ARCHITECTURE. 
Persians and Caryatides. Instead of co- 
lumns, or pilasters, it is sometimes customa- 
ry to support the entablature by human 
figures ; the males of which are called Per- 
sians, Talamones, or Atlantides ; and the fe- 
males, Carians, or Caryatides. The history 
of these Vitruvius relates as follows: “ Ca- 
na, a city of Peloponnesus, having joined 
with the Persians against the Grecian states, 
and the Greeks having put an end to the 
war, by a glorious victory, with one consent 
declared war against the Caryatides. They 
took the city, destroyed it, slew the men, 
and led the matrons into captivity, not per- 
mitting them to wear the habits and orna- 
ments 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 ar- 
chitects therefore of those days introduced 
their effigies sustaining weights, in the pub- 
lic buildings, that the remembrance of the 
crime of the Caryatides might be transmit- 
ted to posterity. The Lacedaemonians like- 
wise, under the command of Pausanias, the 
son of Cleombrotus, having at the battle of 
Platea, with a small number - , vanquished a 
numerous army of Persians ; to solemnize 
the triumph, erected with the spoils and 
plunder the Persian Portico, as a trophy, to 
transmit to posterity the valour und ho- 
nour 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 human 
figures, and those of inferior animals, had a 
very early introduction in architecture, and 
are of more remote antiquity than that as- 
signed 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, sup- 
posed of the most remote antiquity, are sus- 
tained in the same manner. In Denon’s 
travels in Egypt, among other fragments, 
are represented five insulated pilasters or 
pillars, bearing an entablature : the fronts 
of the pillars are decorated with priests or 
divinities. The molten sea, recorded in 
Holy Writ, was supported by twelve bulls. 
In the Odyssey of Homer, translated by 
Pope (book vii. ver. 118 ,) we find the ef- 
figies of annuals, both rational and irra- 
tional, employed as decorations, which ap- 
pears 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 at Alcinous’ gate ; 
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 embroidery 
blaz’d, 
The work of matrons : these the prin- 
cess prest, 
Day following day, a long continu’d feast, 
Refulgent pedestals the walls surround, 
Which boys of gold with flaming torches 
crown’d. 
However these representations of ani- 
mals were not employed as columns to sup- 
port an entablature, but merely as orna- 
ments. 
In Stewart’s antiquities of Athens, we 
find a most beautiful specimen of Caryatic 
figures, supporting an entablature, consist- 
ing of an architrave cornice of a very ele- 
gant profile. Among the Roman antiqui- 
ties, there are likewise to be found various 
fragments of male figures, which may be 
conjectured from their attitudes, and orna- 
ments, to have been the supports of the 
entablatures of buildings. 
Besides Persians and Caryatides, it is 
sometimes customary to support the enta- 
blatures with figures, of which the upper 
part is the head and breast of the human 
body, and the lower part an inverted frus- 
trum 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 pro- 
perty belonging to individuals. Numa 
Pompilius, in order to render these bounda- 
ries sacred, converted the Terminus 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 tire form of a 
human head and shoulders, and other parts, 
as has already been defined. He was on 
particular occasions adorned with garlands, 
with which he appeared of a very pleasant 
figure. Persian figures are generally charged 
with a Doric entablature ; Caryatic figures 
