The Roman women who held important positions were frequently honored with statues. Among those that remain none is more interesting than this of the elder Agrippina. She was a woman of great strength and equally great purity of character, and as we study this statue we can easily understand that she could perform the duties of a general when occasion demanded this service, and when that necessity was past could nurse the sick and wounded with all the tenderness of a true womanly nature. It is in every way a noble work of art, combining grace, dignity, and the aristocratic refinement of a high-born lady. The drapery of this and other similar statues is very beautiful, and fully satisfies all artistic demands. We have full proof that such garments were in actual use by the women of Greece and Rome (Fig. 70). It was not unusual for the great men and women of Rome to be represented in portrait statues with the attributes of gods and goddesses. Livia appears as Ceres, Julia as Flora, and so on; and during the best days of Roman art these statues were very beautiful. But at last they, like all other sculptures, grew less and less worthy, until they became positively absurd, and lacked any power to command our admiration. What is thus true of portrait sculpture is true of all Roman art. Its decline kept step with the decline of the nation, and both fell at length into a pitiable state of feebleness and corruption. From this we are glad to turn to the study of Christian art, which, even in its primary struggles, when groping its way through ignorance and helplessness, was still a living thing, and held the promise of a new life--a _renaissance_ of that which had gradually died in Greece and Rome. CHAPTER IV. MEDIAEVAL SCULPTURE, FROM THE FIFTH TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. The ancient or classic Italian sculpture of which we have spoken may be said to have extended to about the middle of the fourth century of the Christian era. The arch of Constantine was one of its latest works, and is interesting as an example of the decline of art. The sculptures upon it, which were taken from the arch of Trajan, executed two centuries earlier, are so superior to those that were added in the time of Constantine, that nothing could give one a clearer idea of the decadence of sculpture than seeing the works of two periods thus placed side by side.