Chap. 40.] SLATES SOLD FOR A HIGH PRICE. 185 



set fire to the city of Rhodes, lest he should chance to destroy 

 a picture of Protogenes, which was placed on that side of the 

 walls against which his attack was directed. Praxiteles 54 has 

 been ennobled by his works in marble, and more especially by his 

 Cnidian Venus, which became remarkable from the insane love 

 which it inspired in a certain young man, 55 and the high value 

 set upon it "by King Mcomedes, who endeavoured to procure it 

 from the Cni'dians, by offering to pay for them a large debt 

 which they owed. The Olympian Jupiter day by day bears 

 testimony to the talents of Phidias, 56 and the Capitoline Jupiter 

 and the Diana of Ephesus to those of Mentor ; 57 to which 

 deities, also, were consecrated vases made by this artist. 



CHAP. 40. (39.) SLAVES FOR WHICH A HIGH PKICE HAS BEEN 



GIVEN. 



The highest price ever given for a man born in slavery, so 

 far as I am able to discover, was that paid for Daphnus, the 

 grammarian, who was sold by Natius of Pisaurum 58 to M. 

 Scaurus, the first man in the state, for seven hundred thou- 

 sand sesterces. 59 In our day, no doubt, comic actors have 

 fetched a higher price, but then they were purchasing their own 

 freedom. In the time of our ancestors, Roscius, the actor, 

 gained five hundred thousand sesterces annually. Perhaps, 

 too, a person might in the present instance refer to the case of 



54 We have a further account of this artist in B. xxxiv. c. 19, B. xxxv. 

 c. 39 and 40, and B. xxxvi. c. 4. 



55 This is referred to by Pliny, B. xxxvi. c. 4, and by Valerius Maximus, 

 B. viii. c. 4. B. 



56 He is again mentioned in B. xxxiv. c. 19, B. xxxv. c. 34, and B. 

 xxxvi. c. 4. B. 



57 Mentor is noticed for his skill in carving:, B. xxxiii. c. 55. B. Lit- 

 tre says, on referring to that passage, " we find that he was a worker in silver, 

 and a maker of vases of great value." He seems disinclined to believe that 

 he was a statuary. As Pliny tells us, ubi sttpra, none of his public works 

 were in existence in Pliny's time. Some small cups, however, existed, 

 which were highly prized, though some were undoubtedly spurious. 



58 Now Pesaro. 



59 We have the same difficulty in ascertaining the sums here mentioned, 

 as in all former cases. Holland estimates the sum given for Daphnus 

 at 300,700 sesterces, vol. i. p. 175. B. 



