The art of sculpture is of much more ancient origin than those of painting and of statuary in bronze. Phidias himself worked in marble, and there is a Venus of his at Rome, a work of extraordinary beauty, in the buildings of Octavia. He was the instructor¹ of Alcamenes, the Athenian, one of the most famous among the sculptors³. By this last artist, there are numerous statues in the temples at Athens; as also, without the walls there, the celebrated⁴ Venus, known as the Aphrodite in the Gardens, a work to which Phidias himself, it is said, put the finishing hand. Another disciple⁵ also of Phidias was Agoracritus of Paros, a great favorite with his master, on account of his extremely youthful age; and for which reason, it is said, Phidias gave his own name to many of that artist’s works. The two pupils entering into a contest as to the superior execution of a statue of Venus, Alcamenes was successful; not that his work was superior, but because his fellow-citizens chose to give their suffrages⁶ in his favor in preference to a stranger. It was for this reason, it is said, that Agoracritus sold his statue, on the express condition that it should never be taken to Athens, and changed its name to that of Nemesis⁷. It was accordingly erected⁸ at Rhamnus, a borough⁹ of Attica, and Varro has considered it superior to every other statue.