on the Materials used in the city of Rome. 43 



of the first introduced and most esteemed marbles in Rome. 

 Its colour is a very fine yellow. " Hie nomadum lucent fla- 

 ventia saxa. v When exposed to the influence of strong heat, 

 it becomes orange {Giallo Antico Brucciato.) Of this marble 

 we have eight splendid columns in the Pantheon, which unfor- 

 tunately are not seen to their bases, and seven smaller ones in 

 the Arch of Constantine ; but it is very rarely found in large 

 masses. I must admit that its tint of yellow is mixed with 

 a little red ; and when veins traverse it, as they frequently do, 

 they are of a crocus, or reddish saffron colour. It is much used 

 in small fragments with green porphyry in pavements, which 

 has a beautiful effect. 



The Rosso Antico is probably the rarest of all true mar- 

 bles. Nibby imagines that it is a vein in the last mentioned 

 stone, since it is met with almost entirely in small pieces. The 

 famous statue of the Dancing Faun in the Vatican, and some 

 steps in the small church of St Praxides, near St Maria Mag- 

 giore, are, I believe, quite unique in size. Its colour when 

 polished is pretty nearly true blood-red. 



Such are the principal antique true marbles. We shall now 

 mention some other ornamental stones, some of which are of- 

 ten falsely considered as marbles.* 



The Verde Antico is one of the stones best known and most 

 prized, under the title of marbles. The green part, however, 

 from which it takes its name, is serpentine. It is mixed with 

 patches of white and black. It was the Atracian or Thessa- 

 lian marble of the ancients, as Nibby satisfactorily proves. 

 The darker varieties which have least white are most prized. 

 Splendid columns of this marble (though small, as this stone 

 is never found in large masses) decorate the Church of St 

 John Lateran, and were found in the baths of Dioclesian. 

 Even small fragments are rare among the ruins. 



The calcareous alabasters were much used by the ancients; 

 and as the sources whence they derived them are unknown, 

 the fragments found in ancient buildings are exceedingly priz- 



* The Lumachella, or shell marble, is excessively rare in modern Italy, 

 though I do not know whether it was used by the Romans. In the Campo 

 Santo at Bologna I saw two small pillars, which I was told were the only 

 ones in Italy, except at St Mark's at Venice. 



