ARCHITECTURE. 89 
dedicated to their father Antoninus a memorial column of one huge granite 
block upon a pedestal of white marble. The bronze statue of the deified 
emperor stood upon the summit. During the middle ages the column which 
stood upon the Campus Martius fell, and remained buried in rubbish until 
it was discovered by chance. The attempt was made to erect it again, but 
by an unhappy chance the cables took fire, the column again fell, and 
was broken into many pieces. The pedestal is now in the Museum Pio 
Clementino. Lucius Verus built himself a magnificent villa not far from 
Rome on the Via Claudia, where many marble remains have been excavated. 
To this time also belong many fine structures which a private citizen, 
Herodes Atticus, the teacher of Verus, erected, and which we have already 
partly enumerated during our glance at Athens (page 41). 
But if Marcus Aurelius in his own person achieved little in architecture, 
there were a multitude of monuments erected in his honor. Inthe 17th 
century there yet stood in Rome a triumphal arch of this emperor, which 
was destroyed because it narrowed the Corso. The sculptures taken from it, 
representing the victory of Marcus Aurelius over the Marcomanni, are now 
in the capitol. The second monument is the great triumphal column where- 
upon, as on the column of Trajan, the campaigns of the emperor against 
the Marcomanni and Quadi are represented. Upon the summit stood the 
statue of the emperor, which has been since replaced by that of the apostle 
Paul. Pl. 18, fig. 31, gives the general view of this column; jig. 32, its 
section; jig. 34, the statue which formerly stood upon it; jig. 33, the 
horizontal section through the column; jig. 35 * and ° are coins upon which 
the column occurs; and jig. 36, is the perspective view of the place 
upon which it stands, with the adjacent temple of Marcus Aurelius, which 
had 8 Corinthian columns in front and 11 on the sides, and of which 11 
columns and a part of the cella remain. The frieze is smooth and convex, 
and the whole indicates an already declining art. So also the column 
which is 15 feet thick below, and with the statue is 176 feet high, 
although of great importance to history, is yet not to be compared with its 
type, the column of Trajan; for it is not nearly so well cut, and its sculptures 
are of a much inferior style. 
The last mentioned monuments belong to the reign of Commodus, the 
unworthy son of Marcus Aurelius, and are almost the only ones of that 
time. Even these were not wholly finished during his reign. 
Let us revert now, upon the threshold of declining art, to the architectural 
achievements from Augustus to Antoninus. They are certainly greater than 
those of any other age, nor could any other government than imperial Rome 
have performed them. The colossal was the order of the day. The most 
costly material was collected from every quarter, and no limits were pre- 
scribed to the architect, except such as his own genius and will imposed. 
Temples of great size and magnificence, and of new forms, were erected ; 
and the fora were adorned with basilicas, temples, memorial columns, and 
libraries. To the Julian period the Augustan soon associated itself, then 
that of Domitian, and at last the splendid era of Trajan. Rome had its 
coliseum, and the ruins of similar buildings meet the eye frequently in other 
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