among (he Auiicjifs. 197 



preponderance of the Roinans, and which was very favoura- 

 ble to the arts. On this account the whole of Italy was co- 

 vered with Etruscan iuuiircs before the Greeks had produced 

 any thing rcmaikable in the art of tlie foundry *. In the 

 eighth Olympiad, Romulus placed his statue, crowned by 

 Victory, upon a chariot, to which were yoked four bronze 

 horses which liad been carried off from the city of Canieriaf. 

 It was an Etruscan performance; and the seven statues of 

 the kings of Rome, which were still seen in the time of 

 Plinv Jupon the Capitt)!, were also cast in bronze b\ artists 

 of this nation. 



Between the SOlh and 40th Olympiad, Rhoecus and Theo- 

 dorus practised the art of casting metals with much suc- 

 cess at Samos § ; but ihey wrought for Asia Minor only ; 



and 



* Tlie general opinion at present, however, is, that it was the Greeks who 

 brought the arts into haly, and that the works said to be Etruscan belong to 

 the anlient Grecian style. B.it the inhabiiants of several countries of Italy, 

 and particularly the Etruscans, preserved and practised the arts a long time 

 before the Romans paid any atlention to them. — A'o/u /•</ M. Millai. ^ 



I D;on\ sius of HallcarnasHis. Roman Antiq. book ii. 



\ Book ii. ch. 17. 



§ Herodotus, book iii. § 60, says they invented the art of making mould* 

 with clay; and Pausanias, book viii. ch. 14. tiiinks they were the f.rst who 

 melted statues at one single cast. To this M. Meyners answers, — " It is not 

 iTue that Theodoras and Rhoecus were the inventors of casting in brass ; what 

 appears more probable is, that having surpassed other artists in statues and 

 other works in bronze, the time at which they flourished has been lixed upon 

 as the :i;ra of the renovation of the line arts " See Meyneis, llmloirc ile COiigiiw, 

 des Pwgris ei dc la DvcudeiK e des Scitiiccs dans la Grece, p. 39. 



After all, we cannot a-^cribe to them the honour of -.in »i-t which 400 years 

 before was practised, in all its perfection, by the Pharnicians. Pliny, book 

 xxxiv. ch. 8. speaks of a statue cast by Thcijdorus,which represented him Itold- 

 ing in his left hand a s.nall ijiiaJnga, so delicstely and linely wroutht that a 

 common fly could cover it with its wings. It seems at first view lingular that 

 a founder, accustomed to work upon a large scale, should occujiy himself with 

 a work the only merit of which kccins to be the patience heatosved upon it ; 

 but Theodorus was anxious to prove his talent by imitating nature in small. 

 He was an engraver upon fine stones, and he engraved an emerald (or I'oly- 

 crates of bamos. 



The stones worn in rings wcrean object of luxury ; the more figures the en- 

 graver was able to bring into a small space, the higher was hi« prite. It was 

 thought for a lung time that these vngiavings were executed without the as- 

 •ittancc of the microscope; but some lenticular glasses faund in the ruins of 

 Hcrculaneum, and which arc to be seen in the Royal Museum M Ponici, 

 N 3 prove 



