Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller.

  • Karl Otfried Müller
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tic plundering in the Persian wars, and as the work of pecu- niary want especially in the Phocian war, [as robbery on the part of the tyrants here and there,] now became under the Romans a regular recompense which they appropriated on account of their victories. In this, however, they had be- 2 fore them the example of many of the earlier Macedonian princes, who hardly all adorned their residences by purchase. There were also many monuments destroyed from hatred of tyrants (as by Aratus), and numerous temples, by the Mto- lians especially, from sheer brutality. 1. To this class belongs the stealing of Palladia, and the like, as well as the deorum evocationes. In the Xoanephori of Sophocles the gods them- selves carried their images out of lUon. Later also statues were still oftener stolen from pious motives. See the examples in Pausanias viii, 46. Gerhard's Prodromus, s. 142. Xerxes took the ApoUo of Canachus (§. 86) and the Attic tyrannicides (§. 88). Then the melting of works of art by the leaders of the Phocian mercenaries (o^^of'Eg/<ptJA>jj; the golden eagles) ; and the temple robberies of Dionysius. 2. The ^tolians laid waste in the war of the League, from 139, 4 downwards, the temples of Dodona and Dion, of Poseidon on Ta;naron, of Artemis at Lusce, Hera at Argos, Poseidon at Mantinea, the Pamboeo- tion, Polyb. iv, 18, 62, 67. v, 9, 11. ix, 34, 35; on the other hand PhiUp the Second ravaged Thermon twice, Pol. v, 9. xi, 4 (2,000 dyl^iivng). He also, about 144, laid waste the temples of Pergamon (Nicephorion), Pol. xvi, 1; after this (156, 3) Prusias plundered the treasures of art at Per- gamon, in the Artemision of Hiera-Kome, and the temple of Apollo Cy- nius at Temnos. Pol. xxxii, 25. 165. The Roman generals plundered at first with a cer- 1 tain moderation, as Marcellus at Syracuse and Fabius Maxi- mus at Tarentum, merely with the design of adorning their triumphs and the public buildings. In particular the tri- 2 umphs over Philip, Antiochus, the ^tolians, the Gauls of Asia, Perseus, Pseudophilip, above all the conquest of Corinth, and afterwards the victories over Mithridates and Cleopatra filled the Roman porticos and temples with works of art of the most various kinds. The Romans became lovers of art from 3 the time of the Achaian war; the generals now pillaged for themselves; at the same time the struggle for military sway, as in the case of Sylla, necessitated the melting of valuable objects. Even sacrilege, strictly so-called, which at an earlier 4 period the college of high priests was appointed to prevent, was less and less abstained from; the plunderers passed from the offerings to the religious images. The governors of pro- 5 vinces (Verres is one of many), and after them the Cesars, completed the work of the conquering generals ; and an approximate calculation of the plundered statues and images soon runs up to a hundred thousand.