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both -interior and exterior, was decorated with painting of various descriptions. (Athen. v. p, 204, a.)
Nearly a century later than Aratus we have still mention of two painters at Athens of more than ordinary distinction, Heracleides a Macedonian, and Metrodorus an Athenian. The names of several painters, however, of these times are preserved in Pliny, but he notices them only in a cursory manner. When Aemilius Paulus had conquered Perseus, b. c. 168, he commanded the Athenians to send him their most distinguished painter to perpetuate his triumph, and their most approved philosopher to educate his sons. The Athenians selected Metrodorus the painter, professing that he was pre-eminent in both respects. Heracleides was a Macedonian, and originally a ship-painter ; he repaired to Athens after the defeat of Perseus. (Plin. //. N. xxxv. 40.) Plutarch in his description of the triumph of Aemilius Paulus (in Vit, 32) sa3rs, that the paintings and statues brought by him from Greece were so numerous that they required 250 waggons to carry them in procession, and that the spectacle lasted the entire day. Aemilius appears at all times to have been a great admirer of the arts, for Plutarch (Aemil. Paul. 6) mentions that after his first consulship he took especial care to have his sons educated in the arts of Greece, and amongst others in painting and sculpture ; and that he accordingly entertained masters of those arts (-n-AaiTTcu /ecu faypdtyoi) in bis family. From which it is evident that the migration of Greek artists to Rome had already commenced before the general spoliations of Greece. Indeed Livy (xxxix. 22) expressly mentions, that many artists came from Greece to Rome upon the occasion of the ten days games appointed by Ful-vius Nobilior, b. c. 186. But Rome must have had its Greek painters even before this time ; for the picture of the feast of Gracchus's soldiers after the battle of Beneventmn, consecrated by him in the temple of Liberty on the Aventine, b.c..213 (Liv. xxiv. 16), was in all probability the work of a Greek artist.
The system adopted by the Romans of plundering Greece of its works- of art, reprobated by Polybius (ix. 3), was not without a precedent. The Carthaginians before them had plundered all the coast towns of Sicily ; and the Persians, and even the Macedonians, carried off all works of art as the lawful prize of conquest. (Diodor. xiii. 90-; Polyb. ix. 6. § 1; Liv. xxxi. 26; Plin. //. N. xxxiv. 19, xxxv. 36.) The Roman conquerors, however, at first plundered witli a certain degree of moderation (Cic. in Verr. v. 4) ; as Marcellus at Syracuse, and Fabius Maximus at Tarentum, who carried away no more works of art than were necessary to adorn their triumphs, or decorate some of the public buildings. (Cic. in Verr. v. 52, &c.; Pint. Fab. Max. 22, Marcel 30.) The works of Greek art brought from Sicily by Marcellus, were the first to inspire the Romans with the desire of adorning their public edifices with statues and paintings ; which taste was converted into a passion when they became acquainted with the great treasures and almost inexhaustible resources of Greece ; and their rapacity knew no bounds. Plutarch says that Marcellus (in Vit. 21) was accused of having corrupted the public morals through the introduction of works of art into Rome ; since from that period the people wasted much of their time in disputing about arts and
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artists. But Marcellus gloried in the fact, and boasted even before Greeks, that he was the first to teach the Romans to esteem and to admire the exquisite productions of Greek art. We learn from Livy (xxvi. 21) that one of the ornaments of the triumph of Marcellus, 214 b.c., was a picture of the capture of Syracuse.
These spoliations of Greece, of the Grecian kingdoms of Asia, arid of Sicily, continued uninterruptedly for about two centuries ; yet, according to Mucianus, says Pliny (H. N. xxxiv. 17), such was the inconceivable wealth of Greece in works of art, that Rhodes alone still contained upwards of 3000 statues, and that there could not have been less at Athens, at Qlympia, or at Delphi,, The men who contributed principally to fill the public edifices and temples of Rome with the works of Grecian art, weire Cn. Manlius, Fill vius Nobilior, who plundered the temples of Ambracia (Liv. xxxviii. 44), Mummius, Sulla, Lucullus, Scaurus, and Verres. (Liv. xxxix. 5, 6, 7 ; Plin, If. 2V". xxxiii. 53, xxxiv. 17, xxxvii. 6.)
Mummius, after the destruction of Corinth, b. c. 146, carried off or destroyed more works of art than all his predecessors put together. Some of his soldiers were found by Polybius playing at dice, upon the celebrated picture of Dionysus by Aris-teides. (Strab. viii. p. 381.) Many valuable works also were purchased upon this occasion by Attains III., and sent to Pergamus ; but they all found their way to Rome on his death, b.c. 133, as he bequeathed all his property to the Roman people. (Plin. f-f.'N. xxxiii. 5«3.) Scaurus, in his aedile-ship, b. c. 58, h&d all the public pictures still remaining in Sicyon transported to Rome on account of the debts of the former city, and he adorned the great temporary theatre which he erected upon that occasion with 3000 bronze statues. (Plin. //. Ar. xxxv. 40, xxxvi. 24.) Verres ransacked Asia and Achaia, and plundered almost every temple and public edifice in Sicily of whatever was valuable in it. Amongst the numerous robberies of Verres, Cicero (in Verr;. i-v. 55) mentions particularly twenty-seven beautiful pictures taken from the temple of Minerva' at Syracuse, consisting of portraits of the kings-and tyrants of Sicily*
From the destruction of Corinth by Mummius,, and the spoliation of Athens by Sulla, the higher branches of art, especially in painting' experienced so sensible a decay in Greece, that only two painters are mentioned who can be classed with, the great masters, of former times : Timomachus of Byzantium, contemporary with Caesar (Plin. //. Ar. xxxv. 40, &c.), and Action, mentioned by Lucian (Imug. 7 ; Herod. 5), who lived apparently about the time of Hadrian. (Miiller, JrcJi'dol. § 211. 1.) Yet Rome was, about the end of the republic, full of painters, who appear, however, to have been chiefly occupied in portrait, or decorative and arabesque painting: painters must also have been very numerous in Egypt and in Asia. Paintings of various descriptions still continued to perform a conspicuous part in the triumphs of the Roman conquerors. In the triumph of Pompey over Mithri-dates the portraits of the children and family of that monarch were carried in the procession (Ap-pian, de Bell. Mithrid. 117); and in one of Caesar's triumphs the portraits of his principal enemies in the civil war were displayed, with the exception of that of Pompey. (Id. de Bell. Civil, ii. 101.)
The school of art at Rhodes appears to have been
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