COLUMELLA COLUMN. 



near the centre of the state ; lat. 39 47' N. ; Ion. 

 83 8' VV. ; population in 1828, about 1500. It was 

 first laid out in 1812, and is pleasantly situated on 

 rising' ground, just below the confluence of Whetstone 

 river with the Scioto. 



COLUMELLA, Lucius JUNIUS MODERATUS, the 

 most learned practical writer on agriculture among 

 the ancients, born at Cadiz, in Spain, lived about the 

 middle of the first century, and wrote twelve books, 

 which are still extant, De Re Rustica, one of which, 

 on gardening, is in verse. He treats, in this work, 

 of all the branches of agriculture. He also wrote a 

 book on the cultivation of trees. The best edition is 

 by Gesner, in lu's collection Scriptores Rei Rusticee, 

 Leipsic, 1735, 2 vols. quarto. 



COLUMN (columna Lat.), in architecture ; a 

 round pillar. In the earliest periods of the world, 

 the column was merely the trunk of a tree, or its imi- 

 tation in stone, used to support the roof. The parts 

 of a complete column are its base, on which it rests, 

 its body, called the shaft, and its head, called the 

 capital. Columns are used to support the entabla- 

 ture of an order, which has also its proper division. 

 (See Architecture and Order.) In the most ancient 

 times, columns of wood were the most usual, as being 

 the most easily wrought. In countries like Egypt, 

 where timber fit for construction is scarce, and stone 

 abundant, the latter became the principal material for 

 columns, and those of Egypt are remarkable for the 

 beauty of their workmanship, and the durability of 

 their materials. The Greeks used marble of the 

 finest kind, with which their country abounded, 

 for their columns ; and other nations, the stone or 

 material of their country. The Greeks properly con- 

 sidered the column as an essential part of the archi- 

 tecture of their temples and never used it as a mere 

 decoration. The manner of constructing the columns 

 of all the orders rests upon similar principles. They 

 are all divided into tliree primary parts or divisions, 

 the base, the shaft, and the capital, except the Doric 

 order, which has no base. The lowest or thickest 

 part of the shaft is used by architects as the univer- 

 sal scale or standard whence all the measures which 

 regulate and determine heights and projections are 

 taken; and this standard or scale must be under- 

 stood before any architectural design can be com- 

 menced. The universal architectural scale is call- 

 ed a diameter, and is the diameter of the lowest 

 or the largest part of the column ; and, unlike the 

 foot, inch, or yard, is as various as the size of 

 columns. By the diameter, of course, is meant that 

 of the circle which forms the bottom of the column. 

 Half of this diameter, or the length of the radius 

 which forms the circle, is called a module, and is 

 used, ;is well as the diameter, as a primary standard 

 of mensuration, by some writers upon architecture. 

 These measures of length are subdivided as follows, 

 namely, die diameter into sixty parts, and the module 

 into thirty parts, each part being the same in length, 

 which are called minutes. Both mensurations are 

 the same, only under different denominations ; as, 

 for instance, one author says a column, which always 

 includes the base, shaft, and capital, is six diame- 

 ters, twelve minutes high, while another would say 

 of the same column and its admeasurements, that it 

 is twelve modules and twelve minutes, both mean- 

 ing the self-same dimension. The Doric column has 

 no base. The Ionic column has one peculiar to it- 

 self, called the Attic, which, with that of the Corin- 

 thian order, is described under the article Architec- 

 ture, Grecian Style of. The shafts of the different 

 orders differ in height, and even in various examples 

 of the same order, as may be seen in the articles 

 Architecture and Order. The capitals are also as 

 various. 



Columns are either plain or fluted ; and the flutes 

 and manner of dividing them are different in the 

 Doric and Corinthian orders. The Ionic flutes much 

 resemble the Corinthian, and, in many instances, are 

 exactly similar. Twisted, spiral and rusticated col- 

 umns, like those of Borromini, in various buildings 

 in Rome, and the Baldocchino of St Peter's, are in 

 bad taste, and to be avoided. C olumns are also often 

 used for monuments, as well as for architectural 

 supports ; like the Trajan and Antonine columns 

 in Rome, and that- called the Monument in London. 

 There are also astronomical columns, like that which 

 Catharine de' Medici erected at the Halle au Ble, hi 

 Paris. The Romans had their columna bellica, 

 wlu'cli was near the temple of Janus, and from which 

 war was proclaimed by the consul casting a javelin 

 from it towards the country of their enemy ; also 

 chronological columns, whereon they inscribed histori- 

 cal events according to the order of time. They 

 had also a lacteal column, which was erected in the 

 vegetable market, and contained in its pedestal a 

 receptacle for infants that were abandoned by their 

 parents. (See Juvenal, Satire vi. 601.) The legal 

 column was one on which the ancients engraved 

 their laws ; the limitative or boundary column marked 

 the boundary of a state or province ; the manubial 

 column was ornamented with trophies and spoils 

 taken from the enemy, the rostral column with the 

 prows (rostra) of the ships obtained in a similar man- 

 ner. The first column of this description was that 

 which was erected in the capitol, on the occasion of 

 the naval victory which Caius Duillius obtained over 

 the Carthaginians. It is now on the balustrade of 

 the grand staircase of the Campidoglio. Augustus 

 raised four, decorated with the prows of the vessels 

 which were taken from Cleopatra. Two were also 

 erected to the honour of Caius Menius, for a naval 

 victory over the Latins and Antiates. The sepul- 

 chral column was elevated upon a sepulchre or tomb, 

 with an epitaph engraved upon its shaft. The 

 triumphal column was erected by the Romans in 

 commemoration of a conqueror to whom had been 

 decreed the honours of a triumph. The joints of 

 the stones were concealed by crowns obtained by 

 military conquests. The columns of Trajan and Anto- 

 nine, besides their specific objects, are also triumphal 

 columns. The British parliament, when they voted 

 the magnificent palace of Blenheim to the great duke 

 of Marlborough, also erected a triumphal column in 

 the park. On the four sides of the pedestal are in- 

 scribed descriptions of the victories of that great com- 

 mander, and his statue is upon the abacus, supported 

 by figures of captured enemies, and surrounded by 

 trophies. 



The military column, or milliarium aureum, of 

 Rome, was originally a column of wliite marble, 

 which Augustus erected near the temple of Saturn, 

 hi the forum, as a centre whence the account of the 

 miles began in the calculation of distances from the 

 city. This %elebrated column is still hi existence, 

 being placed on the stylobate in front of the Campi- 

 doglio, the modern capitol of Rome. It is a short 

 column, with a Tuscan capital, and has a ball of 

 bronze, as a symbol of the globe. It was called 

 golden, either because it was once gilded all over, or 

 at least the globe and ornamental accessories. As 

 a companion to it is a similar column, bearing on 

 its summit a vase, containing the ashes of Trajan. 



Among the principal insulated commemorative or 

 triumphal columns now remaining is Pompey's pillar, 

 or column, at Alexandria in Egypt. Opinions have 

 differed much as to the date of its erection, and to 

 whose memory it was raised. Its style is that of the 

 age of Diocletian and of the lower empire. Engravings 

 and descriptions of this ancient monument may be 



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