1850.] 



THE CIVIL ENGIXEEU AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



307 



Greece and Asia Minor were too short for the places they were to 

 occupy in the buildings of Rome; it was necessary, therefore, to 

 give them additioual height; this was sometimes done by adding a 

 moulding between the base and the shaft, but generally by raising 

 them on a pedestal. Secondly, the width given to the arcade 

 required the order to be of a proportionate height, so that it must 

 have been so massive as to have been out of character with the 

 rest of the building, or the column must have been so slender in 

 proportion to its height as to destroy its beauty. To avoid eitlier 

 of these defects the pedestal was employed, by which means the 

 proper proportion of the order was retiiined. The height of tlie 

 pedestal was regulated either by that of the column, or by tlie 

 width of the arch. The roofs of the Romans were somewhat 

 higlier in pitch than those of the Greeks, the pediments were 

 consequently slightly more elevated. Towards the decline of the 

 empire, semicircular pediments were introduced, though they were 

 mostly confined to niches, or interior decoration. At Nismes, and 

 at Baalbec and Palmyra, there are rows of niclies in which semi- 

 circular and angular peilinients alternate; here also are seen 

 brolien pediments, coupled columns, and other features unknown 

 in the early times of classical architecture. 



The Romans were never surpassed in any age, or by any people, 

 in constructive skill. Brick-making was carried by them to 

 great perfection; bricks were made of various forms, and of 

 various sizes, from 8 inches square to 1 ft. 5 in. by 1 foot. A light 

 kind was manufactured for vaulting, so light (according to some 

 accounts), that they would float on water; these were much prized. 

 The Romans employed several kinds or masonry, as the opus 

 incertum, composed of stones of irregular shape and size; the opus 

 reticulaturn, formed with square stones laid diagonally; and the 

 emplectum, the same with the empleoton of the Greeks. In these 

 the stones were small, and laid with mortar; but when larger 

 stones were employed no mortar was used. In great works the 

 stones used by the Romans were sometimes of enormous size: the 

 blocks of the architrave and frieze of the Portico of the Pantheon, 

 extending from column to column, are each 15 feet in length, 6 ft. 

 8 in. in height, and nearly 6 feet in thickness; the angular blocks 

 are above 17 feet in length; some of these stones weigh as much 

 as 3(i tons. At Baalbec, many of the stones are from 29 to 37 feet 

 in length, and 9 feet in thickness, and one measures 62 ft. 9 in. in 

 length, in one single block. Towards the decline of the empire, 

 the emjjlectum was much used, either with or without courses of 

 tOes; this is the kind of masonry usually met witli in the Roman 

 works in England and France. Mortar was frequently made with 

 pounded brick, which gave it a reddish tinge; but where procurable, 

 the Romans used puzzolano. The puzzolano cement was of two 

 kinds; one, blacker and more ferruginous than the other, was 

 employed in buildings exposed to the action of water. The 

 channels of the water-courses were laid witli cement, two or three 

 inches thick, and are still as smooth and compact as if chisselled 

 out of solid stone. When any structure was to be preserved from 

 damp a double wall was built, with about a palm interval between. 

 The method of marking out foliage in decoration may here be 

 mentioned: a deep circular hole was drilled at each division of the 

 leaf, thus assisting the effect of light and shade, and giving great 

 boldness and decision of character. The Romans were no less 

 skilful as workers in metal; four bronze columns, of exquisite 

 workmanship, are still preserved in St. John Lateran, supposed to 

 have belonged to the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus; and the 

 bionze gates of the Pantheon, and several others, are still 

 considered pre-eminent in beauty. 



Witli the exception of the Pantheon, the Flavian Amphitheatre, 

 and a few others, all the magnificent buildings witli which the Im- 

 perial City was once adorned, are so completely in ruins, that Rome 

 has not inaptly been termed "a marble wilderness." Of many of 

 these ruins it is difficult — of some impossible— to trace the plan, or 

 to decide upon their proper designation. Gibbon ascriljes this 

 devastation to four principal causes: injuries of time and nature, 

 hostile attacks, use of materials, and domestic quarrels. Owing 

 to their solidity of construction, time, unaided by other causes, 

 might have spared us most of the great structures of classical 

 times; but besides frequent conflagrations, Rome was formerly 

 exposed to the floods of the Tiber, which often caused great 

 destruction. This danger is now removed, ae the city is raised 

 fourteen or fifteen feet above its original level. Besides these 

 causes of decay, Rome (in 410 a.d.), was plundered by the barbarians 

 under Alaiic; and afterwards another horde, under Genseric, 

 pillaged the doomed city for fourteen days. Much of what the 

 Goths and ^'andals had spared fell a prey to domestic rapine. In 

 the middle ages the remains of ancient Rome formed a vast 



quarry, from which materials were unscrupulously taken for the 

 construction of new edifices. The Coliseum owes much of its 

 ruin to this cause; it is said, that as many stones were carried away 

 from it in a single night as built the Farnese Palace. The Theatre 

 of Marcellus became the Palazzo Orsini, and tlie Arch of Titus a 

 fortress in tlie hands of the Fraiigipani f'amilv. Other buildings 

 have been approjiriated to diflerent purposes, and extensive repairs 

 and alterations been made, so that it is sometimes diflicult to 

 distinguish the new from the old: thus temples and basilicas have 

 been converted into Christian churches, and statues of heatiien 

 gods made to do duty as Catholic saints. The same causes of 

 decay prevailed in most of the provincial cities. The generidity 

 of Roman temples were similar in plan to the Greek, and were, 

 like them, divided into the seven classes described in a former lec- 

 ture; they were also frequently surrounded by an extensive peri- 

 bolus, the wall of which was sometimes as high as the pediment 

 of the teni]ile. The peribolus wall was adorned within by a peri- 

 style, or with niches and statues, and often contained apart- 

 ments for the officiating ]iriests. The principal difference between 

 the Greek and Roman temples arose from the greater population 

 of Rome, and the consequent greater space required. Thus in 

 the prostyle temples, the porticoes were generally of the pseudo- 

 dipteral form; and as they were mostly built on level ground, a 

 greater elevation was given to the stylobate, in order to raise 

 tiiem above the surrounding buildings. A flight of steps, some- 

 times as many as twenty-one, led up to the portico in front; the 

 acrotreria on each side terminating the podium, were decorated 

 with statues; and in the larger temples statues occupied the place 

 of anteflxae on the roof. The Romans adorned their temples with 

 lavish profusion; wlien Domitian restored the Temple of Jupiter 

 Capitolinus, the gilding alone is said to have cost 12,000 talents, 

 a sum nearly equal to two millions sterling. 



The Temple of Peace was one of the largest and most magnifi- 

 cent in Rome; the central aisle was 83 ft. in breadth, surmounted 

 by a vault 150 ft. in heiglit; three lofty arches, each 80 ft. span, yet 

 remain; here were deposited the sacred vessels brought by Titus 

 from the temple at Jerusalem. 



One of the most perfect Roman temples now rem.aining is that 

 of Caius and Lucius Csesar, generally known as the Maison Carree 

 at Nismes. It is of the Corinthian order, 7 1 ft. in length, by 

 41 ft. in breadth; prostyle and hexastyle, with a pseudo-dipteral 

 portico; engaged columns are placed round the exterior walls of 

 the cella; the columns are rather more than ten diameters in 

 height, and the cajiital, which is of elegant design, is somewliat 

 more than one diameter high. The frieze in front is occupied Iiy 

 an inscription, but on the flanks is sculptured with foliage. The 

 entablature rather exceeds 2^ diameters in height; the doorway is 

 elaborately ornamented, and surmounted by a lofty cornice. This 

 temple is ascribed to the time of the Emperor Hadrian. Besides 

 the seven classes, the Romans had another form of temple, derived 

 from the Etruscans, and by them probably from the east; this was 

 ttie circular, symbolical of the earth and the heavenly bodies, and 

 dedicated to Vesta or Cybele. The Pythagoreans believed fire, 

 which they called Vesta, to be the centre of the universe; and 

 Plutarch mentions a circular temple, which the Etruscan King 

 Niima Pimipilius erected to contain the sacred fire. Several cir- 

 cular temples are still in existence, as the Temples of Vesta at Rome 

 and Tivoli; but the greatest ever built, and also the one in best 

 jireservation, is that dedicated to Jupiter, Cybele, and all the 

 gods, by Agrippa, son-in-law to Augustus, and called the Pantheon 

 or Rotunda. It is uncertain whether the body of the edifice 

 existed previously, Agrippa only adding the portico, or whether the 

 whole may be ascribed to him; the former is probably the case. 

 It was injured by fire some time after its erection, and was 

 rejiaired by Septimus Severus and Marcu^. Antoninus. After suf- 

 fering from neglect for many years, it was granted by the Emjie- 

 ror Phocas to Pope Boniface, who dedicated it to the Virgin Maiy 

 and the holy martyrs (610, .i.o). I'he Pantheon originally stood 

 seven stei)s above the ground, but the earth has accumulated so 

 much round it, that it is now below the level. The body of the 

 temple is 143 ft. diameter, and 143 ft. in heiglit to the top of the 

 dome; it is constructed of brick; the exterior was formerly coated 

 with stucco or cement, and the dome covered with plates of bronze, 

 but these were removed by the rapacious Emperor Constans, 

 during his visit to Rome. The walls are 20 ft. in thickness, and 

 gi'adually diminish to 5 ft. as they approach the summit of the dome. 

 The exterior height is divided into three parts by cornices of 

 brick; the two upper cornices have stone modillions; the second 

 rises in front, so as to repeat the form of the pediment. From the 

 third cornice, the wall recedes about 8 ft., then follows a podium 



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