Romans, when they conquered it, carried away three thousand statues.  The Colossus was one of the wonders of the world (seventy cubits in height); and the Laocooen (the group of the Trojan hero and his two sons encoiled by serpents) is a perfect miracle of art, in which pathos is exhibited in the highest degree ever attained in sculpture.  It was discovered in 1506, near the baths of Titus, and is one of the choicest remains of ancient plastic art.

The great artists of antiquity did not confine themselves to the representation of man, but also carved animals with exceeding accuracy and beauty.  Nicias was famous for his dogs, Myron for his cows, and Lysippus for his horses.  Praxiteles composed his celebrated lion after a living animal.  “The horses of the frieze of the Elgin Marbles,” says Flaxman, “appear to live and move; to roll their eyes, to gallop, prance, and curvet; the veins of their faces and legs seem distended with circulation.  The beholder is charmed with the deer-like lightness and elegance of their make; and although the relief is not above an inch from the background, and they are so much smaller than nature, we can scarcely suffer reason to persuade us they are not alive.”  The Greeks also carved gems, cameos, medals, and vases, with unapproachable excellence.  Very few specimens have come down to our times, but those which we possess show great beauty both in design and execution.

Grecian statuary began with ideal representations of the deities, and was carried to the greatest perfection by Phidias in his statues of Jupiter and Minerva.  Then succeeded the school of Praxiteles, in which the figures of gods and goddesses were still represented, but in mortal forms.  The school of Lysippus was famous for the statues of celebrated men, especially in cities where Macedonian rulers resided.  Artists were expected henceforth to glorify kings and powerful nobles and rulers by portrait statues.  From this period, however, plastic art degenerated; nor were works of original genius produced, but rather copies or varieties from the three great schools to which allusion has been made.  Sculpture may have multiplied, but not new creations; although some imitations of great merit were produced, like the Hermaphrodite, the Torso, the Farnese Hercules, and the Fighting Gladiator.  When Corinth was sacked by Mummius, some of the finest statues of Greece were carried to Rome; and after the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, the Greek artists emigrated to Italy.  The fall of Syracuse introduced many works of priceless value into Rome; but it was from Athens, Delphi, Corinth, Elis, and other great centres of art that the richest treasures were brought.  Greece was despoiled to ornament Italy.