ARCHITECTURE. 



having joined with the Persians against 

 the Grecian states, and the Greeks having 

 put an end to the war, by a glorious vic- 

 tory, with one consent declared war 

 against the Caryatides. They took the 

 city, destroyed it, slew the men, and led 

 the matrons into captivity, not permitting 

 them to wear the habits and ornaments 

 of their sex ; and they were not only led 

 in triumph, but were loaded with scorn, 

 and kept in continual servitude ; thus suf- 

 fering for the crimes of their city. The 

 architects therefore of those davs intro- 

 duced their effigies sustaining weights, in 

 the public buildings, that the remem- 

 brance of the crime of the Carvatides 

 might be transmitted to posteritv. The 

 Lacedaemonians, likewise, under the com- 

 mand of Pausanias, the son of Cleombro- 

 tus, having at the battle of Platea, with a 

 small number, vanquished a numerous ar- 

 my of Persians, to solemnize tlve triumph, 

 erected with the spoils and plunder the 

 Persian Portico, as a trophy, to transmit to 

 posterity the valour and honour of the 

 citizens ; introducing therein the statues 

 of the captives, adorned with habits in 

 the barbarian manner, supporting the 

 roof." 



There can be little doubt but that hu- 

 man figures, and those of inferior animals, 

 had a very early introduction in architec- 

 ture, and are of more remote antiquity 

 than that assigned by Vitruvius ; for we 

 are informed by Diodorus Siculus, that in 

 the sepulchre of Osymanduas there was 

 a stone hall four hundred feet square, the 

 roof of which was supported by animals 

 instead of pillars : the number of these 

 supports is not mentioned. The roofs of 

 several Indian buildings, supposed of the 

 most remote antiquity, are sustained in 

 the same manner. In Denon's travels in 

 Egypt, amongother fragments, are repre- 

 sented five insulated pilasters or pillars, 

 bearing an entablature : the fronts of the 

 pillars are decorated with priests or di- 

 vinities. The molten sea, recorded in 

 Holy Writ, was supported by twelve 

 bulls. In the Odyssey of Homer, transla- 

 ted by Pope (book vii. ver. 118,) we find 

 the effigies of animals, both rational and 

 irrational, employed as decorations, which 

 appears by the following extract. 



Two rows of stately dogs, on either 



hand, 

 In sculptur'd gold and labour'd silver 



stand. 

 These Vulcan form'd with art divine, 



to wait, 

 Immortal guardians. vA g-.ito. 



Alive each animated frame appears, 



And still to live beyond the power of 

 years. 



Fair thrones within from space to space 

 were rais'd, 



Where various carpets with en^broid- 

 ery blaz'd, 



The work of matrons : these the prin- 

 cess prest, 



Day following day, a long continued 

 feast, 



Refulgent pedestals the walls surround, 



Which days of gold with flaming torches 

 crown'd. 



However, these representations of ani- 

 mals were not employed as columns to 

 support an entablature, but merely as or- 

 naments. 



In Stewart's antiquities of Athens, we 

 find a most beautiful specimen of Caryatic 

 figures supporting an entablature, con- 

 sisting of an architrave cornice of a very 

 elegant profile. Among the Roman an- 

 tiquities, there are likewise to be found 

 various fragments of male figures, which 

 may be conjectured, from their attitudes 

 and ornaments, to have been the supports 

 of the entablatures of buildings. 



Besides Persians and Caryatides, it is 

 sometimes customary to support the en- 

 tablatures with figures, of which the up- 

 per part is the head and breast of the hu- 

 man body, and the lower part an invert- 

 ed frustrum of a square pyramid, with the 

 feet sometimes projecting out below, as 

 if the body had been partly cased : figures 

 of this form are called terms or termini, 

 which owe their origin to the stones used 

 by the ancients in marking out the limits 

 of property belongingto individuals. Nu- 

 ma Pompilius, in order to render these 

 boundaries sacred, converted the Termi- 

 nus into a deity, and built a temple on the 

 Tarpeian Mount, which was dedicated to 

 him, whom he represented by a stone, 

 which, in course of time, was sculptured 

 into the form of a human head and should- 

 ers, and other pails, us has already been 

 defined. He was on particular occasions 

 adorned with garlands, with which he ap- 

 peared of a very pleasant figure. Persian 

 figures are generally charged with a Do- 

 ric entablature ; Caryatic figures with 

 Ionic or Corinthian, or with an Ionic archi- 

 trave cornice ; and the Termini with an 

 entablature of any of the three Grecian 

 orders, according as they themselves are 

 decorated. Male figures may be intro- 

 duced with propriety in arsenals or galle- 

 ries of armour; in guard rooms, and other 

 military places, where they might reprc- 



