BOOK XXXIV. XVI. 34-xvii. 37 



although the initiation of statuary in Italy dates 

 so far back, the images of the gods dedicated in the 

 shrines should have been more usually of wood or 

 terracotta right down to the conquest of Asia,*^ which 

 introduced luxury here. 



What was the first origin of representing likenesses Popuianty 

 in the round will be more suitably discussed when %onze^^^ "'' 

 we are deaHng with the art for which the Greek statuary. 

 term is * plastice ' plastic, as that was earlier than sqq. 

 the art of bronze statuary. But the latter has 

 flourished to an extent passing all limit and offers a 

 subject that would occupy many volumes if one 

 wanted to give a rather extensive account of it — 

 for as for a completely exhaustive account, who 

 could achieve that ? (XVII.) In the aedileship of 58 b.c. 

 Marcus Scaurus there w^ere 3000 statues on the stage 

 in what was only a temporary theatre. Mummius 

 after conquering Achaia filled the city with statues, i46 b.c. 

 though destined not to leave enough at his death to 

 provide a dowry for his daughter — for why not 

 mention this as well as the fact that excuses it ? A 

 great many were also imported by the LucuIIi.^ 

 Yet it is stated by Mucianus who was three times a.d. 52, 70. 

 consul that there are still 3000 statues at Rhodes, ^^' 

 and no smaller number are believed still to exist at 

 Athens, Olympia and Delphi. What mortal man 

 could recapitulate them all, or what value can be 

 felt in such information ? Still it may give pleasure 

 just to allude to the most remarkable and to name 

 the artists of celebrity, though it would be impossible 

 to enumerate the total number of the works of each, Lysippus. 

 inasmuch as Lysippus is said to have executed 1500 ^f^r 

 works of art, all of them so skilful that each of them ■ithcentury 

 by itself might have made him famous ; the number ^"^* 



