303 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOUY. [Book 



CHAP. 4. (4.) THE riUST AKTISTS WHO EXCELLED IN THE SCULPTURE 



OF MAUIILE, AND THE YAIUOUS PEU10DS AT WHICH THKT 

 FLOUIilsllED. THE MAUSOLEUM IN CAKIA. THE MOST CKLE- 

 UUATKD 8CULPTOKS AND WOliKS IN MAKBLE, TWO HUNDKED AND 

 TWENTY-FIVE IN NUMBEH. 



The first artists who distinguished themselves in the sculp- 

 ture of marble, were Dipanus 11 and Scyllis, natives of the Isle 

 of Crete. At this period the Medians were still in power, and 

 Cyrus had not begun to reign in Persia ; their date being about 

 the fiftieth Olympiad. They afterwards repaired to Sicyon, a 

 state which for a length of time 12 was the adopted country of 

 fell such pursuits as these. The people of Sicyon had made a 

 contract with them for the execution of certain statues of the 

 gods; but, before completing the work, the artists complained 

 of some injustice being done them, and retired to /Etolia. Im- 

 mediately upon this, the state was aillicted with sterility and 

 famine, and dreadful consternation was the result. Upon 

 enquiry being made as to a remedy for these evils, the Pythian 

 Apollo made answer, that Dipoonus and Scyllis must complete 

 the statues of the gods ; an object which was attained at the 

 cost of great concessions and considerable sums of money. 

 The statues were those of Apollo, 13 Diana, Hercules, and 

 Minerva; the last of which was afterwards struck by 

 lightning. 



(5.) Before these artists were in existence, there had already 

 appeared Melas, a sculptor of the Isle of Chios; and, in succes- 

 sion to him, his son Micciades, and his grandson Arehermus; 1 * 

 whose sons, Bupalus and Athenis, after wards attained the highest 

 eminence in, the art. These last were contemporaries of tlio 

 poet Hipponax, who, it is well known, lived in the sixtieth 

 Olympiad. 2sow, if a person only reckons, going upwards 

 liom their time to that of their great-grandfather, he will find 



11 These two artists are invariably mentioned together. Pansanias, B. 

 ii. c. Ii, and B. iii. c. 17, ppeaks of thorn as the pupils or sons of ba>da- 

 lus; only intimating thereby, as Sillig thinks, that thy were the first 

 sculptors worthy of being associated with the father of artists. Pausanias, 

 B. ii. c. 22, mentions ehonv statues by them. 



12 In the time of the Tefchines, before the arrival of Jnachusin Argolis. 



13 Pausanias says that this statue was completed by their pupils. Cle- 

 mens Alexamlrimis mentions other works of theirs. 



: * Another reading is " Anthuriuus." Of many of these sculptors, no 

 further particulars are known. 



