efpecially one he had of Virgil. He ufed to offer facrifices too at his tomb near Naples. It is a pity that he could not get more of his fpirit in his writings: for he had scarce enough to make his offerings acceptable to the genius of that great poet. -Statius had more of spirit, with a lefs fhare of prudence: for his Thebaid is certainly ill-conducted, and scarcely well written. By the little we have of his Achilleid, that would probably have been a much better poem, at least as to the writing part, had he lived to finish it. As it is, his defcription of Achilles's behaviour at the feast which Lycomedes makes for the Grecian ambaffadors, and fome other parts of it, read more pleafingly to me than any part of the Thebaid. I cannot help thinking, that the paffage quoted fo often from Juvenal, as 'an encomium on Statius, was meant as a fatire on him. Martial feems to strike at him too, under the borrowed name of Sabellus. As he did not finish his Achilleid, he may deferve more reputation perhaps as a miscellaneous than as an epic writer; for though the odes and other copies of verses in his Sylvæ are not without their faults, they are not fo faulty as his Thebaid. The chief faults of Statius, in his Sylvæ and Thebaid, are said to have proceeded from very different caufes: the former, from their having been written incorrectly and in a great deal of hafte; and the other, from its being over corrected and hard. Perhaps his greatest fault of all, or rather the greateft fign of his bad judgment, is his admiring Lucan fo extravagantly as he does. It is remarkable, that poetry run more lincally in Statius's family, than perhaps in any other. He received it from his father; who had been an eminent poet in his time, and lived to fee his fon obtain the laurel-crown at the Alban games; as he had formerly done himfelf Valerius Flaccus wrote a little before Statius. He died young, and left his poem unfinished. We have but seven books of his Argonautics, and part of the eight, in which the Argonauts are left on the fea, in their return homewards. Several of the modern critics, who have been fome way or other concerned in publishing Flaccus's works, make no fcruple of placing him next to Virgil, of all the Roman epic poets; and I own I am a good deal inclined to be ferioufly of their opinion; for he feems to me to have more fire than Silius, and to be more correct than Statius;

and as for Lucan, I cannot help looking upon him as quite out of the question. He imitates Virgil's language much better than Silius, or even Statius; and his plan, or rather his story, is certainly lefs embarraffed and confufed than the. Thebaid. Some of the ancients themselves fpeak of Flaccus with a great deal of refpect; and particularly Quinctilian; who fays nothing at all of Silius or Statius; unless the latter is to be included in that general expreffion of feveral others,' whom he leaves to be celebrated by pofterity.

As to the dramatic writers of this time, we have not any one comedy, and only ten tragedies, all published under the name of Lucius Annæus Seneca. They are probably the work of different hands; and might be a collection of favourite plays, put together by fome bad grammarian; for either the Roman tragedies of this age were very indifferent, or thefe are not their best. They have been attributed to authors as far diftant as the reigns of Auguftus and Trajan. It is true, the person who is fo pofitive that one of them in particular muft be of the Auguftan age, fays this of a piece that he seems refolved to cry up at all rates; and I believe one fhould do no injury to any one of them, in fuppofing them all to have been written in this third age, under the decline of the Roman poetry.

Of all the other poets under this period, there are none whose works remain to us, except Martial and Juvenal. The former flourished under Domitian; and the latter under Nerva, Trajan, and Adrian. Spence.

$ 59. Of MARTIAL.

Martial is a dealer only in a little kind of writing; for Epigram is certainly (what it is called by Dryden) the loweft ftep of poetry. He is at the very bottom of the hill; but he diverts himself there, in gathering flowers and playing with infects, prettily enough. If Martial made a newyear's gift, he was fure to send a distich with it: if a friend died, he made a few verfes to put on his tomb-ftone: if a statue was fet up, they came to him for an infcription. These were the common offices of his mufe. If he struck a fault in life, he marked it down in a few lines; and if he had a mind to please a friend, or to get the favour of the great, his ftyle. was turned to panegyric; and these were his higheft employments. He was, however, a good writer in his way; and there

are

the noble works of the Grecian artifts that had been fet up for fome time in the temples and porticos, and all the moft public places of the city, and who ufed frequently to spend the greatest part of the day in contemplating the beauties of them, extolled Marcellus as much for the pleafure he had given them. "We fhall now," faid they," no longer be reckoned among "the Barbarians. That ruft, which we "have been fo long contracting, will foon "be worn off. Other generals have con"quered our enemies, but Marcellus has "conquered our ignorance. We begin to "fee with new eyes, and have a new world "of beauties opening before us. Let the "Romans be polite, as well as victorious; "and let us learn to excel the nations in "tafte, as well as to conquer them with our << arms."

Whichever fide was in the right, the party for Marcellus was the fuccefsful one; for, from this point of time we may date the introduction of the arts into Rome. The Romans by this means began to be fond of them; and the love of the arts is a paffion, which grows very faft in any breaft, wherever it is once entertained.

We may see how fast and how greatly it prevailed at Rome, by a fpeech which old Cato the cenfor made in the fenate, not above feventeen years after the taking of Syracufe. He complains in it, that their people began to run into Greece and Afia; and to be infected with a defire of playing with their fine things: that as to fuch fpoils, there was lefs honour in taking them, than there was danger of their being taken by them: that the gods brought from Syracufe, had revenged the caufe of its citizens, in fpreading this tafte among the Romans: that he heard but too many daily crying up the ornaments of Corinth and Athens; and ridiculing the poor old Roman gods; who had hitherto been propitious to them; and who, he hoped, would ftill continue fo, if they would but let their ftatues remain in peace upon their pedef Spence.

tals.

$ 64. The ROMAN Generals, in their feveral Conquests, convey great Numbers of

Pictures and Statues to ROME.

It was in vain too that Cato fpoke against it; for the love of the arts prevailed every day more and more; and from henceforward the Roman generals, in their feveral conquefts, feem to have trove who should bring away the greatest

number of statues and pictures, to fet off their triumphs, and to adorn the city of Rome. It is furprifing what acceffions of this kind were made in the compass of a little more than half a century after Marcellus had fet the example. The elder Scipio Africanus brought in a great number of wrought vafes from Spain and Africa, toward the end of the fecond Punic war; and the very year after that was finished, the Romans entered into a war with Greece, the great fchool of all the arts, and the chief repofitory of most of the fincft works that ever were produced by them. It would be endless to mention all their acquifitions from hence; I fhall only put you in mind of fone of the most confiderable. Flaminius made a great fhew both of ftatues and vafes in his triumph over Philip king of Macedon; but he was much exceeded by Æmilius, who reduced that kingdom into a province. Æmilius's triumph lafted three days; the firft of which was wholly taken up in bringing in the fine ftatues he had felected in his expedition; as the chief ornament of the fecond confifted of vafes and fculptured veffels of all forts, by the most eminent hands. Thefe were all the moft chofen things, culled from the collection of that fucceffor of Alexander the Great; for as to the inferior fpoils of no less than feventy Grecian cities, Æmilius had left them all to his foldiery, as not worthy to appear among the ornaments of his triumph. Not many years after this, the young Scipio Africanus (the perfon who is most celebrated for his polite tafte of all the Romans hitherto, and who was fcarce exceeded by any one of them in all the fucceeding ages) deftroyed Carthage, and transferred many of the chief ornaments of that city, which had fo long bid fair for being the feat of empire, to Rome, which foon became undoubtedly fo. This must have been a vast acceffion: though that great man, who was as juft in his actions as he was elegant in his tafte, did not bring all the finest of his fpoils to Rome, but left a great part of them in Sicily, from whence they had for

merly been taken by the Carthaginians. The very fame year that Scipio freed Rome from its most dangerous rival, Carthage, Mummius (who was as remarkable for his rufticity, as Scipio was for elegance and tafte) added Achaia to the Roman. ftate; and facked, among feveral others. the famous city of Corinth, which had been long looked upon as one of the principal

refervoirs

refervoirs of the finest works of art. He cleared it of all its beauties, without knowing any thing of them: even without knowing, that an old Grecian ftatue was better than a new Roman one. He used, how ever, the fureft method of not being miftaken; for he took all indifferently as they came in his way; and brought them off in fuch quantities, that he alone is faid to have filled Rome with flatues and pictures. Thus, partly from the tafte, and partly from the vanity of their generals, in less than feventy years time (reckoning from Marcellus's taking of Syracufe to the year in which Carthage was deftroyed) Italy was furnished with the nobleft productions of the ancient artists, that before lay scattered all over Spain, Africa, Sicily, and the reft of Greece. Sylla, befide many others, added vaftly to them afterwards; particularly by his taking of Athens, and by his conquefts in Afia; where, by his too great indulgence to his armies, he made taste and rapine a general thing, even among the com:non foldiers, as it had been, for a long time, among their leaders.

In this manner, the first confiderable acquifitions were made by their conquering armies; and they were carried on by the perfons fent out to govern their provinces, when conquered. As the behaviour of these in their governments, in general, was one of the greatest blots on the Roman nation, we must not expect a full account of their tranfactions in the old hiftorians, who treat particularly of the Roman affairs: for fuch of these that remain to us, are either Romans themselves, or elfe Greeks who were too much attached to the Roman intereft, to fpeak out the whole truth in this affair. But what we cannot have fully from their own hiftorians, may be pretty well fupplied from other hands. A poet of their own, who feems to have been a very honeft man, has fet the rapaciousness of their governors in general in a very ftrong light; as Cicero has fet forth that of Verres in particular, as ftrongly. If we may judge of their general behaviour by that of this governor of Sicily, they were more like monfters and harpies, than men. For that public robber (as Cicero calls him, more than once) hunted over every corner of his ifland, with a couple of finders (one a Greek painter, and the other a ftatuary of the fame nation) to get together his collection; and was fo curious and fo rapacious in that fearch, that Cicero fays, there was not a gem, or ftatue, or relievo, or picture,

in all Sicily, which he did not fee; nor any one he liked, which he did not take away from its owner. What he thus got, he fent into Italy. Rome was the centre both of their spoils in war, and of their rapines in peace: and if many of their prætors and proconfuls acted but in half fo abandoned a manner as this Verres appears to have done, it is very probable that Rome was more enriched in all these fort of things fecretly by their governors, than it had been openly by their generals. Spence.

965. The Methods made use of in drawing the Works of the best ancient Artifts into ITALY.

There was another method of augmenting these treasures at Rome, not fo infamous as this, and not fo glorious as the former. What I mean, was the custom of the Ediles, when they exhibited their public games, of adorning the theatres and other places where they were performed, with great numbers of ftatues and pictures: which they bought up or borrowed, for that purpose, all over Greece, and fometimes even from Asia. Scaurus, in particular, in his ædileship, had no less than three thousand statues and relievos for the mere ornamenting of the stage, in a theatre built only for four or five days. This was the fame Scaurus who (whilft he was in the fame office too) brought to Rome all the pictures of Sicyon, which had been fo long one of the most eminent schools in Greece for painting; in lieu of debts owing, or pretended to be owed, from that city to the Roman people.

From thefe public methods of drawing the works of the beft ancient artists into Italy, it grew at length to be a part of private luxury, affected by almost every body. that could afford it, to adorn their houses, their porticos, and their gardens, with the beft ftatues and pictures they could procure out of Greece or Afia. None went earlier into this tafte, than the family of the Luculli, and particularly Lucius Lucullus, who carried on the war against Mithri dates. He was remarkable for his love of the arts and polite learning even from a child; and in the latter part of his life gave himself up fo much to collections of this kind, that Plutarch reckons it among his follies. "As I am speaking of his faults (fays that hiftorian in is life) I fhould not omit his vaft baths, and piazzas for walking; or his gardens, which were much more magnificent than any in his time E e 2

at