Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

160 CLASSICAL TOUR Ch. V,
so many emperors in succession, as are now
united in one grand assembly under its roof.
The same may be said of the collection in the
Vatican, where long galleries and capacious tem-
ples are lined with rows, frequently double, of
busts and statues representing all the demigods
and heroes, the statesmen and orators, the poets
and philosophers, in short, all the great persons
real or imaginary, that have figured in the his-
tory and literature of the ancients, and have
filled the world with their renown for so many
■ages.
Ora ducum et vatum, sapientumque ora priorum.
Stat. Syl. ii. 2.

Private cabinets, some of which are almost as
considerable as the two great repositories just
mentioned, increase the prodigious stock, and
give altogether a number of statues that equals
the population of some cities; combining' the
most perfect specimens, not of Greek and Ro-
man only, but of Etruscan and Egyptian art, and
expanding before us, in the compass of one
city, all the treasures of the ancient world.*

* “ On trouve ici,” exclaims the Abbe Barthelemi, on his
first visit to the Capitol, “ 1’ancienne Egypte, 1’ancienne
Atbenes, 1’ancienne Rome!”

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