The 19th century English scholar Christopher Wordsworth recorded a statue base near the stairway inscribed with a dedication to a Roman proconsul:

"The Demos [people] erect a statue to Gnaeus Acerronius Proclus, proconsul on account of his good will and devotion to itself."

Wordsworth noted that below the Roman period inscription was the barely visible signature of the 4th century BC sculptor Praxiteles: ΠΡΑΞΙΤΕΛΗΣ ΕΠΕΟΙ. He concluded that the statue itself had been rededicated and compared it to the rededication of the statues on the Pedestal of Agrippa. Concurring with Martin William Leake's comment on this "contemptible practice", which included the conversion of statues of Miltiades and Themistocles into a Thracian and a Roman conquerer, he wrote, "To what degradations were the Athenians sunk". [1]

1. Christopher Wordsworth on the Praxiteles signature

For further information about Christopher Wordsworth, who travelled through Greece 1832-1833, see note on gallery page 4.

Reverend Christopher Wordsworth, Athens and Attica: a journal of a residence there. John Murray, London. Second edition, 1837, pages 142-144. At Heidelberg University Library.

The conversion of statues of Miltiades and Themistocles, which stood at the Prytaneion in Athens, was mentioned by Pausanias:

"Hard by is the Prytaneum [Town-hall], in which the laws of Solon are inscribed, and figures are placed of the goddesses Peace and Hestia, while among the statues is Autolycus the pancratiast. For the likenesses of Miltiades and Themistocles have had their titles changed to a Roman and a Thracian."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 1, chapter 18, section 3. At Perseus Digital Library.

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