ATHENS. 279 
Greece was indebted for many of its ceremonies 
and religious institutions a , and for its mechanics 
and artificers 3 . According to Heraclides Ponticus, 
the inhabitants of Etruria were distinguished 
in all the Arts and Sciences 4 ; and before the 
foundation of Rome, the art of painting had 
attained a high degree of perfection in that 
country; for Pliny mentions pictures tilArdea 
which were older than the birth of Romulus 1 '. 
This alone is sufficient to shew, that, in the eighth 
century before the Christian sera, and above an 
hundred years before the age of Solon, consequently 
before the Arts obtained any footing in Greece, 
the same people who taught the Greeks the art 
of making earthenware were also well acquainted 
with the art of painting. In addition, it may be 
urged that the cities of Nola and Capua were 
founded and built by the Etruscans 6 ; and it is 
remarkable that the vases of Nol% are peculiar 
(2) Plato de Leg. lib. v. 
(3) Pherecnttes ap. Alhen. Diepnos. lib. x. 
(4) la Fragment, ad Calc. JElian. 
(5) " Extaut certfe hodi&que aiitiquiores nrbe picturae Ardeae ia 
aedibus sacri, quibus equidem nullas seque demiror tarn longo are 
durautes in orbitatetecti, veluti recenter." Plin. Hut. Nat. W.xxxv. 
torn. III. p.419. L. Bat. 1635. 
(6) Cats ap. Pel. Paterc. lib. i. c. 1. 
