The Ancient World’s Best Kept Secret

Recent scholarship exposes a whitewashed Roman history

Image courtesy of The History Blog: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/32254

The ancient naturalist Pliny the Elder described the sculptor Praxiteles in his book Natural History, writing that “so much value did he assign to his coloring of surfaces,” that when asked to single out his favorite marble sculpture, Praxiteles replied, “The ones to which [the painter] Nicias has set his hand.”