﻿AN 
  ANTIQUE 
  MAEBLE 
  BUST. 
  419 
  

  

  At 
  Rome 
  I 
  believe 
  with 
  Heeren 
  that 
  it 
  was 
  much 
  the 
  same 
  during 
  the 
  Re- 
  

   public, 
  and 
  private 
  galleries 
  were 
  unknown. 
  After 
  the 
  taking 
  of 
  Corinth,* 
  how- 
  

   ever, 
  a 
  passion 
  seems 
  to 
  have 
  sprung 
  up 
  in 
  Italy 
  for 
  possessing 
  works 
  of 
  art, 
  the 
  

   generals 
  and 
  governors 
  of 
  provinces 
  vieing 
  with 
  each 
  other 
  in 
  having 
  them. 
  

   Verres 
  plundered 
  in 
  Sicily 
  and 
  Achaia 
  ; 
  yet, 
  with 
  one 
  exception 
  (if 
  it 
  be 
  one), 
  

   it 
  was 
  statues 
  which 
  had 
  graced 
  some 
  temple, 
  or 
  had 
  been 
  the 
  pride 
  of 
  a 
  city, 
  

   that 
  he 
  was 
  charged 
  with 
  having 
  carried 
  off. 
  f 
  And 
  with 
  his 
  rapacity 
  Cicero 
  \ 
  

   contrasts 
  the 
  conduct 
  of 
  Marcellus 
  and 
  Mummius, 
  who, 
  with 
  the 
  whole 
  spoils 
  of 
  

   Syracuse 
  and 
  Corinth 
  at 
  their 
  command, 
  had 
  appropriated 
  not 
  a 
  picture 
  or 
  statue, 
  

   but 
  given 
  all 
  to 
  their 
  country. 
  But 
  Verres 
  soon 
  had 
  many 
  followers 
  ; 
  and 
  by 
  

   the 
  time 
  of 
  Juvenal 
  § 
  we 
  find 
  that 
  ancestral 
  busts, 
  but 
  still 
  of 
  men 
  who 
  had 
  

   filled 
  some 
  curule 
  office, 
  were 
  objects 
  of 
  ambition 
  with 
  the 
  degenerate 
  nobles 
  

   having 
  the 
  jus 
  imaginum, 
  the 
  more 
  opulent 
  devoting 
  a 
  room 
  in 
  their 
  houses 
  

   to 
  their 
  reception, 
  or 
  using 
  them 
  to 
  ornament 
  their 
  gardens. 
  || 
  Yet 
  the 
  possession 
  

   of 
  works 
  of 
  art 
  long 
  survived 
  as 
  a 
  matter 
  of 
  municipal 
  pride 
  in 
  cities, 
  casting 
  

   private 
  galleries, 
  we 
  may 
  believe, 
  into 
  the 
  shade. 
  And 
  thus 
  it 
  happens, 
  that 
  long 
  

   after 
  the 
  Roman 
  arms 
  had 
  swept 
  the 
  land, 
  we 
  find 
  a 
  town 
  in 
  France 
  purchasing 
  a 
  

   statue 
  of 
  Mercury 
  from 
  a 
  Greek 
  artist 
  at 
  no 
  less 
  a 
  sum 
  than 
  £320,000 
  (forty 
  mil- 
  

   lions 
  of 
  sisterces), 
  as 
  Sir 
  James 
  Stephen^ 
  relates. 
  And 
  the 
  same 
  spirit 
  lingers 
  in 
  

   Rome 
  and 
  Florence 
  to 
  the 
  present 
  day. 
  

  

  The 
  conclusion 
  to 
  which 
  this 
  little 
  digression 
  leads 
  us 
  is, 
  that 
  among 
  the 
  

   Romans 
  as 
  among 
  the 
  Greeks, 
  statues 
  of 
  private 
  persons 
  were 
  unknown 
  ; 
  and 
  

   such 
  statues 
  as 
  did 
  exist 
  were 
  rarely 
  private 
  property 
  till 
  near 
  the 
  age 
  of 
  Augus- 
  

   tus, 
  which 
  is 
  the 
  period, 
  as 
  it 
  will 
  appear, 
  that 
  interests 
  us. 
  

  

  To 
  return 
  to 
  the 
  bust 
  ; 
  — 
  its 
  resemblance 
  to 
  the 
  young 
  Augustus 
  was 
  remarked 
  

   to 
  me 
  very 
  soon 
  by 
  several 
  friends. 
  I 
  discovered, 
  however, 
  on 
  comparing 
  it 
  with 
  

   casts 
  of 
  his 
  daughter, 
  that 
  it 
  was 
  not 
  the 
  profligate 
  Julia 
  ; 
  and 
  much 
  in 
  the 
  

   same 
  way 
  I 
  satisfied 
  myself 
  that 
  it 
  was 
  not 
  Livia, 
  of 
  whom 
  there 
  is 
  a 
  beautiful 
  

   portrait 
  in 
  the 
  Dactyliotheca 
  Smithiana 
  .** 
  But 
  in 
  my 
  search 
  I 
  came 
  upon 
  a 
  

   certain 
  amount 
  of 
  evidence 
  for 
  its 
  being 
  his 
  sister 
  Octavia, 
  the 
  grandniece 
  of 
  

   Julius 
  Csesar, 
  whose 
  affecting 
  history 
  is 
  too 
  well 
  known 
  to 
  require 
  more 
  than 
  a 
  

   passing 
  allusion 
  here. 
  She 
  was, 
  as 
  many 
  may 
  remember, 
  the 
  mother 
  of 
  the 
  young 
  

   Marcellus, 
  — 
  Virgil's 
  friend 
  too, 
  — 
  married 
  young 
  to 
  the 
  faithless 
  Antony, 
  yet 
  

   did 
  it 
  " 
  never 
  taint 
  her 
  love," 
  — 
  and 
  who, 
  through 
  her 
  whole 
  life, 
  toiled 
  for 
  her 
  

   brother 
  and 
  her 
  country, 
  without 
  one 
  thought 
  of 
  self, 
  till, 
  as 
  Shakspeare 
  f 
  f 
  tells 
  

   us, 
  " 
  each 
  heart 
  in 
  Rome 
  did 
  love 
  and 
  pity 
  her." 
  In 
  all 
  the 
  three 
  English 
  dramas 
  

  

  * 
  Smith's 
  Dictionary 
  of 
  Greek 
  and 
  Roman 
  Antiquities, 
  p. 
  908 
  ; 
  and 
  Muller, 
  pp. 
  124—5. 
  

   ■f 
  Cicero 
  in 
  Verrem, 
  II. 
  I., 
  19 
  and 
  23 
  ; 
  Heeren, 
  p. 
  288. 
  

   + 
  Ibid. 
  II. 
  I., 
  21. 
  § 
  Juvenal, 
  Satire 
  VIII., 
  1-19. 
  

  

  || 
  Smith's 
  Dictionary, 
  voce 
  " 
  Pinacotheca 
  ;" 
  and 
  Adam's 
  Antiquities, 
  p. 
  460. 
  

   if 
  Lectures 
  on 
  French 
  History, 
  L, 
  21. 
  ** 
  Vol. 
  i., 
  62. 
  

  

  ft 
  Antony 
  and 
  Cleopatra, 
  Act 
  III., 
  Scene 
  3. 
  

  

  