In Italy the Tuscan Apollo, in the library of the Temple of Augustus, is fifty feet in height from the toe; and it is a question whether it is more remarkable for the quality of the metal, or for the beauty of the workmanship. Spurius Carvilius erected the statue of Jupiter. Capitolinus, after he had conquered the Samnites, who fought in obedience to a most solemn oath; it was formed out of their breast-plates, greaves, and helmets, and is of such large dimensions that it may be seen from the statue of Jupiter Latiaris on the Alban Mount, twelve miles from Rome. He made his own statue, which is at the feet of the other one, out of the filings of the metal. There are also, in the Capitol, two heads which are very much admired, and which were dedicated by the Consul Lentulus, one of them executed by the above-mentioned Chares, the other by Decius; but the latter is so greatly excelled by the former, as to have all the appearance of being the work of one of the poorest of artists.
But all these gigantic statues have been surpassed in our own age by the Mercury, made by Zenodotus for the city of the Arverni in Gaul, which was ten years in completing, and cost four hundred thousand sesterces. Having given sufficient proof there of his artistic skill, he was sent for by Nero to Rome, where he made a colossal statue intended to represent that prince, one hundred and ten feet in height. In consequence, however, of the public detestation of Nero’s crimes, this statue was consecrated to the Sun.[217] We used to admire in his studio the accurate likeness not only in the model of clay, but in the small sketches which served as the first foundation of the work. This statue proves that the art of fusing precious bronze was then lost, for Nero was prepared to furnish the requisite gold and silver, and Zenodotus was inferior to none of the ancients, either as a designer or as an engraver. At the time that he was working at the statue for the Arverni, he copied for Dubius Avitus, the governor of the province, two drinking-cups, chased by the hand of Calamis, which had been highly prized by Germanicus Cæsar, and had been given by him to his preceptor Cassius Silanus, the uncle of Avitus; and this with such exactness, that they could scarcely be distinguished from the originals.
