Note 161 — BOOK XI. (continued 2)

Since their restoration to Venice, the history of these three celebrated horses has given birth to three dissertations. In one (Narrazione Storica dei Quatro Cavalli di Bronzo, &c.), Count Cicognara, president of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at Venice, pretends that this monument was cast at Rome in the reign of Nero, in commemoration of the victory over Tiridates. M. Schlegel (Lettera ai Signori Compilatori della Biblioteca Italiana) rejects this opinion of the count, and thinks that the four bronze horses are from the hands of a Greek statuary of the time of Alexander.—Dei Quatro Cavalli della Basilica di S. Marco. Andre Mustoxidi, a very learned young Greek, makes this superb group come from Chios, which was rich in skilful sculptors, and believes they were transmitted to Rome in the time of Verres, and to Constantinople under Theodosius the Great.