And the ancient statue of Athene Alea, and together with it the tusks
of the Calydonian boar, were carried away by the Emperor Augustus,
after his victory over Antony and his allies, among whom were all the
Arcadians but the Mantineans. Augustus does not seem to have commenced
the practice of carrying off votive offerings and statues of the gods
from conquered nations, but to have merely followed a long-established
custom. For after the capture of Ilium, when the Greeks divided the
spoil, the statue of Household Zeus was given to Sthenelus the son of
Capaneus: and many years afterwards, when the Dorians had migrated
to Sicily, Antiphemus, the founder of Gela, sacked Omphace a town of
the Sicani, and carried from thence to Gela a statue made by Dædalus.
And we know that Xerxes the son of Darius, the king of the Persians,
besides what he carried off from Athens, took from Brauron a statue of
Brauronian Artemis, and moreover charged the Milesians with cowardice
in the sea-fight against the Athenians at Salamis, and took from them
the brazen Apollo at Branchidæ, which a long time afterwards Seleucus
sent back to the Milesians. And the statues taken from the Argives at
Tiryns are now, one in the temple of Hera, the other in the temple of
Apollo at Elis. And the people of Cyzicus having forced the people
of Proconnesus to settle with them took from them a statue of the
Dindymene Mother. The statue generally was of gold, but the head
instead of ivory was made with the teeth of Hippopotamuses. So the
Emperor Augustus merely followed a long established custom usual both
among Greeks and barbarians. And you may see the statue of Athene Alea
in the Forum at Rome built by Augustus. It is throughout of ivory
and the workmanship of Endœus. Those who busy themselves about such
curiosities say that one of the tusks of the boar was broken off, and
the remaining one was suspended as a votive offering in Cæsar’s gardens
in the temple of Dionysus. It is about 2½ feet long.