at the same time a judicious policy for himself, that Alexander would suffer no other painter, statuary, or engraver to form his effigy, than Apelles, Lysippus, and Pyrgoteles; a fact which accounts for the singular beauty and excellence of all the figures yet remaining of that prince.

To the merits of Protogenes, a critic of genuine taste among the ancients has borne a high testimony: 1 speak of Petronius Arbiter. That author, mentioning his having seen in the palace of Trimalchio (Nero) some sketches by the hand of Protogenes, says, that on handling them he felt a reverential awe, as if they had been something more than human*. It was to the high excellence of Protogenes as an artist, that the city of Rhodes, the place of his nativity, owed its preservation when besieged by Demetrius Poliorcetes. When that prince saw no other means of reducing the city than by setting it on fire in a particular quarter, in which there was a celebrated painting of Protogenes, he chose rather to abandon the enterprise than hazard the destruction of what was, in his opinion, of the highest value.

On the whole, if we have not the same demonstrative evidence of the attainments of the Greeks in painting that we have of their eminence in

* In pinacothecam perveni vario genere tabularum mirabilem ; nam et Zeuxidos manus vidi, nondum vetustatis injuria victas et Protogenis rudimenta cum ipsius naturæ veritate certantia, non sine quodam horrore tractavi. Jam vero

Apellis quam Græci monocnemon appellant, etiam adoravi. Tanta enim subtilitate extremitates imaginum erant ad similitudinem præcisæ, ut crederes etiam animorum esse picturam.Pet. Arb. Satyr.

sculpture, namely, the existing monuments of the art, we have every degree of presumptive evidence which the subject can admit to warrant an opinion of an equal degree of excellence. These arts require the same talents, their progress is influenced by the same moral causes, they owe their advancement to the same taste and genius; and it is impossible to suppose the one to have been successfully cultivated in any age or nation, while the other remained in a rude and imperfect state*.

If any apology were necessary for the length of the preceding observations on the state of the arts in Greece, I would remark, that as it is the province of history to exhibit the character and genius of nations, so the national character of the Greeks was in nothing more signally displayed than in those branches of art to which I have called the reader's attention in this chapter. In tracing the mutual relation of moral and political causes, this peculiar genius of the Greek will be found to have extended its influence to the revolutions of their states, and to their fate as a nation. Its advancement marked the decline of the severer morals and the fall of the martial spirit; for the fine arts cannot exist in splendour, but in a soil of luxury and of ease. The taste for these supplanted the

* For a most ample account of the ancient painters, sculptors and architects, drawn from the writings of the Greek and Roman authors, the reader is referred to the learned work of Junius de Picturâ Veterum, and the catalogue of artists subjoined to that work. See likewise a very ingenious and learned Dissertation on the Painting of the Ancients, by T. Cooper, Esq. in the third volume of Memoirs of the Lit. and Phil. Soc. of Manchester.

appetite for national glory, and at length ignominiously supplied the place of public virtue. The degenerate Greeks were consoled for the loss of their liberty by the flattering distinction of being the humanisers of their conquerors, the magistri et arbitri elegantiarum to the unpolished Romans.

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CHAPTER VIII.

Public Games of Greece-Effects on Character-MannersPoetical Composition anterior to Prose-Homer-Hesiod -Archilochus-Terpander-Sappho-Pindar-AnacreonThe Greek Epigram-The Greek Comedy, distinguished into the old, the middle, and the new—. -Aristophanes-MenanderGreek Tragedy- Æschylus-Euripides-Sophocles-Mode of Dramatic Representation-The ancient Drama set to Music -The Mimes and Pantomimes-Of the Greek Historians - Herodotus - Thucydides-Xenophon-Polybius - Diodorus Siculus Dionysius of Halicarnassus — Arrian Plutarch.

UNDER the early part of the Grecian history, we had occasion to treat of the origin, and somewhat of the nature, of the public games of Greece. Among all nations, in that period of society when war is not reduced to a science, but every battle is a multitude of single combats, we find those exercises in frequent use which tend to increase the bodily strength and activity. The Greeks, however, seem to have been the first who reduced the athletic exercises to a system, and considered them as an object of general attention and importance. The Panathenæan, and afterwards the Olympic, the Pythian, the Nemaan, and the Isthmian games were under the sanction of the laws, and subject to the regulations laid down by the ablest statesmen and legislators. They were

resorted to not only by the citizens of all the states of Greece, but even by the neighbouring nations. Thus not only was a spirit of union and good understanding kept up between the several states, which, in spite of their frequent dissensions and hostilities, made them always regard each other as countrymen, and unite cordially against a common enemy; but this partial intercourse which the games produced with the inhabitants of other countries induced an acquaintance with their manners and genius, and contributed very early to polish away the rust of barbarism. In those games, therefore, we may see the cause of two opposite effects: that Greece, in the early period of her history, was distinguished for martial ardour and military prowess; and that, in the latter ages, elegance, politeness, and refinement were her predominant characteristics.

This passion of the Greeks for shows and games, extremely laudable, and even beneficial, when confined within due bounds, was carried, at length, to a most blamable and pernicious excess. The victor in the Olympic games, who had gained the first prize at running, wrestling, or driving a chariot, was crowned with higher honours than the general who had gained a decisive battle. His praises were sung by the poets; he had statues, and even temples, dedicated to his name. Cicero remarks, that among the Greeks it was accounted more glorious to carry off the palm at the Olympic games, than among the Romans to have obtained the honours of a triumph*. Of

* Propè majus et gloriosius quam Romæ triumphâsse.—Ac. Orat. pro Flacco.