually chosen; and the same men, who obeyed them as soldiers, elected them as citizens: but the steady uniformity of a complicated system, naturalised by habit, and consecrated by religion, amply supplied the place of personal authority, and made obedience principle instead of concession. 97• Every man capable of procuring and using anns was obliged to serve, when called upon, and instantly subjected to all the rigours 1 Thucyd. lib. iii. c. 83. of the severest despotism: the Roman commanders being, in every stage of their constitution, completely absolute, and only accountable for the abuse of their power after its expiration. The structure of their armies, which were at first a pressed militia without pay, was at once complicated and regular; so that their evolutions were at the same time multifarious, rapid, and exact. The divisions were in decimals, from ten to three thousand, the original number of the legion ;u which had only one commissioned officer, called a tribune, to each thousand; the legate, or sub-commander, being only a deputy to the consul, or commander in chief of the army, and removeable by him at pleasure.* The centurions, of which there was, properly and originally, one to each hundred, but afterwards two to each cohort or troop, whatever its number might be,7 held a rank corresponding to that of the serjeants of modern tacticks, being chosen from the common soldiers, and receiving only double their pay; and the lesser divisions being headed by privates distinguished for their experience or merit. 08. To supply this defect of officers, there was another division of gradation, which extended through the whole legion, and, by linking all its unequal parts together in one chain of regular and uninterrupted subordination, preserved obedience without servility, and gave rules for the exertion of that command which could not be limited without being weakened. This was the distribution into different ranks, according to the difference of age, strength, merit, and arms; for, as each man found the implements and habiliments of war for his own use, his ability to purchase, as well as to employ them, was a necessary qualification for the station which he was to occupy. This was also the reason why the cavalry bore so small a proportion to the infantry in their armies; none but Romans of considerable property being able to provide and maintain a war horse; whence the Equestrian became an order in the civil as well as the military constitution; and a horseman, in actual service, received three times the pay of a foot soldier, and one third more than a centurion, besides having allowances of provender for his horse.2 property; instituted by the founder of the city, was soon after discovered to be so effective in giving energy and regularity to the exertions of a multitude, that it was adopted, by the sixth of his successors, into the civil government, and made a most useful and powerful engine of subordination. The people, whose suffrages had before been given in tribes, and who decided every question by a majority of persons only, were by him divided into a certain number of centuries or hundreds, not of persons, but of portions of property, according to which they voted on all points of great importance; which were therefore according to the possessions, and not according to the multitude of the suffragans.1 100. Both the civil government and military power of the Romans were in their highest state of perfection, during the great contest for empire between them and their commercial rivals, the Carthaginians; and it is of this period that we have the most clear and distinct accounts, derived from an eye-witness of high rank and great experience, distinguished alike for the depth and accuracy of his observation, the rectitude of his judgment, and the impartiality of his temper.15 Their constitution was then so intricately mixt and blended, in all its parts, that, as the great historian says, the citizens themselves scarcely knew what to call it—whether a monarchy, an aristocracy, or a democracy: the power of the consuls seeming to entitle it to the first; that of the senate, to the second; and that of the people, to the third/ 101. At home the consuls had a control over all the other magistrates, except the tribunes of the people; the direction of all public-business; and, in general, the whole executive power of the state. In war, they had almost absolute dominion over every thing without the city;d they could dictate to the allies, impress soldiers, * Dionys. Halicamass. Antiq. Rom. lib. iv. Cicer. pro Seftis, c. 9. k Polybius’s style lias been so generally condemned that we scarcely dare defend it. Nevertheless it possesses, in an eminent degree, the property of shewing every object and event, that he describes or relates, most clearly and distinctly to the mind of the reader; and this, in our estimation, is an excellence more than sufficient to compensate for all those technical deficiencies which sophists and grammarians think so important. Tw» xgax tjwi«» Ibid. appoint tribunes to command them, and punish them, even with death, without trial or appeal. They had also the disposal of the public purse, out of which they were paid while embodied; the quaestor, or army treasurer, being merely a commissary to the consul, who commanded it. 102. All the external power of the republick, such as planning and conducting wars, making treaties of alliance, regulating the conquered provinces and subject states, appointing and receiving embassies, punishing offences, or granting privileges among the states of Italy, was administered solely by the senate; which had also the disposal of the public treasure, and almost the whole of the internal executive power when the consuls were not present; so that a stranger then coming to Rome would have thought the government purely aristocratical; as many foreign princes and states did think it, from finding that all their business was transacted with the senate only;® the members of which held their places for life, and were entitled to them by the rank which they held, and the high offices which they had filled. 103. But great and extensive as the prerogatives of these two were, still greater remained to the people; who appointed to all the magistracies, and possest the whole legislative power; in which was included the confirmation or rejection of all decrees of war, and treaties of peace, amity, and alliance; none of which were valid without the sanction of their suffrage. They were also the sole judges of all crimes punishable with death or exile, committed by citizens not under military command; so that they were in fact the sole distributors of honour and disgrace, of reward and punishment, the great principles of energy and connexion in all governments. 104. All these powers, though so apparently independent of each other, when considered in the abstract, became in their operation mutually subservient, and, in a manner, condensed into one, by the continual necessity of reciprocal accommodation, resulting from the existence of reciprocal control: for, as the senate had the command of the public stores and treasures, the consuls could neither have camp equipage, provisions, or pay, for their armies, withont its con- those armies, as they were liable to be recalled, or continued in the command, after the expiration of their office, at the option of the senate, and were accountable to the people for every thing done in it. 105. The people also judged of all matters relative to the privileges and dignity of the senate, and could, at any time, by the voice of a tribune, suspend its proceedings, or even prevent its assembling; at the same time that the senate had various and effective means of influence over the people; such as having the judges, or rather juries, for they were always occasional, chosen by them out of their own body; and by disposing of the public treasures; and directing the public works, which were always considerable, and employed great numbers, though mostly slaves. The consuls also had great influence over them by the extent and rigour of their military command, to which all were individually subject, when called out; so that a nice and equal balance regulated every department, and directed the united vigour of all to one point/ 106. The Romans, at an early period of their republiek, even long before they were completely masters of Italy, imagined themselves destined to universal dominion; and, as the excellence of their military system was the natural mean of realising these high expectations, their civil and political institutions were, in almost every instance, peculiarly calculated to promote it. No person could be elected to any office of state® without having actually served ten campaigns; nor even be advanced to the rank of a military tribune without having served at least five/ All the elegant arts of life, which tend to soften the enmities of the savage, and expand the affections of the social man, were treated with scorn and ridicule; whilst almost every severer vice was honoured with the name of virtue, which, in its primitive signification among them, meant merely valour. To view the dying agonies of purchased slaves or captives, compelled to slaughter eaeh other, or to resist, with unequal force, the fury of wild beasts, was their favourite and popular amusement, oftentimes introduced to exhilarate private entertainments, and always given by the magistrates, as a pleasing spectacle, on the joyful occasion of their elections/ f Polyb. ibid. 8 irgAmxTgr Ibid. 10/. The captives of rank, whatever might be their age or sex, were exhibited, loaded with chains, amidst the spoils of their subverted cities and plundered palaces, in the ostentatious procession which accompanied the victorious commander, on his return to Rome; and, to the transitory splendors of the triumph, was added the more honourable reward of permanent dignity, to excite and encourage others in the career of military glory. 108. To promote, by every possible means, the interests of the community to which they belonged, was the ruling principle both of their morality and their religion, and, as they were all sincere believers without any determinate creed, or distinct hierarchy, the same spirit of superstition, which imperiously governed the passions of the multitude, implicitly obeyed the prudence of the magistrates; whence all their successes were obtained under the sanction of premonitory signs and prodigies, and attributed, as Polybius observes, by ignorant persons, to the favour of Heaven, or the influence of fortune, instead of the foresight of human wisdom, and the vigour of human institutions.11 lOp. The legion, composed entirely of Roman citizens, consisted, at the period in question, of four thousand two hundred, or, on some occasions, of five thousand infantry, to which were added about three hundred horse from the richer class of citizens, and a certain number of auxiliaries from the allied or subject states, generally equal to the legionaries in infantry, and triple in cavalry. Their number was, however, fixt by the consuls, who also appointed their officers; but they were levied by the authority of the magistrates of the different states which supplied them.1 110. The proper and original consular army consisted of four legions, two to each consul; but on great occasions, such as the battle of Cannas, they were doubled. The encampment was always either square or oblong, accordingly as one or both consuls were present, and the plan uniformly the same, how varied or unequal soever might be the ground. The standard was first ereeted at the commander’s which was divided into regular squares of established dimensions; so that not only every legion and cohort, but every individual man and horse had a known station, at a given distance, and in a given direction from the universal centre of union and authority.® Thus every Roman camp became instantly a moving republick, as the republick itself was a stationary camp, combining the steady quiet solidity of a well organised political body, with the rapid unembarrassed energy of a military detachment. 111. The same systematic regularity which distinguished the structure of their armies, directed them in every operation, even those which appear to be the mere ebullitions of sudden and intemperate passion. Massacre and plunder were almost always the concomitants of victory in antient warfare: but other nations glutted their revenge, or satiated their avarice, immediately after the attack or the storm, whilst the fury, kindled by obstinate resistance, was fresh and glowing. Each individual being thus impelled to a different object, tumult and disorder often ensued, and made transient success the means of ultimate defeat: but the Romans executed all these horrors with cold and formal regularity, and therefore never suffered any such reverses of fortune. When a town was taken, there was a given time allowed for slaughter, and another for pillage, separate orderly detachments being sent upon each service; one to destroy every thing that had life, and the other to collect every thing that had value. Nothing was spared on these occasions: not only women and children, but even brute animals were involved in promiscuous slaughter with their possessors, till the hour of pillage came; and then the remnant, which had escaped the sword, were added to the furniture and ornaments to grace the victor’s triumph, or be sold for the public benefit.“ 112. The actors of these dreadful tragedies were, at the same time, mere animal machines, destroying without hatred, or sparing without compassion, accordingly as the orders of their commanders impelled or restrained them. Superficial observers and declamatory panegyrists have, indeed, imagined and described them as armies of free citizens, who, inspired by a thirst of glory and love of their country, sallied forth to conquer and civilise the world: but they were, A. C. n. 250. in reality, the direct reverse; being mostly prest men, kept in the most Romans, regular, but, at the same time, the most rigid subordination by the continual dread of rods and axes. The soldier, who quitted his post in the day of action, was first whipt, and then beheaded, or else pelted to death with sticks and stones; and, as neither the number nor the importance of the offenders could exempt them from this severe punishment, the tribunals of their commanders became more terrible to them than the arms of their enemies. To this powerful incentive of valour was added the influence of education and prevailing opinion, which opposed the gratifications of pride and ambition to those of ease and sensuality; and thus deprived death of its terrors by depriving life of its enjoyments. 113. It is not, however, in the successes and conquests, in the victories and triumphs, of the Romans, that we discover the unexampled vigour and inexhaustible resources of their republick, but in those intervals of defeat and calamity, when the genius of a single man, or the fury of a fanatic multitude, overbore, for a time, the advantages of permanent institutions. Hannibal, though he entered Italy with only twenty-five thousand ill-armed vagabonds, the outcast of all nations, against a regular standing army of one hundred and fifty-six thousand, and an enrolled conscription of seven hundred and seventy thousand,0 was so superior in all the stratagems of war and arts of policy, that he gained four great victories; and, still recruiting his losses from the forces of the enemy, made himself master of all the open country; and, in the course of five years, destroyed more than half of the citizens of the republick, with a proportionate number of its allies or subjects.p Nevertheless, the steady vigour of Rome ultimately prevailed, and wore out, by a war of posts and garrisons, the forces of the conqueror, which it could not directly withstand. Speculative historians, indeed, who judge of the great transactions of war and policy from their closets, have asserted that it might have been destroyed had Hannibal marched against it immediately after the battle of Cannm; but their " Pulyb. Üb. ii. * The year before the eon mien cement of the second Punic war, the number of Roman citizens amounted to 270,213 (Liv. Kpist. lib. xx), but in the next lustra we tind them reduced to 137,108 (Liv. Hist. lib. xxvii), notwithstanding that numerous bodies of enfranchised slaves and auxiliaries had, in the mean time, been added to them. Ibid. lib. xxii. xxiv. q tradict their assertions.11 Even if he had taken and burnt the confused assemblage of wretched huts, which they called the city, he would not have thereby destroyed the republic of Rome, which was so admirably organized, that it would have continued to exist wherever a single legion had remained embodied: for as the same vital spirit, which animated the whole, lived entire in every detached part, those parts retained, like the amputated members of a polypus, the power of regenerating the whole, and becoming complete bodies of the same form and kind as the original from which they sprung/ 114. After the failure of Hannibal’s great attempt, all the surrounding states and empires fell one after the other without any effective resistance; so that, in about one hundred and fifty years, the Romans found themselves masters of an empire extending from the Atlantie a. c. n. 50. ocean to the Euphrates, and from the deserts of Africa to the Danube, comprehending all the most fertile, salubrious, and civilized parts of the then known world. Their prosperity suffered, indeed, a short interruption by one of those inundations of barbarians from the forests of the north, which seem, before the invention of fire arms, to have periodically deluged the more temperate and cultivated regions of the earth, as this would have done, had it not been opposed by the impenetrable barrier of Roman discipline. As it was, it overwhelmed Spain and Gaul, overthrew four consular armies, and entered Italy, on the confines of which it was at length utterly annihilated, the two numerous tribes of Cimbri and Tcutones that composed it being all A C. n- loo. killed or captured/ 115. Such an extent of empire, acquired by conquest, and composed of nations differing in laws, languages, and manners, could only be kept by the means by which it had been acquired; so that standing a. C. n. 100— armies were to be maintained in the distant provinces too numerous Romans, for the exhausted population of Italy to supply. The old qualifications were consequently dispensed with, and recruits collected where-ever they could be obtained; whence the armies soon became bands of adventurers, as ready to march against Rome as any other city, and without any other principle or motive of action than pay and plunder. For these they looked to their commanders, who therefore employed them to serve the purposes of their own private ambition, and thus the honours and emoluments of the state were contended for by armed legions in the field, instead of harangues in the senate, or tumults in the forum. Il6. As the oppressed and enfeebled provincials were obliged to find resources to maintain and bribe these armies, the civil wars between their ambitious leaders became even mere wasteful and destructive than the original conquests had been; so that all the subject countries anxiously looked for the established dominion of one master, as the only refuge from a state of servitude more intolerable than any steady and uniform tyranny can produce.* This, after half a century of almost continual civil wars, took place in the person of Cains Octavius; who, under the name of Caesar, inherited from his great uncle, and of Augustus, conferred upon him by the flattery of his subjects, acquired absolute and undefined power, by a continued system of the basest treachery, cruelty, and ingratitude. Being, however, in undisputed possession of it, he naturally turned his attention to secure and improve his immense property by changing the system that was wasting and exhausting it; though, even in this, the natural baseness of his disposition but too fatally shewed itself, and, instead of the enlarged measures of a great chieftain, who had usurped, displayed the paltry expedients of a sneaking politician, who had stolen the empire. Ilf. Tn the first place he renounced the spirit of conquest, which had continued unabated through all the civil wars, and fixt the bounds of his dominions to the Atlantic ocean on the west, the Rhine and Danube on the north, the Euphrates on the east, and the deserts of Arabia and Africa on the south. All the intermediate countries being 1 T015 tin ti)u x*suTreXirsi*v. Cratipp. in dial, cum Pomp, apml Plutarch, in Pomp. c. 75. security; neither of which he was ever disposed to neglect. He therefore carefully and permanently settled their local constitutions and subordinate governments, regulated and enforced the public taxes, and applied the amount of them, over and above what the regular expenses of the state required, to construct works of public ornament and utility in every part of the empire. The capital was decorated with temples, theatres, and palaces of extreme beauty and magnificence, and the provinces accommodated with roads, canals, bridges, and aqueducts of the most firm and durable structures. Posts were established, with supplies of horses at given distances, under the protection of government; and the freedom of navigation maintained and extended by the suppression of piracy, and the opening of the sea-ports in every part of the Mediterranean; so that both sea and land were laid open to the investigations of curiosity, and the enterprises of commerce: for, as the Romans were a nation of conquerors, and not of merchants, they, from the beginning, despised the petty systems of trading monopoly and local restriction, which had disgraced the Carthaginian government, and contributed to its downfall. 118. Upon the same liberal and politic plan they had always forborne to humiliate the conquered provinces with any titles or badges of subjection; but, while exercising the most severe and oppressive despotism over them, continued to call them allies, and to allow them the use of all the forms of their antient liberty and independence. Many of them coined their own money, chose their own magistrates, and preserved their own laws, under the control of the proconsul or prmfect. The colonies were every where images in miniature of the patent city; and the municipal towns had corporate constitutions and revenues of their own, administered with all the operose formalities of free and independent states. Each had its public council and popular assembly; the little debates and puny factions of which served to cheer the sorrows of servitude, by intermingling a few lively notes with the doleful and uniform clink of its chains. 119. The condition of these, as well as of the provinces in general, was considerably meliorated by the change in the government of the empire, the tyranny and rapacity of their annual despots, who had been in the habit of purchasing impunity and favor at home with the produce of their crimes abroad, being now subjected to the jealous vigilance of a severe master, who could approve of no oppression that was not for his own advantage; and whose interest it was to exalt the weak and depress the powerful. The dignified senator, whom the emperor professed to call his equal, though in reality his creature, trembled at his own elevation, and saw, with perpetual anxiety, that the same frail partition, which separated him from power, separated him from death. Obliged, by the timid policy of the new system, to preserve the familiar intercourse of equal friendship with the despot, whose nod could send him to the grave, he naturally lived in the continual dread of saying too much or too little—of rendering his flattery formally fulsome, or offensively free.” In all avowed and established despotisms, a distinct line is drawn between the monarch and the subject; and the unapproachable elevation of the one gives security to the inoffensive humility of the other; but the crafty and cowardly Octavius, not daring to avow the power which he had assumed, but, pretending to hold it of the senate, rendered the members of that body objects of perpetual jealousy and distrust, and made the forms of liberty the continual means of embittering slavery and exasperating tyranny.1 The obscure and distant provincial, however, who never approaehed such dangerous preeminence, felt only the regular operations of power, which, whether they tended to oppress or protect him, were always general; and he had, at least, the consolation of sharing the fate, of the rest of his fellow-citizens: personally he felt no fear, because he inspired none. 120. As the monarchy had been produced by the military subduing the civil powers of the state, the former were as dangerous as they were necessary to the prince: for as he had risen by bribing “ In quorum facie, misers, magnseque sedebat Pallor amicitias. -............ . ---------- quid violentius aure tyranni? Cum quo de pluviis, aut sstibus, aut nimboso Vere, locutim fatum pendebat amici.—Juvenal. Sat. iv. Among the tedious and chronical evils of life, scarcely any can be conceived worse than this imperial friendship; and the unfortunate dignitary, if entitled to the rank which procured it, by his birth or estate, was compelled to accept it, and become a senator, whether he would or not._Dion Hist. lib. lv. c. 3. . * Felices Arabes, Medique, Eoaque tellus, Quam sub perpetuis tenuerunt fata tyrannis. Ex populis qui regna ferunt, sors ultima nostra est, Quos servire pudet.—Lucan. Phars. vii. 442. r similar temptations. To restore, therefore, the antient discipline, which had been corrupted by the licence of civil war, and to distribute the standing armies, amounting to between three and four hundred thousand men, so as to make them eooperate in the defence, without being able to unite for the subjugation of the state, was the most necessary, but, at the same time, the most difficult task of the new government. The okl gradation of property, which had cooperated with those of merit and experience in giving stability to the structure of the legion, had been tacitly neglected from the beginning of the civil wars ;y and as the recruits were now promiscuously collected from the conquered provinces, and even from the adjoining states, no principle of subordination was left, but the dread of their officers, who were proportionately too few in number to have their proper weight and importance. To increase them would, perhaps, have been the most effective expedient; but, as this would have produced great additional expense, and, at the same time, tended to restore the aristocracy, it was deemed sufficient to impose a solemn oath of fidelity to the prince; to enforce all the duties of the camp with strictness and regularity; to encourage them with occasional donations on joyful events; and to reward those who had grown old in the service with liberal pensions or gratuities. 121. The distribution of these vast forces was principally along the northern and eastern frontiers, upon the banks of the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates, where the restless valour of the German tribes, and the proud ambition of the Parthian kings, might keep them at least in expectation of employment; and where they were too remote from each other to conspire in any enterprise against the public tranquillity. All these precautions, however, proved ultimately ineffectual; and the Roman armies became the most dreadful scourge that ever afflicted mankind. Other defects in the constitution also cooperated to the same end, and rendered this mighty fabrick of empire even more destructive in its effects than it had been in its formation. 122. Though the Romans lowered the imposts, and opened the ports of the countries which they eonquered, in order to conciliate the inhabitants to a foreign domination, they, almost every where, 1 Sueton. Aug. c. 25. retained or instituted the pernicious mode of laying taxes upon production instead of use or consumption; and of taking eertain portions of the variable fruits of industry, instead of a certain interest from the fixt capital of the eountry. The produce of labour was thus taxed in proportion to its own quantity and excellence, and not in proportion to the quantity and excellence of the material upon which it operated; by which means the rewards, and consequently the progress, of industry and enterprise were diminished and obstructed. The revenues, too, being farmed by a powerful and rapacious body, armed with publie authority and supported by military force, this system of collecting them became as oppressive in its exertion as it was ruinous in its principle: for, if the portions allotted to the state were to be taken in kind, the house and property of the payer were necessarily submitted to the vexatious insolence of the collector; and, if in money, the valuation of the produce could only be made by persons interested in depreciating it. The assessment was very generally a tenth, and, on some occasions, as high as a fifth of the whole annual produce; which the collectors, by allowing delays and charging exorbitant interest, demanding fees, imposing fines, 8ce. often made amount, in the latter days of the republick, to more than the whole capital, which they not only seized, but sold the unfortunate proprietors for slaves to make up for the deficiencies of their property, when its insecurity had rendered it of little value.* 123. To this evil was added the growing abuse of bribing the populace of Home with distributions of corn purchased in the provinces at prices fixed by the buyers; the consequences of which were equally ruinous to the dominant and to the subject countries: for, by producing an artificial plenty, it rendered cultivation unprofitable, and, of course, neglected, in the one; and by causing an artificial scarcity, accompanied by oppressive exactions, it weakened the efforts and destroyed the hopes of industry, in the other. 124. Despotism, it might naturally be supposed, would destroy an abuse derived from the preponderance of democratic power in a free state: but it did the direct contrary; the most tyrannical of the emperors being more profuse in their donations of corn to the people, * When Marius applied to Nicomedes, the dependent king of Bithynia, for auxiliaries in the Cimbric war, he answered, -rout wx«r«uf t»v Bi&uitbii m mi Jnptriui (lege Sripwiww; i. e. «Amu») Aafropuraf faxm» £> T«t{ £7r«^i*ir. Diodor. Sic. lib. xxxvi. Eelog. 1. the cause of which was, that they were in reality more dependent upon their favour; for, as their guards lived with the rabble, the interests and passions of the one became those of the other; and the prince, who depended upon the soldiery, was, in an equal degree, dependent upon the mob. The crafty founder of this despotism saw the evil tendency of his popular largesses, both to the welfare of his dominions and the stability of his government: but, though he secretly professed an intention of abolishing them, he never had the courage to attempt it, but continued, throughout his long reign, invariably to increase them;“ so that, in later times, when men of genius and intrepidity equal to the undertaking rose to the imperial dignity, the disease was grown too inveterate for cure; the capital having lost every other means of subsistence, and learnt to consider this occasional bounty as a regular tribute. 125. Another evil, of still greater magnitude than either of the preceding, was the monopoly of wealth, resulting from extensive conquests, and the consequent predominancy of individual interests over those of the republick. In the civilised states of modern Europe, where personal servitude is scarcely known, and where the art of printing has enabled the meanest proprietors to understand and enforce the laws by which property is held, this grievance is little felt, even where most prevalent: but, under the Romans, the poor had no means of contending with the rich, the laws being feeble and ambiguous, and, in the later times of the republick, wholly unable to stand against the overbearing influence of those citizens who had the revenues of dependent kings at their disposal, and armies of purchased slaves in their possession.11 126. These self-created potentates having seized, or gotten grants of most of the publie lands in Italy, soon added the little portions of their little neighbours, cither by purchase or violence, and thus became posscst of whole districts instead of farms, which they occupied themselves, and cultivated with the labours of those purchased a Sneton. in August, c. 42. Tacit. Ann. I. Sect. 2. Impetum secepisse scribit (Augustus) fru-mentationes publicas in perpetuum abolendi; quod carum fiducia cultura agrorum cessaret. Yet his practice was the direct contrary; and, as Tacitus observes, militem donis, populum annona, cunctos dulcedine otii pellexit. b Two years possession of land, and one of moveables, constituted a legal title.—Institut, lib. ii. c. 6. How easy was it then for a rich man to usurp the property of a poor one, either by having him pressed for a soldier, or even forcibly ejecting him during that time! slaves, who were their absolute property, instead of that of hired freemen, who were always liable to be taken.from them upon military service. Hence the free peasantry had entirely disappeared from many parts of Italy, which, in the early times of the republick, had sent forth great armies to oppose or assist the ambition of Rome, but which were now only rescued from solitude by herds of wretched slaves, held in no higher estimation than the cattle which they tended.0 12/. The proportionate increase in the numbers of these wretched beings was, every where, extremely rapid: for, as slavery was hereditary, and as parents had the power by law of selling their children, even when at years of maturity, the growing poverty of the many, and the growing opulence of the few, equally tended to multiply them. Private citizens had from ten to twenty thousand each; and, as it is always cheaper to purchase live stock in poor, than to breed it in rich countries, the proprietors of land, in the neighbourhood of great cities, would naturally find it their interest to buy slaves from remote provinces, rather than propagate them at home. The Roman purchases, too, were often forced and unequitable; the power of a corrupt magistrate, the influence of an'overgrown estate, or the rapacity of the fanners of the revenue, being at any. time sufficient to compel the helpless provincial to part with his children, as well as his plate and statues, upon such terms as the purchasers should choose to dictate/ * A rat eg quondam populis rura singulorum ergastolorum sunt: latiusnunc villici quam dim reges imperant.—Senec. Controv. 1. v. At nunc semirutis quod pendent nurnia tcctis Urbibus Italise, lapsisque ingentiamuris Saxa jacent; nulloque domus custodc tenentur, Rarus et antiquis habitator in urbibus errat: Horrida quod duinis, multosque marata per annos, Hesperia est, desuntque manus poscentibus arvis, Non tu, Pyrrhe ferox, nec tantis cladibus auctor Poenus erit: nulli penitus discindere ferro Contigit: alta sedent civilis vulnera dextrm. Lucan. PUars. i. 24—32. See also vii. 400. The waste of civil wars, however, would soon have been replenished, had it not been continued by evil institutions and destructive habits. To the testimony of these declaimers we may add the more modest and respectable authority of Livy, who expresses his astonishment at the numerous armies which, in the early times of the republick, repeatedly issued from those districts of Italy: qure nunc, vix seminario exiguo militum relicto, servitia Romana ab solitudinc vindicant.—Lib. vi. c. 12. 4 Diodor. Sic. 1. c. Athen, lib. vi. c. xx, S partial and unequal, for the personal protection of the slaves; and, under the first princes of the Macedonian dynasties, manners afforded a still more efficient species of protection: but the Homan masters had the absolute power of inflicting death and tortures, without any process at law, or imputation of infamy or criminality; and as abundance begets profusion in every thing, it is natural to suppose that they were prodigal of the lives and sufferings of those unfortunate beings, in proportion to the superfluous numbers which they possessed. Hence this dreadful power was often delegated to overseers, who had not even an interest to spare; and the unhappy slave, a man perhaps of birth and education, was crucified, before his master even knew that he had been accused of a fault/ 120. These numbers, indeed, rendered a greater degree of severity necessary to enforce obedience and maintain order: for as the law afforded them no protection, they owed the state no submission, but had a right to revolt as often as they had a probability of doing it with success. Fear was the only principle upon which they could be trusted, since every relation of moral duty is necessarily reciprocal, and slaves were exempted from the protection of morality as well as of law. No infamy was attached to the abuse of them; and so little were their lives or their feelings respected, that they were often tortured to the utmost extent of sensibility, even in civil cases, where no guilt eould be imputed; and made to slay each other for the amusement of the spectators, not only in the public exhibitions of the amphitheatre, but in the entertainments of private festivity and debauch, where blood was often mingled with wine, and the groans of agony and gasps of death accompanied the songs of riot and the smiles of prostitution.8 130. The porter at the great man’s door,h and the labourer in the peasant’s ditch,' were equally kept in chains, and, when rendered useless by age or sickness, exposed to perish through want, in some desolate or unfrequented place/ Even the severe virtue of the Eodem die Mithridates servus in cruccm actus est, quia Gai nostri genio nialedixerat.—Actuarii Trimalcbionis diar. in Petron. Satyric. * Nicol. Damasc. apud Athena;, lib. iv. p. 153, ad fin. ^ Ovid. Amor. Eleg. vi. Sueton. de dar. orat. 1 Juveual. Sat. xi. 80. Plin. lib. xviii. c. 3. Martial, lib. ix. Epigr. xxiii. Lucan. Phars. vii. 402. k Sueton. in Claud. eensor Cato did not restrain him from selling all who had grown superannuated in his service, and recommending to his fellow-citizens such barbarous parsimony as a general maxim of just ceconomy1. If the master of a family was murdered in his house, all his domesticks, men, women, and children, were put to death; and, in one execution of this kind, four hundred, comprehending persons of all these descriptions, were led forth in a long and dismal procession to the fatal block, to expiate a crime of which perhaps not more than one of them had been guilty.” Nevertheless, the domestic slaves were less exposed to ill treatment than those employed in the country, who, being for the most part left to the management of an overseer, had not even the mercenary care of an interested proprietor to protect them from momentary rage or systematic cruelty. 131. Multitudes of them were employed in subterraneous dungeons called Ergastula, or workhouses; of which there were great numbers, both public and private, all over Italy and the adjoining provinces. In a private one, under the government of a master spoken of as mild, the wretched inhabitants are thus described by an eye-witness: “ Their skins,” says he, “ were all over discoloured “ with livid weals; their foreheads stigmatised; their hair half shorn; “ their eyelashes corroded; their feet in irons; their wounded backs “ rather shaded, than covered, with a tattered garment; and their whole " appearance dirty and dreary.”0 What must have been their condition in the public prisons of this kind under cruel governors, who had equal powers to destroy, without having any interest in their preservation? Despair sometimes drove them to rebel, and when they did break loose, the measure of their revenge was proportioned to the depth of their misery. 132. A little more than a century before the final establishment of the monarchy, one Eunus, a Syrian, collected a rabble of about two thousand of his fellow slaves, in Sicily, by pretending to divine inspiration, and supporting his pretensions with the usual tricks of imposture. All the Ergastula were immediately broke open, and a lawless mob of sixty thousand desperate wretches turned forth 1 Plutarch, in Caton. " Tacit Ann. lib. xiv. c. 42, et seq. ' Apuleii Metamorph. lib. ix. slaughter, till the Roman armies, after suffering repeated defeats, overpowered them. 133. Before tranquillity was entirely restored, another rebellion of the same kind, and still more important in its consequences, was excited by a Cilician slave, named Athenio, who also defeated the Roman armies, and was at length only overcome by famine, which the enormities of his own followers must have contributed to produce.0 134. About sixty years after a similar rebellion took place in Italy, which, being conducted by a leader of eourage and eapacity equal to the undertaking, endangered the very existence of Rome. Spar-tacus, a native of Thraee, who had served in the Roman armies, and been condemned for desertion and other malpractices to the sports of the amphitheatre, escaped from Capua, where he was in training for that purpose, with about thirty of his companious,p who, having armed themselves by plundering the neighbourhood, broke open the Ergastula, and called the slaves to liberty. About ten thousand were soon collected, with whom they occupied the cavities of mount Vesuvius, then not burning, and maintained themselves by predatory excursions into the adjoining country; till having, by two desperate efforts, conducted with great skill and vigour, defeated two detachments of soldiers sent against them, their numbers suddenly increased to seventy thousand, and acquired, by the genius and activity of their leader, the form and force of a regular army, spreading terror and desolation all over Italy. The two consuls were then sent against them with a numerous and well-appointed army: but, as Spartacus saw that his resources would not enable him to maintain a war against the whole power of the republick, he shunned an engagement; and, dividing his forces into two bodies, endeavoured to effect a retreat into the northern parts of Gaul, then divided into a number of little states independent of the Romans. The consuls also divided their legions; and, while one watched the motions of Spartacus, the other attacked and totally defeated the separate division, ° Flor. lib. iii. c. 19. p Ibid. c. 20. Cicer. Ep. ad Attic, lib. vi. Other authors have seventy: but the smaller number seems to rest on the best authority. See Freinsh. Not. in Flor. 1. c. amounting to thirty thousand, under the command of his associate Crixus, who fell in the aetion. They then endeavoured to surround the main army of the slaves in the defiles of the Appennines: but the vigilance and activity of Spartacus prevented the execution of their plan, and totally defeated them, one after the other. 135. All the numerous bodies of slaves, which occupied the extensive farms, or were confined in the different ergastula of the north of Italy, then joined him; and(he marched, with an hundred and twenty thousand of these desperate outlaws, who neither gave nor received quarter, towards the city of Rome. The consuls again collected their forces, and attacked him jointly, but were again defeated with great slaughter; and it seems probable that, had not the fear of the distant armies, which were then overturning the great monarchies of Asia, and keeping Europe and Africa in subjection, restrained him from trusting his ungovernable forces to the licence of a sack, the city itself, which was insulting and pillaging the world, might have fallen a victim to the most abject tools of its own tyranny. But, whether from this consideration, or from want of authority to direct his lawless multitudes, Spartacus marched back to the south of Italy, leaving solitude and desolation behind him wherever he passed, and thus giving the Romans time to collect troops from the provinces to the amount of eight legions, forming the most numerous army that they had ever employed in one effort since the battle of Cannae. With this Marcus Eicinius Crassus opened the next campaign, being the third of this disgraceful war; and after having restored discipline by many rigorous executions, attacked and defeated, in repeated engagements, and at length totally destroyed the insurgents; all of whom with their leader died fighting, except about six thousand, who were taken and hung upon crosses and gibbets along the roads between Capua and Rome.q 136. In these dreadful convulsions it has been computed that upwards of a million of slaves perished;r but even supposing that this number comprehends all that were killed on both sides, the calamity was excessive; and when added to the civil and social wars, and ' Appian.de R. C. lib, i. Plutarch, in C’rasso. The accounts differ, and neither is very clear; but we have preferred that of Appian. 1 Athena:, lib. vi. c. 20. t period, is sufficient to account for that vast diminution of the human race, which accompanied the establishment of the Roman empire. The mere waste of war, indeed, is soon replenished, where the natural principles of increase are favoured and protected by the moral and political institutions of society and government: but, in the Roman empire, all the springs of disorder and causes of decay were suffered to exist, and consequently to increase: for, in political, as well as civil bodies, the powers of destruction arc multiplied in a compound, and those of preservation only in a simple proportion to their extent: whence the progress of depopulation proceeded with accelerated and uninterrupted rapidity during the whole continuance of that empire.* 137. Greece, which at the time of its depression under the Macedonian yoke, after long aud slaughterous wars and seditions, produced, (exclusive of the Lacedemonians, the most powerful and martial state,) two hundred thousand infantry and fifteen thousand cavalry, all free citizens capable of military service,1 was so depopulated, at the most 0 prosperous and splendid period of the Roman monarchy, that it could scarcely produce three thousand capable of bearing anns;v a number so small that an ingenious writer, not otherwise an advocate for the popnlousness of antient countries, has supposed it to be erroneous." Had he, however, attended to the account given of that unfortunate province, about a eentury before, under the reign of Augustus, by a most acute and accurate observer;" and considered, also, that the causes of decay, which had then so fatally operated, continued to operate through all the intermediate period, he would have found the computation perfectly reasonable. * Tlie Dictator Csesar, during the few months that elapsed between the termination of the civil war and his death, had begun the most salutary reforms; and he had both courage and capacity to have enforced and completed them. lie reduced the number of persons receiving public donations of com, from three hundred and twenty thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand; and enacted a law that the third part at least of the persons employed in tending the flocks and herds of the landholders, should be free men. 11c also planned a simplification of the laws, which would have given security to small properties. Sueton. in Cass. Whatever were the motives for his assassination, it was one of the most disastrous events that ever befel mankind: nor would the consequences have been better, had the conspirators been successful in the war that ensued. * Justin. lib. ix. c. 5. T Plutarch, de orac. defect. “ Hume on the popnlousness of antient nations. * Strabo, lib. vii. 138. 4 Most of the country,’ says Strabo, ‘ is desert; the inhabitants A. C. n. 50—o ‘ and cities having disappeared/ Messena and Laconia, the most ‘ fertile and delightful parts of the Peloponnesus, have not more than * thirty villages, where there were formerly an hundred; the greatest * part of the country being abandoned.7 Epirus and Illyria, though * mountainous, were once full of people; but now many parts are * quite desolate, and the rest exhibit only villages and ruins/ Arcadia ‘ is so entirely ruined, as not to admit of much description; the cities, 4 formerly illustrious, being now utterly vanished, and the husbandmen 4 all gone. Megalopolis, (the great city) is become a great desert;1 * 3 * * 6 4 and Orchomenus, Hersea, Cleitor, Pheneus, Stymphalus, Mmnalus, 4 Methydrium, Capycis, Cynastha, and Mautinea are either totally 4 destroyed, or only small traces of them left. Thespiae and Tanagrab 4 are the only towns remaining in Baeotia; of the rest there being 4 only the names and the ruins.’c 130. The devastation of Sicily was still more general and complete; the whole island being little better than a desert: for, as the land, like that of Italy, was chiefly possessed by the rich citizens of Rome, and occupied by slaves employed in tending their numerous herds and flocks, it suffered the same evils in a still greater degree. All the rich coast from Pachynus to Lilybreum, once distinguished by so many splendid and powerful cities, of which the ruins and the coins still attest the opulence, the magnificence, and the taste, was then scarcely rescued from solitude/ Bands of fugitive slaves marauded every part of the island; and kept the few inhabitants, that were left, in a state of continual distrust and apprehension/ 140. The same causes, and the same effects extended to Africa ;f and, probably, in a greater or less degree, to all the southern and eastern provinces; the original sources of civilization, and the primary seats of arts and letters. Asia seems, however, to have suffered less 1 r*){ n-AfiOIi Xtog&S xai ruv xaTsixiiv, x*i jaxAir* Ttov iroXeuv Ibid. y Xidoas fx^fXfifxfAEviis rur u-Aitj“’!?. Lib. viii. 1 Outru Tfaxtet xat 0(unrXrifX(.........................evanSfti >! rt Hirsifoj ■Karra xai r, mil Sc t* ■troXX.a jxtv efr/xta xctTfX“" T* ^ oixttpcna. xupvSov xai e» tftnrutf Xc literal. Lib. vii. * Ejxi*t* jr-cyaXn so» i5 Mi^aAoTroAK. Lib. viii. The expression seems to have become proverbial. b H bxet’ um, h poAi? aurav i%yn (fixmrai xcci Ibid. ' Ibid. 6 H'jU!» airo t* ITa^uv* irjof to AiAoSjuov Simma cxXcXcntrai TfAfwf, Tina tru^taa ruv Kf^aiuv xareixiuv. Ibid. lib. vii. *Ibid. f Ibid. lib. xviii. p. 831. "■w man Europe, aim gl«.. ------—.... 1 rr pired where it began: the last traces of it being to be found upon the coins of the last monarchs of Syria and Pontus. As Rome was the centre of wealth, as well as empire, the best artists from all the provinces, of course, sought employment there; and as the custom of erecting statues to the emperor, the consuls, proconsuls, &c. was very general, there was sufficient for a great number. It was, however, but a minute and paltry kind of work; the Romans seeking for accuracy of likeness rather than excellence of art in these portraits; and requiring them either to be cased in armour, or loaded with heavy drapery, according to the character and office of the person represented.8 141. The statues of deities, heroes, &c. which adorned their temples, theatres, baths, palaces and villas, were either from the plunder of the Greek cities, or copies made from the masterpieces which p. c. n. o_ still continued, or which had once enriched them . but that kind of employment, which calls forth inventive genius, and which by joining the efforts of the hand to those of the mind, produces works of taste and feeling, as well as of technical skill and dexterity, seems to have ceased with the Greek repnblicks and Macedonian kings. A tame, minute, and elaborate style ensued, in which the want of bold expression, original character, and striking effect in the whole, was feebly compensated by accurate detail, faithful imitation, and neat finishing in all the parts. This will fully appear by comparing the portraits and figures upon the coins of Alexander and his successors with those on the medals of the Roman emperors, from Augnstus to Trajan: the difference is little less than that between the productions of the pencils of Titian and Rubens, and those of Dcnner and Van-derwerf.11 * See the consular figures, of which many have been published. Declaratur autem Studium bellies gloris quod statuas quoque videmus ornatu fere militari. Cic. Off. lib. i. s. 18. k Pliny attributes the failure in the colossus of Nero of an artist, who so perfectly imitated the cups of Calamis, to want of science in casting of brass, which he considers as an art then lost. Ea statua (Neronis colossus) indicavit interiisse fundendi seris scientiam, cum et Nero largiri aurum et argentum paratus esset, et Zenodorus, scientia fingendi cadandiqiie nulli veterum postpo-neretur, statuam Arvernorum cum faceret, provincial Vibio Avito presidente, duo pocuia Calamidis manuccelata, qua; Cassio Syllano avunculo ejus, preceptori suo, Germanicus Csesar adamata donaverat, jemulatus est, ut vix ulla differentia esset artis. Quantoque major in Zenoiloro prastantia fuit, tanto magis deprehendi seris obliteratio potest. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxiv. c. 18. Other causes however probably concurred. The hand might copy small details, when the mind could not combine a great whole. 142. This style appears to have continued during the whole of this P. C. n. 100. period with scarcely any variation, except perhaps a little improvement in the refinements of finishing; of which both the coins, the gems, and the busts, exhibiting the portraits of the different emperors, contain the most exquisite specimens; but which having been frequently engraved, and being well known, we have forborne to publish any of them in this collection. Of the style of "invention and composition, during this period, the column of Trajan affords abun- p. c. n. ioo~ 200. dant examples; to which may be added the articles engraved in Plates LXIX_____LXX. of this volume. 143. In the beginning of the succeeding period, from Hadrian to Scptimius Severus, a style of refinement bordering upon affectation both in the composition and execution of the hair and drapery, is discernible. Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius were each of them practitioners in different branches of art;1 and, of all its dangerous innovators and corrupters, an imperial artist is the most dangerous. His practical skill and science can never amount to more than what is just sufficient to pervert his judgment, by making him view the performances of all others through the medium of his own; which, be they ever so vicious and imperfect, will be certain of the unqualified applauses of all around him; who being all the wealthy and powerful, his style becomes the criterion of taste, and the artist who is bold enough to renounce its authority, must, at the same time, renounce employment. Both these princes, as well as their respective predecessors, were magnificent patrons and encouragers of art, in all its several branches; and their own portraits, as well as those of their contemporaries Antinous and Lucius Verus, abundantly prove that they had artists, in their employ, capable of every possible refinement and delicacy of execution: but, nevertheless, the Antonine column is a great and melancholy illustration of the general decline of art during this period. Compared with that of Trajan, it is equally poor both in design and execution. 144. The continued progress and increase of slavery may also be justly reckoned among the causes of the decline and corruption of art ‘ See Hist. August. &c. U of Rome contained practitioners in every art, and professors in every science: but a liberal art exercised by a slave is at once degraded to a manufacture. The consciousness of his condition, in which even his existence is dependant upon another and cannot properly be called his own, cramps every thought and paralyses every effort; so as to render him a mere passive tool or instrument in the hands of his employer. The figure engraved in Plate LXXI. is of an artist of this description, a freedman of Marcus Cossutius probably of this age: but whether it be an original work, or a copy from some more celebrated production of an earlier period, the reader will judge from the print, and the description given with it. To this century we likewise attribute the bust engraved in Plates LXXII—JII. and also the greatest part of the small figures in brass of ^Egyptian deities, so numerous and common in almost all collections of antiquities. The ./Egyptian worship of the times spread itself over the whole empire under Hadrian and his successors; and the multiplication of little images of Osiris, Isis, and Horns, as objects of private devotion, was endless: but as they are all mere imitations of the ^Egyptian style, and mostly repetitions of well known ./Egyptian compositions, we have not thought any of them sufficiently interesting to publish. 145. The accession of Septimius Severus to the imperial purple introduced a new system of government, or rather of military tyranny and anarchy, fatal to art, literature, and civilization; and ultimately to the empire itself. In the vain hope of having an army in the capital sufficient to overcome the distant legions, he quadrupled the number of the praetorian guards; and instead of levying them from the civilized inhabitants of Italy and the neighbouring provinces, drafted them from those legions ; making this domestic service a sort of honorary reward for such of them as had been distinguished for their bravery, diligence and fidelity in more laborious stations. Rome was thus filled with rude barbarians, whose boisterous manners and uncouth dialects contributed to banish all that was elegant and polite from the court: and whose coarse luxury, and licentious rapacity was only distinguished from that of their predecessors by more brutal excesses of violence and eruelty.k These drafted recruits became P. C. n. 200— likewise a sort of delegates from the distant legions, by keeping up a correspondence with their antient comrades;1 whence it became necessary to conciliate them also by increased pay, more extensive privileges, and a general relaxation of discipline.1" 146. The praetorian prsefect became henceforward, like an oriental vizier, equally formidable to the prince and oppressive to his subjects. Plautianus, who first held that office under the new government, made the whole empire feel his pride, eruelty, and rapacity; putting to death many illustrious men by his own authority; and castrating, at one time, an hundred free citizens, several of them fathers of families, in order that his daughter Plautilla, afterwards married to the emperor’s son and successor, might have eunuchs to instruct her in all the different brandies of seienee, as well as to be her ordinary attendants." 147- Military discipline and subordination were still further corrupted and relaxed by the jealousy and timidity naturally attending sueh atrocious despotism; every soldier being a spy upon his officer, and, of course, every officer a slave to his soldiers. To sueh an excess was this carried that Julius Crispus, a praetorian tribune, was condemned and executed, upon the evidence of a private of his own cohort, for reciting some lines from Virgil applicable to the misery of the times,0 and the soldier rewarded for his perfidy with the commission of his unfortunate commander.p 148. This system totally counteracted the ends for whieh it was intended: and instead of giving security to the person of the prince, and stability to his power, proved utterly subversive of both. Severus, indeed, by his vigour and activity preserved his authority to the natural end of his life: but of his next twenty successors, who followed eaeh other in the short period of seventy years, only one died a natural death; and he after a reign of only two years.’ All the others fell by mutiny or rebellion, excepting only one, and he expired a captive in a foreign country; a situation into which the k Dion. lib. Ixxiv. Herodian lib. iii. 1 Dion, in fragm. lib Ixxx. " Herodian. ibid, llist August-" Dion. lib. l.xxv. s. 14. * Scilicet, ut Tu mo contingat regia conjnnx. Nos, animaj viies, inhumata infletaque turba, Stemamur campis. jEn. xi. 372. * Dion. lib. lxxv. s. 10. « Claudius, an. 269. disorders 01 uie army, as umui mo u»» — -....... j ~.. ta|cnts.. had brought him.r Every army thought only of making its eommander sovereign in order to obtain a more unbounded licence of plundering the unhappy provincials; and the imperial phantom, under the sanction of whose name they committed their outrages, found in the transient emblems of power, the certain apparatus of death. 149. Amidst the disorders of this military democracy, the clouds of barbarism and ignorance rapidly overspread the earth. The figures on the triumphal arch of Severus, prove, that all taste or skill in composition had vanished even in his reign; though the portraits both in marble, and on coins, prove, that accuracy of imitation and nicety of finishing prevailed even to the time of the Gordians.' Farther it is in vain to trace the progress of art; whieh, in the last stages of corruption and debasement, is necessarily as uninteresting, as it is interesting in its first efforts of improvement. The primary attempts of a people emerging from barbarism have always a character of original meaning and intelligence, which, how imperfectly soever expressed, will always excite sentiments similar to those from which it sprang: but the operose productions of a people sinking into darkness are either servile and vapid imitations of the works of better days, or crude and abortive efforts of invention; which, being no longer guided by feeling and observation, seeks only for novelty, and thus deviates into glitter and extravagance. Of original compositions of this period we scarcely know of any extant, except those on the arch of Severus; and, perhaps, the figures on the head-piece of the helmet found in Lancashire, and published by the Society of Antiquaries. It is possible too that the figures engraved in Plates LXXIV.—V. of this volume may be of the invention as well as workmanship of this century; for we do not remember to have met with this fat and bloated form of the young Bacchus in any monuments of earlier times; and it appears to have arisen out of the corruption of religion as well as of art. Coarse and inelegant, however, as the design of these figures is, the surfaee is more soft and fleshy than the best modern sculptor has ever been able to give to metal. The mystical and symbolical composition of 'Valerian, an. 860. * An. S40. the group, Plate LXXV, which will be explained in the preliminary P.C.n.200— dissertation to the next volume, may seem indeed to be of an earlier and better age; but the mystic system, though degraded and corrupted, was not yet extinct; and the meanness of the characters, poverty of the drapery, and feebleness of the action, all indicate an expiring effort of the art. PLATE I. This figure of the ^Egyptian god Ammon, being a monument of considerable importance in the history of the art, has already been described in the preliminary dissertation to this volume, Sect. 5; and an explanation of the symbols of the Ram, &c. of which it is composed, will be given in the preliminary dissertation to the next. It was brought from ./Egypt by the late Duc de Chaulnes; who said that he had purchased it at Cahira of a person who had brought it from the Thebaide; and the preservation of all that has not been destroyed or injured by violence, is such as might be expected from that dry region; the surface being exactly as it came from the tool of the artist, without any appearance of decomposition or incrustation. All that is represented in the print is antient, except the base on which the figure sits; upon which a representation is given, from a medal of Myndus in the cabinet of Mr. Payne Knight, of the sort of ornament which originally decorated the head, and of which the component symbols will be explained in the preliminary dissertation to the next volume. It is extremely common both on iEgyp-tian monuments, and on Greek, executed after the Macedonian conquest, when many of the ^Egyptian deities were adopted by the conquerors; who varied the compositions, but retained the symbols, or only employed others with the same meaning. B This is the only figure of Ammon extant, with the Ram’s head on a human body, as described by Herodotus and others, that we know of; the pure animal symbol with the ornament of deification on the head being generally employed in the hieroglyphics and other such monuments; and the human head, with the horns only of the Ram, having been adopted by the Greek artists in representing this deity, even long before the establishment of the Macedonian dynasty; as appears by the medals of Barcc, Cyrene, 8ce. of a very early fabrick. The height of this figure, if standing erect, would be upwards of two feet and an half, exclusive of the ornament on the head; which is more than that of any other ^Egyptian figure in metal that has come to our knowledge. PLATE IT. Of the ^Egyptian monuments in brass, with which we are acquainted, the next in size and importance to the last article is this figure of Osiris, which is two feet two inches high; and which, though less elaborately finished, and in a less an-tient style, has the important advantage of being quite entire, with its eyes of paste to imitate nature, and the symbols of the hook and winnow, which will be explained in the preliminary dissertation to the next volume, complete in the hands. The pastes in the eyes are, indeed, become dim and opaque; and the surface has in some parts begun to be decomposed: though the antient gilding, with which it was covered, is preserved in others; and the antient winnow, the mystica vanmis Iacchi, is more distinctly and explicitly represented than in any other monument extant. The character of the Bull, the animal symbol of this deity, is more prevalent than it usually is in similar figures; and the hair on each side, under the winged cap, is drawn out and twisted into a very accurate resemblance of a horn, four inches long; both of which, as well as the symbols in the hands, have been cast and wrought separately. The features of the face are marked with all that squareness, breadth, and sharpness, which distinguish the genuine works of antient rEgypt: but they appear quite fixed and motionless, as if never meant to express thought, sentiment, or passion. Figures of similar composition, as well as others of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, are extremely common of a small size; the greater part of which were made in the ^Egyptian manner under the Emperor Hadrian and his successors; when a kind of sophisticated ^Egyptian worship had spread itself over the whole Roman empire. This was brought from iEgypt in the year 1804. BAS AI. T Heroic sire PLATE III. This head of Osiris, the fragment of a statue in green ba-saltes, of the earliest style of ^Egyptian seulpture, affords an apt illustration of what has been said in the preliminary dissertation, Seet. 7, of the breadth, truth, and sharpness, with which that people wrought a material so hard and brittle that no tool will hew it. Nothing is more puzzling to a modern artist, than the means, by whieh this effeet was accomplished: for we can more easily coneeive how the theoretical seienee and manual dexterity, displayed in the groupe of Laoeoon and his sons, were acquired, than how the meehanieal skill and methodical labour, employed in works of this kind, were exerted. The truth of the surfaee, whether it be in the undulating forms of the human countenance, or in the inclined plane of an obelisk, is always perfect, in materials that eannot be worked either with the chisel or the saw; of which the eurious monuments brought by our victorious army from iEgypt, and now in the British Museum, afford abundant specimens. This head was brought from that country by the late Due de Chaulnes; and has the rare merit of having its antient polish perfectly preserved: but the nose, and the serpent on the forehead are restored; the latter improperly, as it should have been the hooded snake. PLATE IV. The curious and elaborate specimen of old Etrusean work, of which two views are here given, appears, as has been already stated in the preliminary dissertation, Seet. 40, not to have been east, but to have been carved out of a piece of hammered metal, about four and an half inches long, two and an half wide, and three quarters thick; all the projections corresponding with each other, and all being limited within these dimensions. The sandals, drapery, and formal distribution of the hair and beard seem to be those of the artist’s age and eountry, and give the figures a character of individuality; at the same time that the forms of the features and diadems convince us, on closer inspection, that they were meant for Deities; probably either Jupiter and Juno, or Vertumnus and Pomona, the Etruscan Baechus and Ariadne. Of the personages indeed of Etruscan mythology we know but litde, where they differ from the Greek and Roman; and it is possible that these may be some, whose history, and even whose names are not preserved. That they are however Etruscan, and not either Greek or Phoenician, the pointed shoes or sandals sufficiently evinee; though we know nothing of the place of their discovery; nor ean traee them farther than to a broker’s shop in London. I PLATES Y. AND Vf. Exhibit three views of a head of Apollo in marble, an-tiently copied from a very early production of Greek sculpture in brass; in which the ringlets of hair hanging over the forehead and down the neck had been manifestly cast and wrought separately; and then fastened to the head in the manner stated in the preliminary dissertation, Sect. 45. In the second plate the artist has been guilty of a fault, which we have found it difficult to prevent, that of indulging his own taste for the elegant and beautiful at the expense of fidelity of imitation: but in the first, the strongly marked coarse features of the primitive style are accurately rendered, and the general character of the head, which is probably taken from that of a colossal statue, and consequently made to be seen at a distance from the eye, is well preserved. Even in the marble copy, however, made perhaps about the time of Hadrian, the rigor and severity of the original brass were probably much relaxed and softened: artists in all ages and countries having the same tendency to blend their own style, which they naturally think the best, with that which they are employed to imitate. The character of this head has a strong resemblance to some of the most antient of those of the same deity on the silver tetradrachms of Leontium in Sicily. D ftUrVH MAAp/'/.r ,c r.±A‘snoirA‘ AJ>/L,kfJ IjT./W t.lnhiH L*»hCm-Ln , ,rcy PLATE YII. Equally copied from a very antient statue in brass is the marble head here represented; the character of the early style of finishing with an engraving tool being accurately preserved in the hair, though originally of the same mass with the rest, and not attached, as in the last article. From the disposition, as well as from the expression of the countenance, we suspect it to have belonged to a figure of Venus; though it has nothing of that exquisite and voluptuous beauty, which later artists, in ages of greater refinement, attributed to the goddess of love; but has, on the contrary, a strongly marked, and rather a coarse character of individual nature, such as is observable in the features of all the goddesses exhibited on the very early coins of the Greek cities;* when the best artists attempted only to copy what they saw; and had not yet learned to refine and exalt their ideas of particulars, by taking a general abstract from the whole. This head was found by Mr. Gavin Hamilton in the neighbourhood of Rome; and is in excellent preservation, exactly as exhibited in the print. 'See the heads of Jlinerva on those of Athens and Corinth; of Proserpine on those of Syracuse; of Venus on those of Velia; &c. PLATE VIII. In nearly the same style, and also eopied from some very early work in brass, is this marble head of Baeehus; which is represented with equal fidelity in the print, so as to render description unnecessary. The almost infinite variety of forms and characters, under which this mystic deity was represented, according to the different personifications of his different attributes, will be explained systematically in the preliminary dissertation to the next volume; and at present we shall only observe that, in this character, the practice of the early artists, of eopying individual nature in ideal personages, has eaused the heads of Baeehus to be frequently mistaken for portraits of the philosopher Plato; whose features appear to have had the same resemblance to him, as those of Socrates had to Silcnus; at least if any of the heads supposed to be of Plato be really portraits of him, and not images of Baeehus, as we are inclined to suspeet: for we know of none that has been found with the name; nor of any antient author, who has noticed the resemblance, as in the case of Socrates; whose portrait is nevertheless always easily distinguishable, by the faee being more flat, the eyes more prominent, and the brows less deep and projecting than in the heads of the god. E PLATES IX and X. Of this most eurious and elaborate eolossal head of Hereules, we have treated at large in the preliminary dissertation, Seet. 46, 7; and have therefore only to add that its preservation is perfeet, as represented in the prints, with its antient polish entire; exeept a part of the nose; which being so mueh exposed to injury, has rarely eseaped in antient marbles. The Emperor Hadrian, instead of stripping the Greeian eities of their antient and saered ornaments, repaired and embellished them; and adorned Rome and its neighbourhood with elegant and magnifieent eopies of the venerable works of seulpture and arehiteeture, whieh had attracted his attention during his survey of the empire. In his favourite villa at Tivoli alone appear to have been examples of buildings and statues of every age, and eountry, that had eome within his observation; specimens of whieh have been dug up from its ruins; where this head was found by the late Mr. Gavin Hamilton. In a muddy pool or swamp, whieh had probably been a reservoir, or Piseina, belonging to the villa, were found many eart loads of marble fragments of heads, legs, arms, bodies &e. whieh appeared to have been purposely broken to pieees and thrown in; a proof that the destruction here, as in other places, was not by the sudden impulse of barbarian fury, but by the deliberate operation of religious bigotry. It appears from Pro-eopius's aeeount of the siege of Rome under Belisarius, that most, if not all, of the fine monuments of art, whieh had been left there by Constantine, were then entire, and highly valued by the inhabitants; so that the Vandals and Goths, who had successively possessed the eity for near a eentury before, have been unjustly aeeused of its devastation. PLATE XI. The peculiar mode of representing the hair, in this very an-tient piece of sculpture in low relief, of Hercules taming the hind, has been accounted for, in the manner that appears to us most satisfactory, in the preliminary dissertation to this volume, Sect. 44—7; anv ert yv,uvo?, eri ntom,uottri -yeyrßw. Arg. ü. 705. PLATES XLY. and XLYI. This head of Venus appears to be a fragment of a statue similar to that whieh lately adorned the Mediei collection; but of larger size and finer sculpture. The features are equally regular and beautiful, the expression equally delicate and voluptuous, and more perfectly marked by a more masterly and scientific hand. It has also the great advantage of having the antient polish of .its original surfaee preserved entire; whereas that has been repolished since it was discovered; by which the sharpness and animation of the features have been considerably injured. The nose, however, and part of the upper lip of this have been restored, as indicated by the dotted line in the side view. In other respects it is perfect and entire, and may not improbably be a relique of the parent statue, from which so many have been derived. PLATE XLYII. We are not quite satisfied whether this small figure represents Vulcan or Ulysses; the smith’s cap of the one and the mariner’s cap of the other being of the same form; and Vulcan being represented under different personifications with totally different features; sometimes as a beardless youth, and sometimes with the characteristic marks of age." There is, indeed, a similar figure published by la Chausse,” which would deeide this to be a Vulcan, were we assured that the symbols in the hands were antient; but as that antiquary is inexeusably negligent in not noticing restorations, his authority is not to be relied upon; and that figure might possibly have been the hero with the implements of a shipwright, instead of the god with the implements of a smith. The features in both figures arc more like those attributed to Ulysses in less equivocal monuments, than to those ever attributed to Vulcan; of whom however we know of no statue or bust extant, nor any representation on coins unless those only of fEsernia and Lipari. It is observed nevertheless by Pliny that the cap was first given to Ulysses by Nieomachus, a painter of the times of Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great;1' and the style of this ” See coins of jEsernia and Lipari. 0 Mus. Rom. Vol. I. s. ii. lab. 26, P Hist. Nat. lib. xxxv. c. 10. X is very excellent, and all that remains in tolerably good preservation; but half of the right leg, and the whole of the left are restored. It has probably been copied from some large statue of great excellence and celebrity. VI PLATE XLVIII. Among the fragments of Grecian statues, which have escaped the destructive fury of that barbarism and bigotry, which broke them in pieces, there are few more elegant and beautiful than this head of Diana in Parian marble. Chaste severity and virginal sweetness and simplicity are most happily blended in the character; and the fleshy and elastic appearance of the features, and flowing lightness and luxuriance of the hair are as perfect as we can conceive the material to admit of. It seems to have been part of an original figure, the execution as well as design of which was of the most refined age of the art. It is quite entire; the antient polish of the surface being perfectly preserved throughout. PLATE XLIX. In the same style of excellence, and degree of preservation is this head of Minerva; which has been part of a statue, of which the helmet, aegis, and probably the drapery, were of metal; and which may serve to shew the effect of the great works of great artists in these mixed materials. It must have been splendid and imposing to a degree, which we can now scarcely imagine, especially in the temples, where it aided, and was aided by the influence of religion. The eyes have also been composed of some more splendid material, and ought to have been so restored, with the helmet and aegis; the animation of the features and brilliancy of the whole requiring such an accompaniment, for which the artist had adapted the marble. PLATE L. The religious and symbolical meaning of this curious and elegant figure of the mystic eupid, or spirit upon the waters, shall be duly explained in the preliminary dissertation to the second volume, and at present we shall merely consider it as a work of art. It is quite entire except some small bits of the foliage; which have been broken off, but remain in fragments. The surface, which is black, is in perfect preservation, the antient polish remaining: and the eyes are of silver; with which the inside feathers of the wings have also been curiously inlaid. The sculpture is of that delicate fine style, which immediately preceded the Macedonian conquest; the grace and simplicity of the attitude; the majestic elegance of the forms; the fleshy roundness of the limbs and muscles; and the lightness, elasticity, and spirit of the hair and countenance being all admirably expressed. The hands appear to have held some symbols which are now lost; nor do we know of any similar composition extant, that ean afford information concerning them. The figure seems to have been originally intended to turn upon a pivot as a vane; in which manner it is now remounted. It was sent from Rome; but where or when found we have not been able to discover. .u.iitiiii/x ,i/-t_) \saa ii'.v PLATE LI. In the same style, and of the same period is this beautiful head of Mercury; which appears to be the fragment of a statue holding the purse and caduceus, nearly similar to that engraved in Plates XXXIII and XXXIV, except that the head is turned the other way; as it frequently is in such compositions, which are by no means uncommon. This is quite entire, with its antient surface uninjured, except the rim of the bonnet, part of which has been broken and restored. The execution is as perfect as the design is beautiful; and both are so accurately rendered in the print, as to require no aid from description, PLATES LII. AND Llll. We have said so mueh of this fine figure of Jupiter in the preliminary dissertation on the rise and progress of the art, Sect. 8Ö, that little is left for us to observe at present. It was found at Paramithia in Epirus, with the artieles engraved in Plates XXXII, XLIII, and XLIV, and others which will be described in this work; and is entire exeept the symbols in the hands, a few of the fingers and toes, and the parts of the mantle, which are left unshaded in the first Plate LII, whieh have been restored from a small figure in silver of the same composition, and belonging to the same eolleetion. The second Plate, LIII, exhibits it without these restores: but the delineator has failed in his representation both of the eharae-ter and proportions; whieh have nothing of the dignity, grandeur, or lightness of the original. The first view has been more sueeessful, though not so mueh so as others in this volume by the same hand. The eyes are of silver with the pupils open; and also the teeth; a peculiarity, whieh we have not observed in more than one other antient work in brass. The preservation of all that remains is throughout perfect; the antient polish of the surfaee being quite entire, and rather improved than injured by time; whieh has given it a rich tint of deep green, equally grateful to the eye, and favourable to the display of art. PLATE LIY. The unparalleled grandeur of character and expression in this head has induced us to give it a place in our work, notwithstanding its mutilated state; the nose, chin, part of the lower lip, and the crest being restored; and the surface of tire rest stained and corroded. The sublimity of it is however unimpaired, and would be felt and discerned if only a single brow remained. It is in all respects worthy of Lysippus himself; and the statue or group, of which it is a fragment, may have been copied from a work of his in brass: for he never wrought in marble. It probably represented one of the Homeric heroes,. perhaps Ajax in the last scene of his life, recovered from his insanity, and about to kill himself. It appears however, from an Etruscan gem in the Orleans collection,’ that, according to some traditions, the body of Achilles was borne off by Ajax, (which Ovid, in the speeches which he has probably translated from the Greek tragedy on the same subject, attributes to Ulysses;') and it is possible that this head may have belonged to a group in which Ajax was so employed. Dignified grief is the predominant expression; and that might have been either for his own misfortunes, or the loss of his friend and relative. r Metamorph. xiii. 284. 2 A ’ Vol. ii. plate 2. PLATES LY. and LVI. This pantheic bust of the mystic Bacchus, or personification of the general pervading spirit, was found near Aquila in the kingdom of Naples, in the year 1775, and sent from Rome by Mr. Byres. The sculpture is of the finest style of the Macedonian times, entire and in good preservation; though the delicacy of the original surface is somewhat injured by the accretion of a coat of black ferruginous rust, which cannot be separated from it. The eyes arc of silver without any indications of the pupils; and it has goafs dewlaps, bull’s ears, fish issuing out of tire temples, with crab’s claws upon the top of the head, as horns. The hair is loose and shaggy, like that of a goat; and the surface of. the face and breast is composed of the leaves of an aquatic plant, the whole being blended together in the most elegant and ingenious manner, so as to form a very beautiful object; the component symbols of which will be explained in the preliminaiy dissertation to the next volume; when it will appear that this seemingly capricious medley of heterogeneous parts is a most learned and systematic work, of accurate refinement and deep intelligence. PLATE EVIL This head of Heitules is principally remarkable for the character of individuality in the features; which nearly resemble those on the gold coins of Philip of Macedon; in which the portrait of the king is certainly intermixed with the ideal image of the deity; a mode of compliment not unfrequent in almost every stage of antient art. The style of finishing in this portrait is indeed of rather later date than the age of Philip, though not much; but the compliment might have been paid to him after his death; or the head, which seems to be a fragment of a statue, may have been copied from some earlier work made during his lifetime, and the details finished in the more reeent fashion. The sculpture is in all respects very good, the surfiice perfectly preserved, and the whole entire, except the nose, which is restored, as indicated by the dotted lines in the print. PLATE LVIII. This figure is that of the Venus Architis, a mystical and symbolical personage, of whose nature and attributes we shall endeavour to give a satisfactory account in the preliminary dissertation to the next volume: at present we shall confine our observations to the sculpture; which is in that broad and mellow style which immediately succeeded the Macedonian conquest. Neither the features nor the drapery are sharply or highly finished; but both are wrought for effect; and display that last effort of refinement in liberal art, which conceals the difficulties which it has surmounted, and dissembles its means in proportion as it accomplishes its ends. The figure is quite entire, and its antient surface perfectly preserved. PLATE LIX. Equally entire and no less perfectly preserved is this head of a laughing Faun; which seems to have belonged to a statue of the most exquisite design and workmanship. The momentary expression, which seems to be excited by the appearance of something ludicrous, vibrates upon the lips, sparkles in the eyes, and animates every other feature in unison, without any distortion injurious to the beauty of the whole. Even the hair, which is loose and shaggy like that of a goat, seems to partake of it, and to move with the muscles of the face. The artist, who made the drawing, though he had in general a very just feeling for antient sculpture, was rather too fond of introducing effects of light and shade, properly belonging to painting, into his imitations of it; and this fault of refinement is retained in the print, which is otherwise perfectly accurate. PLATE LX. Equally excellent, though in a totally different style, is this bust of Hercules represented at an early period of life, and with a character and expression of countenance so mild, and even voluptuous, that were it not for the short curly hair, and the chaplet of white poplar, we should take it for a Bacchus. The late proprietor Mr. Towneley suspected that it united the character of both deities: but, if,any other be blended with that of Hercules, we rather suppose it to be that of Mercury; so as to form the composition called a Hermheracles; it having terminated below in a square pillar or inverted obelisk, as the figures of the Pelasgian and Athenian Mercury, the Terpayami of Thucydides, invariably did. The meaning of this symbol shall be investigated in the preliminary dissertation to the next volume; as also that of the white poplar; which the fable of Hercules having employed a chaplet of it to cool his temples, on his return from the infernal regions,’ seems intended rather to conceal than explain; and could not have been alluded to in this bust; which exhibits him with more youthful features than he could have had at the time of performing that labour; of which representations are not unfrequent on gems. * See Serv. in iEn. viii. 276. & Macrob. Sat. lib. iii. c. 12. j. ./ oi----- — jicdvcb, wiiicn are broken, the preservation of this head is perfect and entire, even to the tip of the nose, as exhibited in the print; which is so exact as to render all further description superfluous. PLATE LXJ. The character of this beautiful head is manifestly ideal; but for what personage of poetical mythology it was meant, there are no circumstances that will warrant any reasonable conjecture. The late Mr. Towneley, whose learning and sagacity in explaining the works of antient art were equal to his taste and judgment in selecting them, held it to be one of the Dioscuri: but we have never seen any representations of those deified heroes (which arc nevertheless very numerous) without the egg cap of one parent, or the characteristic locks of hair of the other; and not many without both. It is therefore more probably of some other canonised prince or chief, in which the Grecian calendar was very rich; though few of them were raised to the dignity of gods, but merely to that of divi or saints; the principle of whose exaltation shall be explained in the preliminary dissertation to the next volume. It appears to be the fragment of a statue, and is perfectly preserved, as it came from the hand of the artist, in that soft and mellow style of sculpture, which is well expressed in the print. 2 D PLATE EXIL Our duty to the public obliges us to acknowledge that justice has not been done in the print either to the truth of the proportions, the elegance of the limbs, or the grace of the action in this fine figure of Apollo. The head is too small, the legs too large, and the posture too erect. The statue has every appearance of being an original work of a very considerable artist; the spirit and delicacy of the execution being equal to the taste and beauty of the design; and the character of intelligence in the countenance far superior to what is conveyed in the print. The whole of the right arm, the left hand with part of the lyre, and the nose are restored: but the rest is entire with its antient surface well preserved. The eggs upon the support or column arc strung with rings or beads between them, and wound round it; but their form is much more decided in the print than in the original. There is however another statue of Apollo, which was formerly at Rome, and probably now at Paris, with the same accompaniment less ambiguously expressed; and we shall show, in the preliminary dissertation to the next volume, that the egg was a mystic symbol of the first importance. The modern restorations in the marble are indicated by dotted lines in the plate; by which it will appear that there is enough of the lyre extant to leave no doubt as to its original form, which is peculiar, though not unlike that of the coins of Chalcis in Macedonia, which are certainly anterior to the subversion of that state by Philip. Draped figures of Apollo are rare: but he is so described by Ovid in the fable of his contest with Pan. Verrit humum Ti/rio saturata mitrice pallet—(Metam. lib. xi. 166.) and so he is represented upon a silver tetradrachm of Lampsacus in the cabinet of Mr. Payne Knight. It was therefore probably a Phrygian fashion. PLATE LXIII. This small figure of Serapis was found at Paramithia, near Janina in Epirus, with the three that have been already described in this volume, and others that will be described in our next. Both arms, and the left leg and foot are lost; but the latter are restored in the print. Of the arms, the right probably held a patera, and the left a cornueopiae; as in a very minute but entire figure in silver of the same deity in the same collection. All that remains of this is in perfect preservation, and of the most exquisite sculpture, exhibiting one of the finest specimens of rich, luxuriant, and, at the same time, simple and elegant drapery extant. In a figure of this size so highly and elaborately wrought, the eyes being of the same material with the rest is rather peculiar, and may have been appropriate to the personage. PLATE LXIY. This head of the Didymaean or androgynous Apollo appears to be the fragment of a statue of extremely fine sculpture. It is quite entire, with the surface perfectly preserved; and is very accurately represented in the print; though the artist has introduced too much of the painter’s beauties of play of light and shadow, and glitter of effect; which, how fascinating soever in the sister art, sculpture does not admit of; and which therefore ought not to be employed in the imitations of it; since fidelity of representation, and not beauty of effect, is the excellence required in such secondary productions of art. ttr XX/O/JT Elq PLATE LXV. This small but beautiful head of an infant Baeehus appears to have been made for one of those standard weights, which were kept in temples or courts of justice; in adorning which, so as to render them objeets of importance, it appears, from other instances extant, that very great artists were sometimes employed. Nothing ean exceed the softness and delicacy with which the features of this face are wrought, or the taste and elegance with whieh the vine leaves on the head arc dis- O posed; and the expression is of that momentary and transitory kind, for which there could be no stationary model; and which must therefore have proceeded as much from the science as the dexterity of the artist. The eyes are of silver with the pupils open; and the whole is entire, and in perfect preservation, exeept a trifling injury by a blow on the right eye- ■ brow. PLATE LXYI. Portraits, either of persons unknown, or of those whose poi traits have been repeatedly published, have so little to interest either taste or curiosity, that our plan was to admit none, unless such as had some marked peculiarity of character, style, or decoration, sufficient to engage the attention of the antiquary. This, however, being a fine specimen of art of a peiiod, when the talents of great sculptors were not debased in making portraits so promiscuously as under the Roman empire, but only of persons eminent for their rank, virtues, or abilities, the late Mr. Townelcy, by whom the selection of the Petwoi tli marbles was made, thought it deserving of a place in our volumes; and in his judgment upon such a point we feel it our duty to acquiesce. It seems to be the portrait of some Greek philosopher, orator, or statesman; and was probably mounted upon a term originally, though that upon which it is now placed has been restored together with the nose. The rest is entire; but the surface has suffered a little by corrosion. /•lucr LXTII HP KXItsItrE*q PLATE LX VII. This feminine mask of Bacchus has belonged to a vase; and besides the excellence of the sculpture, is remarkable for the elaborate luxuriance of the hair and ivy leaves; each of whieh has been wrought in a separate pieee, and afterwards joined to the wreath bound round the head. It is quite entire, except part of one ivy leaf; and the antient polish of the surface is perfectiy preserved. The eyes are of silver with the pupils open; but not deeply perforated, as is usual; and the sort of vacant stare which this peculiarity produees, adds considerably to that expression of inebriation, whieh prevails through all the features. Of these magnificent vases of different metals, which furnished the temples and eating rooms of the Greeks and Romans, it is greatly to be regretted that we have no entire specimen extant; but are left to form inadequate notions out of fragments. It is singular that the cities of Hereulaneum and Pompeii should not have afforded one. The infula and vitta, which with the ivy and roses compose the diadem, are more accurately distinguished here than wc remember to have seen them, and illustrate the line of Virgil, Lanea cl um nivea circtimdaLir itifula vitta. Georgic. III. 487- lints LXHU PLATE LXVIII. This figure of a sacrificer with his offering, is complete and entire, except the tip of the nose, tire right hand and arm, with the legs of the pig, as marked by dotted lines in the print, and some trifling splinters from the knees. Of the rest the antient polish is preserved as it came from the hands of the artist, without stain or corrosion. The sculpture is rather coarse: but in a broad good style, though savouring of the decline rather than the immaturity of art. The countenance has more of the character of ideal beauty in the marble, than has been preserved in the print; wherefore we suspect it, not to be the portrait of any individual priest or minister of worship, but one of the attendants of Bacchus, belonging to a group of which the design, as well as the execution, was of the period, to which we have attributed this figure in our preliminary dissertation to this volume. PUu I..U.\ PLATE LXIX. Were not this figure of Silenus of still coarser sculpture, and seemingly of rather a later period, we should suspect it to have belonged to the same group with the preceding; as it is on the same scale, and in the same style of design and composition. The surface is not quite so well preserved, the polish being gone: but it is otherwise entire, except the middle parts of both legs, and of the right arm, and a splinter from the eista, which is in other respects, as well as the stay or support, complete and uninjured; containing probably the mystic emblems, the egg, phallus, serpent, &e; of which an account will be given in the preliminary dissertation to the next volume. 2 H II r A'vt;, v PLATE LXX. These two small figures represent the Greek or Alexandrine Isis, the one after the ^Egyptian, and the other after the Greek fashion, though both be equally of Greek design and composition, and of Greek or Roman workmanship. The latter is a very elegant and beautiful specimen of the neat, precise, but tame style of workmanship, which prevailed under the Roman Emperors of the first century; and has probably been copied from a large statue of the same period. It is quite entire with the pail and antient pedestal complete, and the surface uninjured. The other is also complete; but the right arm has been broken off and rejoined at the shoulder, and the surface is in parts corroded and injured by cleaning; as is the case with most things, which have been found where these were, in the neighbourhood of Naples; as many a melancholy instance in the Museum of Portici may shew. Of the bird brooding on the head, we shall speak more at large on the occasion of another more important article, where it oc- curs. PLATE LXXI. This figure, of which there are two exactly the same in the Towneley collection, is rendered interesting by the inscription, which shews it to be the work of a freedman; and consequently a specimen of the style and degree of art which was attained by those practitioners of it, who constituted a part of the immense establishments of the wealthy subjects of the Roman empire. M. d’Ancarvillc, indeed, supposes it to be a copy of a statue in brass of Praxiteles, called from its celebrity the nEPIBOHTOS; and sees in it the character of Bacchus united with that of a satyr: but we suspect that he sees an union of two characters in one figure, where his author, Pliny, meant two distinct figures;' and in this before us we can discover no other character than that of a faun sufficiently tame and common-place both in design and execution. The general composition, indeed, has been so often repeated, with slight variations, that nothing is to be inferred from it in favour of its being either an original or a copy; but the poverty of the details, though correctly and elaborately finished, inclines us to think that the little invention there is in it, proceeded from the head of the same Marcus Cossutius Cerdo, whose hand ’Fecit (Praxiteles) ex sere.............item catagusam et ebrietatein, et Liberum pa- ttern, uobilemquc una Satyrum: quem Grteci Periboetou cognoniinant. Lib. xxxiv. c. 8. 21 modelled and wrought it. The arms, with the hands and symbols, from a little below the shoulders, and also the legs from a little above the knees, are modern in both figures: but the head of one of them has never been broken off. It contains however no peculiarity of character or expression to distinguish it from other heads of fauns extant. pi .ixn. c ©f Life StOKKMaXT. flare 10003 PLATES LXXII. AND LXXIII. We have given this bust a place in our selection, though an unknown portrait, and one which would not probably be very interesting if known, on account of the peculiarity of the headdress; different from any that we have seen, though manifestly a variation of a fashion, which appears, from the medals of the elder Faustina, to have arisen under Antoninus Pius. The nose, parts of the ears, and the part of the bust, indicated by a dotted line in the print, are restored: but the rest is well preserved and of good sculpture for the period. The print is in all respects a very faithful and accurate representation of it. We cannot take leave of the Pctworth marbles without bearing our testimony of unqualified approbation to the zeal, skill, and fidelity of Mr. Brettingham the architect, who collected them for the Duke of Somerset; as he also did all those at Holkham, which are good for any thing, for the Earl of Leicester. Though under the necessity, in both collections, of adapting particular articles to particular positions, in particular rooms, as furniture, he has contrived to enrich both with many pieces of rare and extraordinary excellence, without encumbering either with any thing spurious or disgracefully bad. PLATE LXX1V. This figure of the young androgynous Bacchus was met with in a broker’s shop in London; and by the manner in which the arms, that are lost, had been renewed in wood, there is reason to think that it was found in some part of this island, and restored by one of our carvers of the beginning of the eighteenth century; but no satisfactory information could be obtained concerning it. Like every thing of the kind that has been found in this country, it is of late date; certainly not earlier than the latter end of the reign of Scptimius Severus, and probably as late as that of Alexander Severus, or the Gordians. Supposing it of that time, the sculpture is extremely good: for though the proportions both of the limbs and body are short, squat, and heavy; and the features tame and motionless; the countenance is very beautiful, and the surface of the whole delieately soft and fleshy. The eyes have been of some different material, and the lips probably enamelled; the projection of the edges being greater than they would have been, unless for some such purpose. The stay and plinth are of wood, by the workman who made the restored arms; and the feet have been antiently worn smooth, like those 2K of the statues of saints in Roman Catholic Churches, by devout persons kissing them and rubbing their foreheads upon them. In other respects what remains is in good preservation, though a litde blistered in some places. PLATE LXXV. This group of a centaur bearing a cornucopia; between Hercules and disculapius, appears to be of still later date, both in design and execution; though there is a character of freedom, vigour, and decision in the manner in which it is wrought, which might cause it to be mistaken, at first sight, for the work of a happier period; when the art, instead of being past, had not reached its maturity. Upon nearer inspection, however, a flutter and affectation of negligence in the finishing, which is at the same time elaborate; a want of energy in the characters, and of precision in the extremities; and above all, a want both of richness and simplicity in the drapery, convince us that it is of the latest age to which we have thought the progress of art worth tracing; though a successful effort of that age. The surface has suffered a little by fire: but otherwise all that is left and exhibited in the print, is in good preservation, and entire. As a symbolical composition it is of great importance in explaining the systematic principles and style of antient art, in subjects connected with re- ligion; of which we shall treat at length in the preliminary dissertation to the next volume; where it will be further noticed. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.