te marble. Since then the Romans have demolished it, and turned the
structure into a lime-kiln." The platform of the temple and a few
fragments of its architectural decorations were discovered in 1817.
The reader may appreciate the grace of these decorations, from a
fragment of the entablature now in the portico of the Tabularium, and
one of the capitals of the cella, now in the Palazzo dei Conservatori.
The cella contained one central and ten side niches, in which eleven
masterpieces of Greek chisels were placed, namely, the Apollo and
Hera, by Baton; Leto nursing Apollo and Artemis, by Euphranor;
Asklepios and Hygieia, by Nikeratos; Ares and Hermes, by Piston; and
Zeus, Athena, and Demeter, by Sthennis. The name of the sculptor of
the Concordia in the apse is not known. Pliny speaks also of a picture
by Theodoros, representing Cassandra; of four elephants, cut in
obsidian, a miracle of skill and labor, and of a collection of
precious stones, among which was the sardonyx set in the legendary
ring of Polykrates of Samos. Most of these treasures had been offered
to the goddess by Augustus, moved by the liberality which Julius Caesar
had shown towards his ancestral goddess, Venus Genetrix. We know from
Pliny, xxxv. 9, that Caesar was the first to give due honor to
paintings, by exhibiting them in his Forum Julium. He gave about
$72,000 (eighty talents), for two works of Timomachos, representing
Medea and Ajax. At the base of the Temple of Venus Genetrix he placed
his own equestrian statue, the horse of which, modelled by Lysippos,
had once supported the figure of Alexander the Great. The statue of
Venus was the work of Arkesilaos, and her breast was covered with
strings of British pearls. Pliny (xxxvii. 5), after mentioning the
collection of gems made by Scaurus, and another made by Mithradates,
which Pompey the Great had offered to Jupiter Capitolinus, adds:
"These examples were surpassed by Caesar the dictator, who offered to
Venus Genetrix six collections of cameos and intaglios."

A descriptive catalogue of these valuables and works of art was kept
in each temple, and sometimes engraved on marble. The inventories
included also the furniture and properties of the sacristy. In 1871
the following remarkable document was discovered in the Temple of
Diana Nemorensis. The inventory, engraved on a marble pillar three
feet high, is now preserved in the Orsini Castle at Nemi. It has been
published by Henzen in "Hermes," vol. v