the French Architects at Rome. 191 
excavation in 1813, by the orders of the French government, 
around those columns, and carried to the level of the first course 
of their foundations, ascertained that they had, not steps, (as in- 
dicated by Palladio,) but one continued stylobate formed of large 
blocks of stone covered with marble slabs; and consequently 
these columns must have formed part of the lateral peristyle ef 
the temple. 
These observations, and the precise measurements which he 
has taken to all those parts, have afforded him the means of 
fixing with certainty the general proportions of the whole, left 
incomplete to the present time; and consequently to restore in 
a suitable manner the plan of the temple and the entire eleva- 
tion of its facade. The capital and the entablature are given 
with great truth, and in such a way as to give a just idea of the 
magnificence of this monument; one of the purest models which 
students can possess for beauty of general proportion, graceful- 
ness of profile, and the exquisite taste of the ornaments with 
which they are enriched without profusion. 
The Temple of Peace, which M. Gauthier made the object of 
his studies in 1813, did not present in his opinion the same kind 
of merit. Certainly the same purity is visible both in the ge- 
neral character of this monument, and in the distribution, taste, 
and execution of its ornaments: we cannot even refuse to ad- 
mit that the ensemble of its character resembles strongly that 
: of the Thermz and other edifices built in the time of Dioclesian, 
: the first era of the decline of the art: but the magnificent ar- 
rangement of the plan, the colossal dimensions of the masses, 
and the means of construction employed to ensure the necessary 
stability, furnish a new source of investigation. 
For these reasons the Temple of Peace has from the earliest 
times fixed the attention of studious architects. From the first 
era of the restoration of the art, Serlio and Palladio published 
the drawings of it; an example which was followed by many 
others, particularly by Desgodetz, who, more exact, .corrected 
the mistakes of his predecessors, but cannot give as yet any thing 
but an incomplete work ; because, in his time as at present, the 
remains of this edifice were buried under enormous ruins, which 
rendered every inquiry fruitless. 
What artists have long desired, the French government has 
undertaken. By excavations executed by their orders in 1812 
and 1813, the entire surface of the ground-floor of the building 
was cleared, and which in some places was covered with more 
than twenty-five feet of earth. 
M. Gauthier followed step by step these excavations, and mea- 
sured and drew not only all the vestiges of the plan of the edifices, 
‘but even the smallest fragments of ornaments which appeared to 
Ie 
