2.2
Among the other artists at his court was Stasicrates Cf.Life of Alexander, chap. lxxii. (705 a): the man is called Deinocrates by Vitruvius, ii. praef.; and Cheirocrates by the mss. of Strabo, xiv. 1. 23. the master-sculptor, not seeking to make something flowery or pleasant or lifelike to look upon, but employing a magnificence in workmanship and design worthy of a king’s munificence. He followed Alexander into Asia and found fault with the paintings, sculptures, and moulded likenesses that had been made of him, on the ground that they were the works of timid and ignoble artists. But I, your Majesty, said he, have conceived the project of placing your likeness in living and imperishable material, with roots that are everlasting and weight immovable and unshakable. For Mount Athos in Thrace, in that part where is its highest and most conspicuous summit, has well-proportioned surfaces and heights, limbs and joints and proportions that suggest the human form. When it has been properly carved and worked into shape, it can be called Alexander’s statue, and Alexander’s statue it will be; with its base set in the sea, in its left hand it will encompass and hold a city peopled with ten thousand inhabitants, and with its right pour from a bowl of libation an ever-flowing river down into the sea. But as for gold and bronze, ivory, wooden timbers, and dyes,The reference is to the chryselephantine statues of Pheidias and his school with their inner frame-work of timbers, and painted without. which make those paltry images that can be bought and sold, stolen, or melted down, let us reject them all! Alexander listened to his words and admired but declined with thanks the lofty designs and the boldness of the artist. But, said he, let Athos remain as it is. It is enough that it be the memorial of the arrogance of one kingXerxes’ canal; Cf. 342 e, infra.; but my imprint the Caucasus shall show and the EmodianA range of north-western India, the Prakrit Haimota; Cf. Arrian, Indica, 2. 3; 6. 4; Pliny, Natural History, vi. 17 (56). range and the Tanaïs and the Caspian Sea; these will be the image of my deeds.
