(b ?Tralles, Asia Minor; fl ?2nd century BC). Greek sculptors. They were active in the Hellenistic period. Pliny (Natural History XXXVI.iv.34) mentioned a large sculpted group by Apollonios and Tauriskos portraying the Punishment of Dirke, which was brought to Rome from Rhodes in the time of Augustus (reg 27 BC–AD 14). A Roman copy of the work, the so-called FARNESE BULL, was excavated in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome in 1545 (Naples, Mus. Archeol. N.); it is probably contemporary with the baths, which were built in the mid-3rd century AD. Small copies on gems prove that this marble copy is more elaborate than the original group. Thus it is impossible to date Apollonios’ and Tauriskos’ activity. Pliny provided the names of both their natural father, Artemidoros, and their adopted father, Menekrates. Attempts to identify Menekrates with the Menekrates of Rhodes who worked on the ‘Great Altar’ at Pergamon are unsuccessful: the Pergamene inscription is so fragmentary that the name of Menekrates cannot be restored with certainty.

• Apollonios (fl ? 2nd cent. BC)
  • Pliny: (1) Pliny the elder, §2(v): Natural History: Book XXXVI: Marble
  • copies
    • Farnese Bull
  • works
    • Greece, ancient, §IV, 4(ii): Monumental sculpture: Major collections and exhibitions
    • Rhodes, §3(ii): Greek and Roman, c 9th century BC–3rd century AD: Sculpture