310 flint's natural histoet. [Book XXXVI. 



We must not omit to remark, that the art of sculpture is 

 of much more ancient^^ date than those of painting and of 

 statuary in bronze; both of which commenced with Phi- 

 dias, in the eighty-third Olympiad, or in other words, about 

 three hundred and thirty-two years later. Indeed, it is said, 

 that Phidias himself worked in marble, and that there is a 

 Yenus of his at Eome, a work of extraordinary beauty, in the 

 buildings of Octavia.^"^ A thing, however, that is universally 

 admitted, is the fact that he was the instructor of Alcamenes,-^ 

 the Athenian, one of the most famous among the sculptors. 

 By this last artist, there are numerous statues in the temples 

 at Athens ; as also, without the walls there, the celebrated 

 Venus, known as the Aphrodite Iv xjjto/s,^^ a work to which 

 Phidias himself, it is said, put the finishing hand. Another 

 disciple also of Phidias was Agoracritus-^ of Pares, a great 

 favourite with his master, on account of his extremely youthful 

 age; and for which reason, it is said, Phidias gave his own name 

 to many of that artist's works. The two pupils entering into a 

 contest as to the superior execution of a statue of Venus, 

 Alcamenes was successful ; not that his work was superior, but 

 because his fellow-citizens chose to give their suffrages in his 

 favour in preference to a stranger. It was for this reason, it 

 is said, that Agoracritus sold his statue, on the express condi- 

 tion that it should never be taken to Athens, and changed its 

 name to that of Nemesis.-^ It was accordingly erected at 

 Ehamnus,*'' a borough of Attica, and M. Varro has considered 

 it superior to every other statue. There is also to be seen in 



21 See B. XXXV. c. 44. ^' See B. xxxv. cc. 37, 40. 



-3 See B. xxxiv. c. 19. 



5* <' In the Gardens." A suburb of Athens, in which there was a tem- 

 ple of Venus, or Aphrodite Urania. 



25 He is mentioned also by Pausanias and Strabo. 



26 The Goddess of Eetribution. Pausanias, B. i. c. 33, says that it 

 was the work of Phidias, and that it was made of Parian marble, which 

 the Persians had brought into Attica for the purpose of erecting a trophy. 

 Strabo, however, in B. ix., says that it was the work of Agoracritus and 

 Diodotns (an artist otherwise unknown), and that it was not at all inferior 

 to the production of Phidias. Tzetzes again, Suidas, and Photius, say 

 that it was the work of Phidias, and that it was presented by him to his 

 favourite pupil, Agoracritus. Sillig rejects the story of the contest, and 

 the decision by the suffrages of the Athenian people. Some modern 

 writers have doubted also, whether a statue of Venus could be modified so 

 as to represent Nemesis ; but not with sufficient reason, Sillig thinks. 



2' See B. iv. c. U. 



