ARCHITECTURE. 
is sufficiently proved by its remains. To 
these people is attributed the invention of 
one of the orders of architecture, called after 
them the Tuscan. 
We are told by Vitruvius, that the inter- 
columns of their temples were wide, and 
that they were linteled with wooden archi- 
traves. 
The Romans appear to have had their 
first knowledge of architecture from the 
Etrurians : but it was not till after the con- 
quest of Greece, that they acquired a just 
relish for its beauties. It seems to have at- 
tained to its highest degree of excellence in 
the reign of Augustus, and continued to 
flourish till the seat of empire was removed 
to Byzantium. The works of the Romans 
were much more numerous than those of 
any other people. The remains of their 
palaces, theatres, amphitheatres, baths, 
mausoleums, and other works, excite at this 
day the admiration and astonishment of 
every judicious beholder. Their first tem- 
ples were round and vaulted, and hence 
they are accounted the inventors of the 
dome. The plans of their buildings were 
more varied than those of the Greeks, who, 
excepting but in a few instances of small, 
but beautiful specimens, such as theTower of 
the Winds, and the monument of Lycicrates, 
erected their principal edifices upon rec- 
tangular plans. The Romans constructed 
circular temples crowned with domes, am- 
phitheatres upon elliptic plans, and their 
theatres, and many other buildings, upon 
mixt-lined plans. By this variety they formed 
a style that was both elegant and magnifi- 
cent. But let it be remembered, that not- 
withstanding die grandeur, the magnitude, 
and number of their works, their style was 
never so pure as in the flourishing ages of 
Greece. Among the Romans, entabla- 
tures were frequently omitted, columns were 
made to support arches and groined vaults; 
arcades were substituted for colonades, and 
vaults for ceilings. In several of their most 
magnificent public buildings we find stories 
of arcades upon each other, or in the same 
front with the solid parts of the masonry de- 
corated with the orders, which, instead of 
forming an essential part in the construction, 
are degraded to idle and ostentatious orna- 
ments. This is very conspicuous in the 
theatre of Marcellus, and in the Coliseum. 
It is probable that the arch was invented 
in Greece, but was almost constantly em- 
ployed by the Romans, who not only consi- 
dered it necessary in the construction, but 
as au ornament, which they lavishly em- 
ployed in the apertures of walls, and in the 
ceilings over passages and apartments of 
their buildings. Particularly in the decline 
of the empire, from the reign of Constan- 
tine, and upon the establishment of Chris- 
tianity, external magnificence was every 
where sacrificed to internal decoration. 
The purity of taste in the arts of design de- 
clined rapidly, and finally perished with the 
extinction of the empire. The most beau- 
tiful edifices, erected in the preceding 
reigns, were divested of their ornaments, to 
decorate the churches. In this age of spo- 
liation, architects, deficient in the know- 
ledge of their profession, adopted the most 
ready modes of construction: to accom- 
plish this, many beautiful structures were 
deprived of then- columns, and placed at 
■ wide intervals in the new buildings ; and 
over the capitals were thrown arches for 
the support of the superstructure : most of 
the ornamental parts were taken from other 
buildings, which were spoiled for the pur- 
pose. The edifices of Italy now assumed 
the same general features as those which 
characterised the middle ages. This dispo- 
sition is the plan of the Roman basilicas, 
but is more nearly allied, in the elevation, 
to the opposite sides of the Egyptian oeci, 
■which has also the same plan as the basilica, 
and which was of similar construction to 
the churches in after times, excepting in 
the want of arches : both had a nave, w ith 
an aisle upon each flank, separated from 
the nave by a range of columns, which sup- 
ported a wall, pierced with windows for 
-lighting the nave: against this wall, and 
over the columns, were placed other at- 
tached columns. This, when roofed over 
wifh a groined ceiling, such as that of the 
Temple of Peace, will form the interior of 
a building, similar to that of tiie Saxon 
churches. 
The Corinthian order was the favourite 
order among the Romans, and as far as ex- 
isting examples enable ns to judge, the only 
order well understood, and happily exe- 
cuted. 
What we now call the Composite order, 
is of Roman extraction : it was employed 
in many of their buildings, but chiefly in 
the triumphal arches : from what we find in 
Vitruvius, it was never accounted a distinct 
order, but as a species of the Corinthian 
only. The only existing example that Rome 
affords of the Dorm order, is that executed 
in the theatre of Marseilles, and, though in 
the age of Augustus, is but a vitiated com- 
position : the columns are meagre and plain, 
