who supplied him;
but the economic ruin of Asia Minor in particular so exceedingly rich
in artistic products brought many really ancient and rare ornaments
and works of art into the market, and from Athens, Syracuse,
Cyzicus, Pergamus, Chios, Samos, and other ancient seats of art,
everything that was for sale and very much that was not migrated
to the palaces and villas of the Roman grandees. We have
already mentioned what treasures of art were to be found within
the house of Lucullus, who indeed was accused, perhaps not unjustly,
of having gratified his interest in the fine arts at the expense
of his duties as a general. The amateurs of art crowded thither
as they crowd at present to the Villa Borghese, and complained
even then of such treasures being confined to the palaces
and country-houses of the men of quality, where they could be seen
only with difficulty and after special permission from the possessor.
The public buildings on the other hand were far from filled
in like proportion with famous works of Greek masters,
and in many cases there still stood in the temples of the capital
nothing but the old images of the gods carved in wood.
As to the exercise of art there is virtually nothing to report;
there is hardly mentioned by name from this period any Roman sculptor
or painter except a certain Arellius, whose pictures rapidly went off
not on account of their artistic value, but because the cunning reprobate
furnished, in his pictures of the goddesses faithful portraits
of his mistresses for the time being.

Dancing and Music

The importance of music and dancing increased in public
as in domestic life. We have already set forth how theatrical music
and the dancing-piece attained to an independent standing
in the development of the stage at this period;(43) we may add
that now in Rome itself representations were very frequently given
by Greek musicians, dancers, and declaimers on the public stage--
such as were usual in Asia Minor and generally in the whole Hellenic
and Hellenizing world.(44) To these fell to be added the musicians
and dancing-girls who exhibited their arts to order at table
and elsewhere, and the special choirs of stringed and wind instruments
and singers which were no longer rare in noble houses. But that even
the world of quality itself played and sang with diligence, is shown
by the very adoption of music into the cycle of the generally
recognized subjects of instruction;(45) as to dan