Chap. 40.] 
SLATES SOLD TOR A HIGH PRICE. 
185 
set fire to the city of Ehodes, lest he should chance to destroy 
a picture of Prdtogenes, which was placed on that side of the 
walls against which his attack was directed. Praxiteles^* has 
been ennobled by his works in marble, and more especially by his 
Cnidian Venus, which became remarkable from the insane loye 
which it inspired in a certain young man,^^ and the high valae 
set upon it by King Mcomedes, who endeavoured to procure it 
from the Cnidians, by offering to pay for them a large debt 
which they owed. The Olympian Jupiter day by day bears 
testimony to the talents of Phidias, and the Capitoline Jupiter 
and the Diana of Ephesus to those of Mentor f to which 
deities, also, were consecrated vases made by this artist. 
CHAP. 40. (39.) SLAVES EOK WHICH A HIGH PEICE HAS BEEN 
GIVEN^. 
The highest price ever given for a man born in slavery, so 
far as I am able to discover, was that paid for Daphnus, the 
grammarian, who was sold by ISTatius of Pisaurum^^ to M. 
Scaurus, the first man in the state, for seven hundred thou- 
sand sesterces.^^ In our day, no doubt, comic actors have 
fetched a higher price, but then they were purchasing their own 
freedom. In the time of our ancestors, Eoscius, the actor, 
gained five hundred thousand sesterces annually. Perhaps, 
too, a person might in the present instance refer to the case of 
5^ We have a further account of this artist in B. xxxiv. c. 19, B. xxxv. 
c. 39 and 40, and B. xxxvi. c. 4. 
55 This is referred to by Pliny, B. xxxvi. c. 4, and by Valerius Maximus, 
B. viii. c. 4. — B. 
^6 He is again mentioned in B. xxxiv. c. 19, B. xxxv. c. 34, and B. 
xxxvi. c. 4. — B. 
Mentor is noticed for his skill in carving, B. xxxiii. o. 55. — B. Lit- 
tre says, on referring to that passage, " we find that he was a worker in silver, 
and a maker of vases of great value." He seems disinclined to believe that 
he was a statuary. As Pliny tells us, ubi supra ^ none of his public works 
were in existence in Pliny's time. Some small cups, however, existed, 
which were highly prized, though some were undoubtedly spurious. 
^8 Now Pesaro. 
59 We have the same difiiculty in ascertaining the sums here mentioned, 
as in all former cases. Holland estimates the sum given for Daphnus 
at 300,700 sesterces, vol. i. p. 175. — B. 
