[463] During the siege of Rhodes, Demetrius had formed the design of delivering to the flames all the public buildings, one of which contained the famous painting of Ialysus, by Protogenes. The Rhodians sent a deputation to Demetrius to ask him to spare this masterpiece. After this interview, Demetrius raised the siege, sparing thus at the same time the town and the picture. (Aulus Gellius, XV. 31.) [464] In 555, twenty ships; in 556, twenty vessels with decks; in 563, twenty-five ships with decks, and thirty-six vessels. This last fleet of thirty-six vessels was destroyed, and yet the Rhodians were able to send to sea again, the same year, twenty vessels. In 584 they had forty vessels. (Titus Livius, XXXI. 46; XXXII. 16; XXXVI. 45; XXXVII. 9, 11, 12; XLII. 45.) [465] Pliny, XXXIV. 17. [466] Strabo, XIV. 2. [467] Athenæus, XII. 35, p. 461. [468] Titus Livius, XXIII. 34. [469] Titus Livius, XXIII. 40. [470] Titus Livius, XLI. 12, 17, 28.--The number of 80,000 men whom the Sardinians lost in the campaign of T. Gracchus, in 578 and 579, was given by the official inscription which was seen at Rome in the temple of the goddess Matuta. (Titus Livius, XLI. 28.) [471] Festus, p. 322, edit. O. Müller.--Titus Livius, XLI. 21. [472] See Heeren, vol. IV. sect. I. chap. ii.--Polybius, I. 79.--Strabo, V. ii. 187.--Diodorus Siculus, V. 15.--Titus Livius, XXIX. 36. [473] Titus Livius, XXX. 38. [474] Strabo, V. 2. [475] Diodorus Siculus, V. 14.--The Corsicans having revolted, in 573, had 2,000 slain. (Titus Livius, XL. 34.)--In 581, they lost 7,000 men, and had more than 1,700 prisoners. (Titus Livius, XLII. 7.) [476] Strabo, V. 2. [477] Pliny, _Natural History_, III. 6. [478] Diodorus Siculus, V. 13.--In 573, the Corsicans were taxed by the Romans at 1,000,000 pounds of wax, and at 200,000 in 581. (Titus Livius, XL. 34; XLII. 7.) [479] Cicero, _Second Oration against Verres_, II. ii. 74.--The oxen furnished hides, employed especially for the tents; the sheep, an excellent wool for clothing. [480] Cicero, _Second Oration against Verres_, II. III. 70. [481] Titus Livius, XXV. 31. [482] Polybius, I. 17, 18. [483] Polybius, IX. 27.--Strabo, VI. 2. [484] See what is said by Titus Livius (XXIX. 26) and Polybius (I. 41, 43, 46).--Florus, II. 2. [485] See the work of the Duke of Serra di Falco, _Antichità della Sicilia_. [486] Thus the Jupiter of the Capitol and the Italic Juno, at least in their official worship, were the protectors of virtuous morals and punished the wicked, while the Phœnician Moloch and Hercules, worshipped at Carthage, granted their favours to those who made innocent blood run upon their altars. (Diodorus Siculus, XX. 14.)--See the remarkable figures of Moloch holding a gridiron destined for human sacrifices. (Alb. della Marmora, _Sardinian Antiquities_, pl. 23, 53, tom. ii. 254.) [487] Polybius, I. 7, 11. [488] Polybius, I. 16.--Zonaras, VIII. 16 _et seq._