e circles and the pediment,
representing victories, while between the side arches there are some
rivers also very crude and so poor that they leave one firmly under
the impression that the art of sculpture had been in a state of
decadence for a long while. Yet the Goths and the other barbarous and
foreign nations who combined to destroy all the superior arts in
Italy had not then appeared. It is true that architecture suffered
less than the other arts of design. The bath erected by Constantine
at the entrance of the principal portico of the Lateran contains, in
addition to its porphyry columns, capitals carved in marble and
beautifully carved double bases taken from elsewhere, the whole
composition of the building being very well ordered. On the other
hand, the stucco, the mosaic and some incrustations of the walls made
by the masters of the time are not equal to those which had been
taken away for the most part from the temples of the gods of the
heathen, and which Constantine caused to be placed in the same
building. Constantine observed the same methods, according to report,
with the garden of AEquitius in building the temple which he
afterwards endowed and gave to Christian priests. In like manner the
magnificent church of S. John Lateran, built by the same emperor, may
serve as evidence of the same fact, namely, that sculpture had
already greatly declined in his time, because the figures of the
Saviour and of the twelve apostles in silver, which he caused to be
made, were very base works, executed without art and with very little
design. In addition to this, it is only necessary to examine the
medals of this emperor, and other statues made by the sculptors of
his day, which are now at the Capitol, to clearly perceive how far
removed they are from the perfection of the medals and statues of the
other emperors, all of which things prove that sculpture had greatly
declined long before the coming of the Goths to Italy. Architecture,
as I have said, maintained its excellence at a higher though not at
the highest level. Nor is this a matter for surprise, since large
buildings were almost entirely constructed of spoils, so that it was
easy for the architects to imitate the old in making the new, since
they had the former continually before their eyes. This was an easier
task for them than far the sculptors, as the art of imitating the
good figures of the ancients had declined. A good illustration of the
truth of this stat