Since the translatio of the works taken in Syracuse and the true artistic surge which followed, Rome discovered the Greek art in one go: archaic, classical, Hellenistic works were offered all together to the Roman glance. The diachronic character of this Greek production - i.e. the fact that these works conveyed in Rome as spoil of war were the fruit of a stylistic evolution which was spread out over centuries - thus did not appear to the Romans, initially at least, like fundamental. The production of works is then worthy of an increasing demand, that it is intended for the decor of the villas, or for the ornamentation of the public sphere. To satisfy this demand, one supposes that, from the 2nd a.C. front, the Greek workshops of sculpture started to manufacture massively with an aim of exporting their production in Italy. But what was probably, initially, only a market of the copy, very quickly derived towards a production of pastiches, of " Greek-like" works. The Roman taste rather liked the mixtures of the styles, in a very eclectic spirit. Rather than an exact copy, they required of a work to "look Greek" and sophisticated and they preferred hybrid creations
