184 PLINX'S NATUEAIi HISTOBT. [Book TIL 



mous by the admirable construction of the temple of Diana at 

 Ephesus ; Philon, by the construction of the basin at Athens, 

 which was capable of containing one thousand vessels ;*' Cte- 

 sihius, by the invention of pneumatics and hydraulic ma- 

 chines ; and Dinochares,*' by the plan which he made of the city 

 of Alexandria, founded by Alexander in Egypt. The same 

 monarch, too, by public edict, declared that no one should 

 paint his portrait except Apelles, and that no one should make a 

 marble statue of him except Pyrgoteles, or a bronze one except 

 Lysippus.*' These arts have all been rendered glorious by 

 many illustrious examples. 



CHAP. 39. (38.) OF PAINTING ; ENGEAVIKG ON BEONZE, MAEBLE, 



AND IVOBT ; or CAEVING. 



King Attalus gave one hundred talents,™ at a public auction, 

 for a single picture of Aristides, the Theban painter." Caesar, 

 the Dictator, purchased two pictures, the Medea and the Ajax 

 of Timomachus, for eighty talents,'^ it being his intention to 

 dedicate them in the temple of Venus Genetrix. King Can- 

 daules gave its weight in gold for a large picture by Bularchus, 

 the subject of which was the destruction of the Magnetos. 

 Demetnus, who was sumamed the "taker of cities,"** refused to 



*' Val. Maximus refers to Philon and his puhlic works, in B. viii. c. 12. 

 — B. He was an architect of eminence in the reign of the successors of 

 Alexander. He built for Demetrius Phalereus, ahout b,o. 318, the portico 

 of twelve Doric columns to the great temple at Eleusis. He also formed 

 a basin in the Piraeus, which was destroyed at the taking of Athens by the 

 Komans under Sylla. 



** See B. v. o. 11, and B. xxxiv. c. 42. 



*' Plutarch, in his life of Alexander, mentions the restriction made in 

 favour of Lysippus, but does not extend it to Apelles ; he does not speak of 

 Pyrgoteles. We have an apposite allusion to this circumstance by Horace, 

 Ep. B. i. 1. 239, 240. Boileau has elegantly imitated Horace, in his " Dis- 

 cours au Eoi." — B. For further particulars of him, see B. xxxiv. c. 17 

 and 19. He was a native of Sicyon, and at first a simple worker in bronze, 

 but eventually obtained the highest rank among the Grecian statuaries. 



« According to the usual estimate of the value of the Attic talent, 

 £193 12s., the sum given for this picture would be about £19,000. — B. 



*' Nearly aU the topics here treated of are again mentioned in 

 B. XXXV., which is devoted to the fine arts. The 34th, 35th, and 

 36th Chapters of that Book, contain an account of aU the celebrated pain- 

 ters of antiquity, and their principal works. — B. 



« Between £15,000 and £16,000.— B. 



" " Poliorcetes." 



