among the Antients. 353 



pearing beside the beautiful monuments which already de- 

 corated that place. No expense seems to have been spared; 

 Severus employed the best artists, paid them liberally, and 

 they soon finished a colossal groupe in bronze, which repre^ 

 sented Perlinax as thrown down, and Severus mounted upon 

 the horse which had thrown off his predecessor*. It is not 

 known if the colossal statue in the Barberini palace has any 

 reference to this groupe j but it is certain that the beauty of 

 the one must have had some influence upon that of the other, 

 since contemporary works always resemble each other in 

 their manner of execution. 



Twenty-four years after the reign of Severus, the tyrant 

 Maximian caused to be melted and converted into money a 

 great part of the statues of the gods and heroes which deco- 

 rated the city and its temples, without respecting either the 

 antiquity or the beauty of the performance. The common 

 people, who had willingly forgiven all the depredations he 

 committed upon the property of the rich, were thus attacked 

 in the most sensible point. When these fine monuments 

 were destroyed, their grief was so great that several, guided 

 by a blind zeal, were bold enough to resist, and preferred 

 perishing before the statues of their gods rather than witness 

 their destruction 'f*. 



The number of bronze statues was so great, that this di- 

 minution is still' scarcely perceptible. Authors content them- 

 selves with informing us that they were innumerable, and 

 that they might be compared to the living population of the 

 country. The unknown author of the description of Rome J, 

 who lived under Honorius and Valentinian, in these days 

 could count twenty-three colossal and eighty gilt horses in 

 Rome. He passes over in silence those which were com- 

 mon, and not gilt; but their number must have been very 

 considerable, since the rich orators of Rome decorated the 

 vestibules of their houses with bronze quadrigae §. 



• Herocli:;ii, lib. ii. § 34. f Id. lib. vii. § «. 



\ Muratori, Noviis Thesaunis, vol. i. at the beginning. 



§ Juvenal, sat. vii. vcr. 125. 



j^milio dabitiir quantum petet 



Hujui> cnim stat currus aheneus. aiti 

 Quadrijuojes in vct.til)ulls, atque ipse feroci 

 3clIatore bedens curvaiuni hastile niinatur 

 Emiaus, ct statua nicuilatur pra:lia Iuslm. 



Vol. 28. No. 112. Sept. I807. Z I shaU 



