Chap. 3.1 mahble columns eeected at eome. 307 



when the largest of these columns, pillars of Lucullan' marble, 

 as much as eight- and-thirty feet in height, were erected in 

 the atrium of Scaurus ? a thing, too, that was not done 

 privately or in secret ; for the contractor for the public sewers 

 compelled him to give security for the possible damage that 

 might be done in the carriage of them to the Palatium.^ 

 When so bad an example as this was set, would it not have 

 been advisable to take some precautions for the preservation 

 of the public morals ? And yet the laws still preserved their 

 silence, when such enormous masses as these were being car- 

 ried past the earthenware^ pediments of the temples of the 

 gods, to the house of a private individual ! 



CHAP. 3. (3.) — WHO WAS THE FIRST TO ERECT COLUMNS OF 

 FOREIGN MARBLE AT ROME. 



And yet it cannot be said that Scaurus, by way of a first 

 essay in vice, took the City by surprise, in a state of ignorance 

 and totally unguarded against such evils as these. Already 

 had L. Crassus,^" the orator, he who was the first to possess 

 pillars of foreign marble, and in this same Palatium too, re- 

 ceived from M. Brutus, on the occasion of a dispute, the nick- 

 name of the ''Palatine Venus," for his indulgence in this 

 kind of luxury. The material, I should remark, was Hymet- 

 tian marble, and the pillars were but six in number, and not 

 exceeding some twelve feet in height. Our forefathers were 

 guilty of this omission, no doubt, because morals were univer- 

 sally contaminated ; and, seeing that things which had been in- 

 terdicted had been forbidden in vain, they preferred the absence 

 of laws to laws that were no better than a dead letter. These 

 particulars and others in the sequel will show that we are so 

 far improved ; for who is there at the present day that has, in 

 his atrium, any such massive columns as these of Scaurus ? 



But before proceeding to treat of the several varieties of this 

 material, it will be as well to mention the various artists, and 

 the degrees of estimation in which they are held, who have 

 worked in marble. We will, therefore, proceed to review the 

 sculptors who have flourished at diff'erent periods. 



' See Chapter 8 of this Book. ^ i^ tj^e Eleventh Region of the City. 

 « See B. XXXV. cc. 43, 4o. i" See B. xvii. c. 1. 



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