effort of creative mind; they looked upon them as mere matters of convenience, not as objects of respectful admiration.* man soldiers played at dice upon the celebrated painting of Bacchus, by Aristides; and similar acts of barbarism induced the lines of Juvenal: "Tunc rudis et Græcas mirari nescius artes Sat. xi. v. 100. To these succeeded the ravages of Sylla after the Mithridatic war, when, besides an infinity of statues and marbles, the dictator transported to Rome the very columns of the temple of Jupiter Olympius. (Pliny, 1. xxxvi. c. 5.) Thebes, Sparta, and Mycenae shared a similar fate; and the temples of Delphi, Epidauris, and Elis were alike ravaged by Sylla, who, though the destroyer of art in Athens, aspired to become its patron at Rome. In a subsequent portion of this chapter I shall have occasion to mention the successive spoliations of the Roman emperors; the present will suffice to show the passion for Grecian works, and the extent of its gratification, as it existed at Rome about the period of the subjection of Achaia. -Les Grecs cultivèrent et perfectionnèrent les Romains ne les les arts par sentiment : adoptèrent que par orgueil. Les Grecs les cherirent parce qu'ils honoraient la patrie, les Romains ne les suffrirent que parce qu'ils la decoraient; enfin pour faire comprendre à ce sujet la difference de l'esprit national, en Grèce ils ne pouvaient être exercés que par des hommes libres; à Rome la profession d'artiste n'était le partage que des esclaves; c'est à dire, que là ils étaient un objet d'amour, et ici un objet de This new taste for decoration quickly brought to Rome the humiliated artists of the subjugated province, who prepared to ply for bread in the land of the spoiler those arts which they had cultivated for the adornment of their own. The Romans, scorning to participate* in those pursuits in which they saw themselves so far outdone by their tributaries, affected to despise what they despaired to imitate, and committed almost exclusively to the conquered Greeks those arts whose productions had now become to them necessaries of life.† Their patronage, faste."-Musée Napoleon, vol xi. p. 149. Caylus, Antiquités Grecques, &c. vol. i. p. 158. A member of the Fabian family having degraded the rank of his house by the cultivation of painting, such as it then existed at Rome, (previous to the first Punic war,) the appellation of "Pictor" was thenceforth attached as a stigma to his name. Even Augustus, who professed so highly to estimate the value of the arts, made it a favour to permit Quintus Pedius, a youth of a consular family who was born dumb, to be instructed in painting as a pastime for those hours in which nature had incapacitated him for the enjoyment of more patrician studies. The Greeks themselves learned early to adopt those barbarous ideas of their masters; and the grand object of Lucian's "Dream" is to point out the inferiority of sculpture to the more esteemed pursuits of literature. + "On n'en est pas moins fondé à soutenir que le bel art de la peinture ne jouit d'aucune considération à Rome, et que les raisons qui firent rassembler ses productions dans cette capitale du monde n'influèrent jamais ni sur le gout des however, was not calculated either to sustain or to advance the fading energies of Grecian talent; it was merely the countenance vouchsafed by a haughty master to an humble dependant, not that devoted enthusiasm that adores whilst it supports the delicate and feminine genius of the arts. This haughty bearing, so consonant to the rude character of the people amongst whom it prevailed, maintained its ground almost without diminution throughout the few centuries, from the conquest of Greece, during which the sovereignty of Rome continued to command respect. The feeling was imbibed by the most polished and erudite of her citizens; and even Virgil himself does not hesitate to stigmatize as beneath the dignity of a Roman the elegant accomplishments of the Greek.* Nor was the prejudice removed till the purity of Grecian taste had disappeared; and it was only when the corruption of art no longer merited patronage, that the Roman monarchs afforded it a tardy protection, which could neither restore its excellence nor impede its decay. grands, ni sur le désir des gens du peuple à se livrer à la pratique des beaux arts, qui à l'exception de la poesie fut toujours abandonée aux Grecs et aux esclaves étrangers."— Discours sur la Peinture Ancienne, Musée Franç. * Virgil, Æn. vi. 1. 848. et seq. See vol. ii. of this history, note, p. 48. It is easy, on contrasting these circumstances with the causes which first served to exalt the reputation of the Greeks, to conceive that the arts in such an age were soon to suffer an inevitable debasement. The grand spring to exertion was withdrawn from those in whose hands were placed their cultivation and support: the Greek had no longer a home to be proud of, or a country to embellish; and his semi-barbarous masters had neither the discrimination to applaud, nor the disposition to reward his labours. Emulation and ambition were extinct; the only object of the artist was to humour the caprices and execute the orders of his employer; and in a brief period, his own educated taste became totally suppressed, or was corrupted by an admixture with that of his patron.* There seems to be a principle peculiar to art, that it can never be stationary, but is constantly either on the advance or the decline. It was rapidly reduced to mediocrity at Rome, and from this humble point there was neither genius nor encouragement to exalt it. On the contrary, it continued to decline; and as the mind is ever ardent in the pursuit of novelties, each new path struck out by its professors was a retrogression, not an advancement. It was "Son style melange des principes de l'art Grec et du gout Romain."-Agincourt. thus that "painting deviated into extravagance or littleness, architecture was lost in ornament, poetry became buried in the quaintness of conceit, and even history, in search of novel excellence, ran into the marvellous, the familiar, or obscure."* Architecture at Rome was, of all the arts, that which longest retained the traces of its purity, and continued to be cultivated when the others were almost forgotten.† This, however, is easily accounted for, by its essential importance to the necessities of life, whilst painting and sculpture minister merely to its luxuries. With the Greeks, it was that which earliest attained perfection,‡ and flourished with a splendour far excelling the proudest efforts of + Winkelmann, 1. vi. c. 8. * Sir W. Young. Winkelmann (1. iv. c. 1.) considers sculpture to have preceded architecture as a science, since the proportions of the former were imitations of existing models, and those of the latter were only discovered after frequent experiments, and an infinity of calculations and reasoning. Goguet supposes its advancement and that of sculpture to have been contemporary. (Origine des Loix, des Arts, &c.) On the other hand, Padre Antonio Paoli, in his Essay on the Origin and Antiquity of Architecture, endeavours to show that the Greeks received the science in an advanced state from the Egyptians at a period antecedent to that at which sculpture commenced to be cultivated by them; and Agincourt, adopting the same idea, says, "Ainsi identifiée en quelque sorte avec l'homme, puisque le besoin d'y recourir prend naissance avec lui, l'ar |