History testifies that the carrying away works of art appeared as robbery of sanctuaries in mythological times, as base plundering in the Persian invasions, and to be excused only on the score of pecuniary want in the Phocian war. But under the Romans, this became a regular recompense, which they appropriated on account of their victories. For instance, when Corinth was destroyed by the army under Lucius Mummius, its most precious treasure of sculptures and paintings was preserved. These he resolved to send to Rome; but the orders which he issued on the occasion curiously illustrate the artistic taste and capacities of the age. "If any of these spoils," he said to those who were to transport them, "be lost or injured, you shall repair or replace them at your own expense." The successors of Augustus sometimes patronized sculpture, but no native merit was produced. Nero, somewhat educated in art by his tutor, Seneca, ordered a statue of himself, a hundred and ten feet high, to be cast by Zenodorus, and virtually stole at one time five hundred statues from Delphi, among which, as is supposed, were the Apollo Belvidere and Fighting Gladiator. According to Winklemann, the encouragement which the Antonines gave to the arts was only that apparent revivescence which is the precursor of death. Under the brutal Commodus, the arts, which the school of Adrian had freely nourished, sunk, like a river which is lost in a subterranean channel, to rise again further on with a wider and richer flow. Down even to the reigns of Julian and Theodosius, Greek artists continued to repair to their mother country to copy the two great masterpieces of Phidias, his Jupiter at Elis, and his Minerva at Athens. And it is pleasing to see how Horace entered into the spirit of ancient art, when he declared to his friend Censorinus that he would give him all the riches of the world, provided he had but the chief productions of Parrhasius and Scopas. Cicero also entered into like feelings, when he desired to collect together the works of Greek artists, declaring that this was "his greatest delight." He tells his friend Atticus that if he had but his collection he should exceed Crassus in riches, and would despise all the villas and territories that might be offered to him. The real love of art in the vain orator, however, was very moderate, as he was afraid to be held by the judges as a connoisseur.