[Illustration: FIG. 64.--DIANE A LA BICHE.] If we think of this Diana simply as an ideal huntress hastening to the chase the statue is very beautiful, and a remarkable example of such a subject; but when she is regarded as one of the "White Maidens" rushing forth to aid her brother in defending his temple against a barbarous enemy she is invested with a deeper interest; she becomes an important actor in a terrible drama, and those of us who could have no sympathy with her love for hunting are roused to an enthusiastic hope that she will succeed in doing her part to turn the savage foe away from the sacred hill of Pytho, and thus preserve its temple and its treasures. The statue of Athena, advancing with spear and shield, is supposed to be a third member of the group which commemorated the victory over the Gauls. The position of the two goddesses would indicate that they were represented as hastening from opposite directions toward the Apollo Belvedere, the central figure of the whole. The whole bearing of this statue carries out the impression which Homer gives of the delight with which Athena led the Greeks to battle; she is full of eagerness, and rushes forward with the undaunted vigor of the confidence and courage of one who goes to fight for a just and holy cause (Fig. 65). [Illustration: FIG. 65.--ATHENA OF THE CAPITOL.] Whether this "Gallic theory," as it is called, concerning the Apollo, Diana, and Athena be correct or no, it is the most satisfactory in sentiment of any that has been advanced, and certainly, when we consider the three statues in this connection, there is nothing inharmonious in the supposition that they made the important parts of a whole which may have had many other figures of lesser importance in it. There are many other statues of the Roman period in various museums, but I shall leave this part of our subject here, and speak briefly of the historical sculpture in the reliefs upon the triumphal arches of the Eternal City. In an age when martial glory was the chief desire of man, and among a people who accorded to successful generals the highest honors, it was most natural that the conquerors should desire to place some monument of their exploits where it would be constantly before the eyes of the people, and thus keep in perpetual remembrance their valiant deeds and their great successes. [Illustration: FIG. 66.--TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION FROM ARCH OF TITUS.] We read that pictures of the foreign scenes of sieges and battles were displayed in public places in Rome at a very early date. We cannot find records of plastic works of this sort before the time of the emperors, but after such sculptures came into favor they were multiplied rapidly. The principal historical reliefs in Rome were upon the arches of Claudius, Titus, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Septimius Severus, and on the architrave of the temple of Minerva in the Forum.