The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 6 (of 6)Pliny, the Elder
History
The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 6 (of 6)
Pliny, the Elder
Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
This art has arrived at incredible perfection, both in successfulness
and in boldness of design. As a proof of successfulness, I will adduce
one example, and that of a figure which represented neither god nor
man. We have seen in our own time, in the Capitol, before it was last
burnt by the party[1319] of Vitellius, in the shrine of Juno there, a
bronze figure of a dog licking its wounds. Its miraculous excellence
and its perfect truthfulness were not only proved by the circumstance
of its having been consecrated there, but also by the novel kind of
security that was taken for its safety; for, no sum appearing equal to
its value, it was publicly enacted that the keepers of it should be
answerable for its safety with their lives.
CHAP. 18.—THE MOST CELEBRATED COLOSSAL STATUES IN THE CITY.
As to boldness of design, the examples are innumerable; for we see
designed, statues of enormous bulk, known as colossal statues and
equal to towers in size. Such, for instance, is the Apollo in the
Capitol, which was brought by M. Lucullus from Apollonia, a city of
Pontus,[1320] thirty cubits in height, and which cost five hundred
talents: such, too, is the statue of Jupiter, in the Campus Martius,
dedicated by the late Emperor Claudius, but which appears small
in comparison from its vicinity to the Theatre of Pompeius: and
such is that at Tarentum, forty cubits in height, and the work of
Lysippus.[1321] It is a remarkable circumstance in this statue, that
though, as it is stated, it is so nicely balanced as to be moveable
by the hand, it has never been thrown down by a tempest. This indeed,
the artist, it is said, has guarded against, by a column erected at a
short distance from it, upon the side on which the violence of the wind
required to be broken. On account, therefore, of its magnitude, and the
great difficulty of moving it, Fabius Verrucosus[1322] did not touch
it, when he transferred the Hercules from that place to the Capitol,
where it now stands.
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