Chap. 18.] COLOSSAL STATUES IN THE CITY. 165 



touch it, when he transferred the Hercules from that place to 

 the Capitol, where it now stands. 



But that which is by far the most worthy of our admiration, 

 is the colossal statue of the Sun, which stood formerly at 

 Bhodes, and was the work of Chares the Lindian, a pupil 

 of the above-named Lysippus f no less than seventy cubits in 

 height. Tbis statue, fifty- six years after it was erected, was 

 thrown down by an earthquake ; but even as it lies, it excites 

 our wonder and admiration.' Few men can clasp the thumb 

 in their arms, and its fingers are larger than most statues. 

 "Where the limbs are broken asunder, vast caverns are seen 

 yawning in the interior, "Within it, too, are to be seen large 

 masses of rock, by the weight of which the artist steadied it 

 while erecting it. It is said that it was twelve years before 

 this statue was completed, and that three hundred talents were 

 expended upon it ; a sum raised from the engines of wai'fare 

 which had been abandoned by King Demetrius, ^° when tired 

 of the long-protracted siege of Ehodes. In the same city 

 there are other colossal statues, one hundred in number ; but 

 though smaller than the one already mentioned, wherever 

 erected, they would, any one of them, have ennobled the place. 

 In addition to these, there are five colossal statues of the gods, 

 which were made byBryaxis.^^ 



Colossal statues used also to be made in Italy. At all events, 

 we see the Tuscan Apollo, in the library of the Temple of 

 Augustus, ^2 fifty feet in height from the toe ; and it is a question 

 whether it is more remarkable for the quality of the metal, or 

 for the beauty of the workmanship. Spurius Car villus also 

 erected the statue of Jupiter which is seen in the Capitol, after he 



8 The Colossus of Rhodes was begun by Chares, but he committed 

 suicide, in consequence of having made some mistake in the estimate ; the 

 work was completed by Laches, also an inhabitant of Lindos. — B. 



9 It remained on the spot where it was thrown down for nearly nine 

 hundred years, until the year 653 a.d., when Moavia, khalif of the 

 Saracens, after the capture of Rhodes, sold the materials ; it is said that 

 it required nine hundred camels to remove the remains. — B. 



10 Demetrius Poliorcetes. See B. xxxv. c. 36. 



11 He is mentioned by Columella, in his Introduction to his work De 

 Re Rustica, in connexion with the most celebrated Grecian artists, — B. 



12 Suetonius, in describing the temple which Augustus dedicated to 

 Apollo, on the Palatine Hill, speaks of- the Portico with, the Iiatin and 

 Greek library. — B. 



