BOOK XXXIV. XI. 24 -XII. 26 



crectcd in the forum, were three feet in height, 

 showing that this was the scale of these marks of 

 honour in those days. I will not pass over the case 

 of Gnaeus Octavius also, because of a single word 

 that occurs in a Decree of the Senate. When King 

 Antiochus IV said he intended to answer him, 

 Octavius "■ with the stick he happened to be holding 

 in his hand drew a line all round him and compelled 

 him to give his answer before he stepped out of the I68 b.c. 

 circle. And as Octavius was killed while on this 162 b.c. 

 embassy,^ the senate ordered a statue to be erected 

 to him * in the spot most eyed ' '^ and that statue 

 stands on the Platform. We also find that a decree 

 was passed to erect a statue to a Vestal Virgin named 

 Taracia Gaia or Fufetia ' to be placed where she 

 wished,' an addition that is as great a compliment as 

 the fact that a statue was decreed in honour of a woman. 

 For the N^estaFs services I will quote the actual words 

 of the Annals : ' because she had made a gratuitous 

 present to the nation of the field by the Tiber.' 



XII. I also find that statues were erected to Greek 

 Pythagoras and to Alcibiades, in the corners of the 

 Place of Assembly, when during one of our Samnite 

 Wars Pythian Apollo had commanded the erection 343 b.c, 

 in some conspicuous position of an effigy of the 

 bravest man of the Greek race, and Hkewise, one 

 of the wisest man ; these remained until Sulla the 

 dictator made^ the Senate-house on the site. It so e.o. 

 is surprising that those illustrious senators of ours 

 rated Pythagoras above Socrates, whom the same 

 deity had put above all the rest of mankind in respect 

 of wisdom, or rated Alcibiades above so many other 

 men in manly virtue, or anybody above Themistocles « 

 for wisdom and manly virtue combined. 



147 



statues. 



