42 On the Styles of Building in ancient Italy, and 



black in the marble, resembling the negro's colour, appears to 

 me absolutely ridiculous, and unworthy of the great penetra- 

 tion of the author, especially as the stone is a mixture of black, 

 red, and white, in which the former does not forcibly strike 

 the eye. It is one of the most beautiful of the ornamental 

 stones, and is a breccia, consisting of a basis or ground con- 

 taining fragments of numerous colours. A difference in the 

 basis gives rise to several varieties of this marble, of which two 

 beautiful ones are preserved in two pedestals in the Vatican 

 Museum. Pillars of this marble adorned the Basilica Ulpia 

 and the Forum Trajanum. Among the finest specimens ex- 

 isting are those in the palace of Caserta, near Naples, taken 

 from the Temple of Jupiter Serapis at Pozzuoli. Nibby has 

 not stated his reasons for identifying the Africano with the 

 Chian marble ; and I therefore pay the utmost deference to 

 his opinion, as his decisions are generally the result of sound 

 induction from facts. Ferber informs us that a modern mar- 

 ble, similar to the Africano, is found at Serravezza. The mar- 

 ble named Porta Santa Antica is only a variety of this species. 



The Pavonazzetto, anciently the Phrygian marble, was very 

 highly esteemed, but now very common in Rome. Splendid 

 pillars of it formerly existed in the Basilica of Paulus Emi- 

 lius, in the Forum, as Pliny tells us. " Nonne inter magni- 

 fica Basilicam Pauli columnis e Phrygibus mirabilem," which 

 are probably the same as lately ornamented the superb Church 

 of St Paul's, though now cruelly shattered by the conflagra- 

 tion. There are others in the Pantheon. The Dacian pri- 

 soners on the Arch of Constantine are sculptured in this marble. 



The Nero Antico, or Tenarian marble, has always been in 

 the highest repute, and is now extremely scarce in Rome. It 

 is that species of limestone called Lucullite by mineralogists, 

 and is probably the kind of which the Consul Lucullus was so 

 fond that it took his name. 



One of the most admired marbles, though not very rare in 

 Rome, is the Giallo Antico, which corresponds to the Numi- 

 dian, the Libian, and the Punic* of the ancients. It was one 



* " Marmor Numidicus." — Plin. v. 3. 

 M Et certant vario decore saxa 

 Qua? Phryx et Libys altius cecidit."— Mart. vi. 43 



