ANCIENT PAINTING AS AMONG THE LOST ARTS. 241 



themselves masters, what could be more natural than that they 

 should hold the objects of desire or worship that belonged to 

 their enemies, or pertained to the old idolatry, in hate and abomi- 

 nation ? No decree of a time-serving or Christian Emperor was 

 more welcome to a fanatic populace, than one giving license to 

 destroy the art remains of heathenism. We read that the early 

 converts used to put ropes around the necks of marble Apollos 

 and Yenuses, and try them publicly as criminals. Of course 

 they found them guilty, and then they pounded them to dust. 

 Eusebius informs us that in the early and rapid spread of Christ- 

 ianity, whole towns arose and destroyed the temples in which 

 they had just worshiped. The air echoed with the noise of 

 hammers, the crashing of pediments, the breaking of pillars, and 

 the shouts of a maddened and frenzied populace. The finest 

 works of Phidias and Praxiteles, and all that were left of Polyg- 

 notus, Apelles, and Zeuxis were demolished or burned, and their 

 ashes were danced upon with fanatic exultation. So great had 

 been the destruction that when, in the year 400, Arcadius and 

 Honorius issued a fresh edict to go on destroying, they added, as 

 well they might, " if any pictures or statues are still left." 



After foreign enemies had destroyed or carried off everything 

 that could any longer attract them, the Romans themselves, as if 

 struck with the madness of destroying demons, began fighting 

 and ravaging in civil wars and domestic contentions. For five 

 hundred years in the midst of the dark ages, Rome was perpet- 

 ually torn and wasted by the sanguinary quarrels of the nobles 

 and the people, the Guelphs and Ghibbelines, and the factions of 

 the Colonna and Ursini families. From one time to another, all 

 the massive structures of the old city have been transformed into 

 fortifications the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the mausoleums of 

 Hadrian and of Augustus, and the enormous Baths; while 

 towers and strongholds were erected in every part, to serve the 

 purpose of robber chieftains or lawless factions. The venerable 

 ruins were recklessly plundered of all that could be used in 

 masonry or fortification, while the marble of columns and statues 

 and costly ornaments were burned in lime-kilns to supply the 

 materials for mortar. 



