CHAP. 15.—THE FIRST STATUES PUBLICLY ERECTED BY FOREIGNERS.

The first statue that was erected at Rome at the expense of a foreigner was that of C. Ælius, the tribune of the people, who had introduced a law against Sthennius Statilius Lucanus,[1] for having twice attacked Thurii: on which account the inhabitants of that place presented Ælius with a statue and a golden crown. At a later period, the same people erected a statue to Fabricius,[2] who had delivered their city from a state of siege. From time to time various nations thus placed themselves under the protection of the Romans; and all distinctions were thereby so effectually removed, that statues of Hannibal even are to be seen in three different places in that city, within the walls of which, he alone of all its enemies, had hurled his spear.[3]

1. Valerius Maximus refers to this event, but he names the individual Statius Servilius, B. i. c. 8, § 6.—B.

2. See B. xxxiii. cc. 50, 54.

3. We have an account of the attack by Hannibal on Rome in the twenty-sixth Book of Livy, but we have no mention of the particular circumstance here referred to.—B.