138 ANTIQUE MARBLES. 



opened quarry in the mountains north of the Adriatic, to the Emperor 

 Nero, was marked with the name of his freedman Carynthus. 



So immense was the store of marbles amassed in Eome that for centuries 

 after her spoilation by the northern barbarians her ruined edifices were re- 

 garded as the richest of quarries, from whioh pope, nobles and peasants 

 drew at will. Most of the mediaeval churches and other public edifices 

 now extant are decorated with the spoils of imperial palaces, basilicas, 

 baths, and the temples of the gods. Tast quantities of marble were even 

 burned for lime; and, as if in retribution, Eome was robbed to beatify other 

 'Cities. Her sculptured marbles were transported to Aix la-Chapelle to 

 decorate the buildings of Charlemagne, and the ancient capital of the world, 

 Petrarch laments, was forced to adorn from her own bowels the slothful 

 luxury of Naples. 



Of the white marbles of antiquity the most important were the Parian 

 and the Pentelic, both the product of Grreek quarries. The Parian was ob- 

 tained from Mount Marpessa, in the island of Paros, one of the Cyclades, 

 whence it was sometimes Marpessian. It was also called lychnites, because, 

 says Pliny, the quarries were worked by lamplight. Dodwell disputes this, 

 averring that the quarries are cut down the mountain side and open to the 

 lightj and he suggests that the marble was so called from its glittering 

 fracture, or its translucence. This leads one to doubt whether Dodwell 

 ever visited them, for Bory Saint- Yincent, of the French commission to the 

 Morea, expressly describes them as subterranean, and says the entrance of 

 the principal one was so filled up at the time of his visit that he was obliged 

 to creep to enter it. There are three quarries on the mountain, and the 

 largest has several lateral cuttings. The marks of the ancient wedges are 

 everywhere visible, and it is evident from the manner in which the blocks 

 were taken out that the utmost care was exercised to avoid waste. In eon- 

 sequence of the numerous fissures through the beds, comparatively small 

 blocks could be obtained, generally not more than five feet in length. 



Parian marble is of a yellowish white, very near the tint of white wax. 

 Theocritus compares it to the color of teeth. It was, therefore, considered 

 better adapted for the representation of human flesh than any other ma- 

 terial. Its grain is much coarser than that of the Pentelic marble, but it 

 takes a most exquisite polish, and, as it gradually hardens by exposure to 

 atmospheric air, it resists decomposition for ages. To this quality is at- 

 tributable the fine state of preservation of many of the most celebrated of 

 the antique statues, such as the "Yenus de' Medici, the "Diana Yenatrix," 

 the "Juno Capitolina," and "Ariadne," and the colossal "Minerva" — other- 

 wise called the "Pallas of Yelletri" — all of which are of Parian marble. 



The neighboring island of Naxos produced a white marble scarcely in- 

 ferior to that of Paros, but exhibiting a little more advanced state of crys- 

 tallization. The marble, too, of Tenos, an island north of Paros, and of 

 Thasos, the most northerly of the JEgean group, was considered nearly 

 equal to that of Paros. Chios, Lesbos, Samos, and several other islands of 



