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1 84 ROMAN DAYS.
Shields with inscriptions, were common in the Hel-
lenic temples. If they were booty of war, they were
dedicated to a god and hung up on the pillars of his
shrine. So the romantic adventurer Pyrrhus, king of
the Epirotes, did, after his victory over the dreaded Mace-
donians. The inscription he caused to be cut upon the
Macedonian shields, which he offered to Zeus at Dodona,
as trophies of victory, may be takjn as proof of this cus-
tom. He did not forget to parade the fact that the na-
tion he had overcome was that which under Philip had
destroyed the freedom of Hellas, and under Alexander
had w^on the East by arms :
Asia s frtiitfIII lands, these shields have wasted and ravaged.
Shields that erst too, have laid Hellas in fetters and chains ;
Now, Macedonia, to Zeus, they as trophies 07i pillars are ha7iging.
Torn fro7n the combata7it’s ar77is, wrested, thou scor7ier, fro77i thee!
Quatremere called attention to the likeness between
the features of the Melian and the Cnidan Aphrodites.
Since then, new discoveries have been made and other like-
nesses found. A head of Venus dug up on Cyprus, re-
minds one strongly of that of Melos ; but yet more strik-
ing is the kinship between our statue and the admirable
work of art which is the pride of Brescia : the winged
Victoria. The family resemblance between them plainly
points to one and the same original, and one and the same
fundamental thought, of which they are gradations allied
in development.
Brescia’s Victory supports on the left knee, bent, a
shield, which she holds in an upright position, while in-
clining her laurel-crowned head, she writes on the round
surface of the shield. The lower part of the body is
hidden by a rich draper)’. A light tunic falls over her
left breast.
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