CHAPTER XLVI

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And the ancient statue of Athene Alea, and together with it the tusks of the Calydonian boar, were carried away by the Emperor Augustus, after his victory over Antony and his allies, among whom were all the Arcadians but the Mantineans. Augustus does not seem to have commenced the practice of carrying off votive offerings and statues of the gods from conquered nations, but to have merely followed a long-established custom. For after the capture of Ilium, when the Greeks divided the spoil, the statue of Household Zeus was given to Sthenelus the son of Capaneus: and many years afterwards, when the Dorians had migrated to Sicily, Antiphemus, the founder of Gela, sacked Omphace a town of the Sicani, and carried from thence to Gela a statue made by Dædalus. And we know that Xerxes the son of Darius, the king of the Persians, besides what he carried off from Athens, took from Brauron a statue of Brauronian Artemis, and moreover charged the Milesians with cowardice in the sea-fight against the Athenians at Salamis, and took from them the brazen Apollo at Branchidæ, which a long time afterwards Seleucus sent back to the Milesians. And the statues taken from the Argives at Tiryns are now, one in the temple of Hera, the other in the temple of Apollo at Elis. And the people of Cyzicus having forced the people of Proconnesus to settle with them took from them a statue of the Dindymene Mother. The statue generally was of gold, but the head instead of ivory was made with the teeth of Hippopotamuses. So the Emperor Augustus merely followed a long established custom usual both among Greeks and barbarians. And you may see the statue of Athene Alea in the Forum at Rome built by Augustus. It is throughout of ivory and the workmanship of Endœus. Those who busy themselves about such curiosities say that one of the tusks of the boar was broken off, and the remaining one was suspended as a votive offering in Cæsar’s gardens in the temple of Dionysus. It is about 2½ feet long.

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