All these artists, however, used nothing but the white marble of the Isle of Paros, a stone which was known as “lychnites” at first, because, according to Varro, it was cut in the quarries by lamplight.[2370] Since their time, many other whiter marbles have been discovered, and very recently that of the quarries of Luna.[2371] With reference to the marble of Paros, there is one very marvellous circumstance related; in a single block that was split with wedges, a figure[2372] of Silenus made its appearance. We must not omit to remark, that the art of sculpture is of much more ancient[2373] date than those of painting and of statuary in bronze; both of which commenced with Phidias, in the eighty-third Olympiad, or in other words, about three hundred and thirty-two years later. Indeed, it is said, that Phidias himself worked in marble, and that there is a Venus of his at Rome, a work of extraordinary beauty, in the buildings of Octavia.[2374] A thing, however, that is universally admitted, is the fact that he was the instructor of Alcamenes,[2375] the Athenian, one of the most famous among the sculptors. By this last artist, there are numerous statues in the temples at Athens; as also, without the walls there, the celebrated Venus, known as the Aphrodite ἐν κήποις,[2376] work to which Phidias himself, it is said, put the finishing hand. Another disciple also of Phidias was Agoracritus[2377] of Paros, a great favourite with his master, on account of his extremely youthful age; and for which reason, it is said, Phidias gave his own name to many of that artist’s works. The two pupils entering into a contest as to the superior execution of a statue of Venus, Alcamenes was successful; not that his work was superior, but because his fellow-citizens chose to give their suffrages in his favour in preference to a stranger. It was for this reason, it is said, that Agoracritus sold his statue, on the express condition that it should never be taken to Athens, and changed its name to that of Nemesis.[2378] It was accordingly erected at Rhamnus,[2379] a borough of Attica, and M. Varro has considered it superior to every other statue. There is also to be seen in the Temple of the Great Mother, in the same city, another work[2380] by Agoracritus.