260 plint's NATUBAX HISTOKT. [Book XXXV. 



tures, and are known as " metoposcopi, *'®^ was enabled, by an 

 examination of his portraits, to tell the year of their death, 

 whether past or future, of each person represented. Apelles 

 had been on bad terms with Ptolemseus in former times, when 

 they formed part of the suite of Alexander. After Ptolemseus 

 had become king of Egypt, it so happened that Apelles was 

 driven by the violence of a tempest to Alexandria. Upon this, 

 some of his rivals fraudulently suborned a jester, who was at- 

 tached to the court, to carry him an invitation to dine with the 

 king. Accordingly, Apelles attended ; upon which Ptolemseus 

 was highly indignant, and, summoning before him his stewards^^ 

 of the household, requested that the artist would point out the 

 one that had given him the invitation. Thus challenged, 

 Apelles seized a piece of quenched charcoal that lay in the 

 fire-place, and traced a likeness upon the wall, with such ex- 

 actness, that the king, the moment he began it, recognized the 

 features as those of the jester. He also painted a portrait of 

 King Antigonus f^ and as that monarch was blind of one eye, he 

 invented a method of concealing the defect. "With this object, 

 he painted him in profile, in order that what in reality was 

 wanting to the person might have the semblance of being 

 wanting to the picture rather, he making it his care to show 

 that side of the face only which he could show without any 

 defect. Among his works, too, there are some figures repre- 

 senting persons at the point of death ; but it is not easy to say 

 which of his productions are of the highest order of excellence. 

 His Yenus Eising from the Sea, known as the Venus Anady- 

 omene,^* was consecrated by the late Emperor Augustus in the 

 Temple^^ of his father^^ Caesar ; a work which has been cele- 



61 "Physiognomists," 



62 '« Vocatores" — more literally, his " inviting officers." 



^3 Strabo mentions a portrait of Antigonus in the possession of the 

 inhabitants of Cos, 



^* See Note 59 above. Propertius mentions this as his greatest work. 

 B. III. El. 9, 1. 11. "In Veneris tabwla summam sibi ponit Apelfes." 

 " In his picture of Venus, Apelles produces his masterpiece." It is men- 

 tioned also by Ovid, Tristia, B. II. 1. 527, and Art. Amor. B. III. 1. 401. 

 The line in B. III. 1. 224 is also well known — 



" Nuda Venus raadidas exprimit imbre comas." 

 '* And naked Venus wrings her dripping locks." 



^' In the Forum, in the Eighth Eegion of the City. 



^ His father by adoption. 



