But I am exasperated at length, to drag out this CACUS from the den of obscurity, where he lurketh, to detect him by the light of those stars he hath so impudently traduced, and to shew there is not a Monster in the skies so pernicious and malevolent to mankind as an ignorant pretender to Physic and Astrology.

The group on the right represents Hercules and Cacus, and is by Baccio Bandinelli (1485-1560), a coarse and offensive man, jealous of most people and particularly of Michelangelo, to whom, but for his displeasing Pope Clement VII, the block of marble from which the Hercules was carved would have been given.

What became of the cartoon is not definitely known, but Vasari's story is that Bandinelli, the sculptor of the Hercules and Cacus outside the Palazzo, who was one of the most diligent copyists of the cartoon after it was placed in a room in this building, had the key of the door counterfeited, and, obtaining entrance during a moment of tumult, destroyed the picture.

Cacus, the son of Vulcan and Medusa, was a famous robber who breathed fire and smoke and laid waste Italy.

But if he offend his good patron, or displease his lady mistress in the mean time, [2008] "Ducetur Planta velut ictus ab Hercule Cacus, Poneturque foras, si quid tentaverit unquam Hiscere" as Hercules did by Cacus, he shall be dragged forth of doors by the heels, away with him.

But if he offend his good patron, or displease his lady mistress in the mean time, [2008] "Ducetur Planta velut ictus ab Hercule Cacus, Poneturque foras, si quid tentaverit unquam Hiscere" as Hercules did by Cacus, he shall be dragged forth of doors by the heels, away with him.

It was the monster-thief Cacus, whose den upon earth often had a pond of blood before it, and to whom Hercules, in his rage, when he slew him, gave a whole hundred blows with his club, though the wretch perceived nothing after the ninth.

In white marble are the following beautiful statues: a group representing Hercules and Cacus; another representing a Roman carrying off a Sabine woman.

The Hercules, who is in the act of strangling Cacus, rests on one leg.

She is called by ancient Authors the Tenth Muse; and by Plutarch is compared to Cacus the Son of Vulcan, who breathed out nothing but Flame.

A new project seems also to have been started by his friend Soderinithat of making him erect a colossal statue of Hercules subduing Cacus opposite the David.

The Gonfalonier was in correspondence with the Marquis of Carrara on the 10th of May about a block of marble for this giant; but Michelangelo at that time had returned to Rome, and of the Cacus we shall hear more hereafter.

His first intention, in which Bandinelli followed him, was to execute a Hercules trampling upon Cacus, which should stand as pendant to his own David.

If Vasari can be trusted, Michelangelo made numerous designs and models for the Cacus, but afterwards changed his mind, and thought that he would extract from the block a Samson triumphing over two prostrate Philistines.

The deliberation of August 22, 1528, indeed left it open to his discretion whether he should execute a Hercules and Cacus, or any other group of two figures; and the English nation at South Kensington possesses one of his noble little wax models for a Hercules.

We may perhaps, therefore, assume that while Bandinelli adhered to the Hercules and Cacus, Michelangelo finally decided on a Samson.

To the right was the Aventine, rising to about a hundred and thirty feet above the river, and this was the first of the hills of Rome to be impressed on the mind of the stranger, by the tale of Hercules and Cacus which Evander tells his guest.

At the end where we stand, and where are the carceres, the starting-point for the competing chariots, was the Ara maxima of Hercules, which prompted Evander to tell the tale of Cacus to his guest; at the other end was the subterranean altar of Consus the harvest-god, with which was connected another tale, that of the rape of the Sabines.

When Herculês came to Italy with the oxen which he had taken from Ger'yon of Spain, Cacus stole part of the herd, but dragged the animals by their tails into his cave, that it might be supposed they had come out of it.

[Footnote 42: 'Cacus:' see Virgil in Cowper's translation, 2d vol. of this edition.]

His "Hercules and Cacus," while it deserves all the sarcasm hurled at it by Cellini, proves that Bandinelli could not rise above the wrestling bout of a porter and a coal-heaver.

Nothing, for example, could be keener and more cutting than the very just criticism he made in Bandinelli's presence of his "Hercules and Cacus."

These Robbers' names, enough to shake us, Where, Strymon one, the other Cacus.

III] 1. Dio and Dionysius give the story of Cacus (Tzetzes, History, 5, 21).

Mad Cacus so, whom like ill fate persuades, The herd of fair Alcmena's seed invades, 30 Who for revenge, and mortals' glad relief, Sack'd the dark cave and crush'd that horrid thief.