PANTHEON. 
693 
front, with an equal columniation all along. The ascent to the portico 
is by eight or nine steps. 
Such was the Pantheon, the richness of which induced Pliny to 
rank it among the wonders of the world. The eruption of Vesuvius, 
in the reign of Tiberius, having damaged the Pantheon considerably, it 
was repaired by Domitian and Adrian. But the Pantheon is more 
indebted to Septimus Severus than to any one since its erection. 
Septimus bestowed essential reparation upon it, as appears from an 
inscription upon the architrave. This temple subsisted in all its 
grandeur till the incursion of Alaric. Zosyraus relates, that the 
Romans having engaged to furnish this barbarian with SOOOlbs. of 
gold, and 5000lbs. of silver, upon condition that he should depart from 
their walls, and it being impossible to raise those suras, they stripped 
the temples of their statues and ornaments of gold and silver. Gen^ 
seric king of the Vandals, thirty-nine years after, t^ok away part of 
their marbles, and loaded one of his ships with s-tatues. On this 
occasion the inestimable works of Diogenes became the prey of this 
barbarian. 
The Christian emperors had issued orders for demolishing the 
Pagan temples ; but the Romans spared the Pantheon, which suffered 
no damage from the zeal of the pontiffs, or the indignation of the 
saints, before the first siege of Rome by Alaric. It remained so rich 
till about A. D. 655, as to excite the avarice of Constantine II. who 
came from Constantinople, and pillaged the Pantheon of its brazen 
coverings, which he transported to Syracuse, where they soon fell 
into the hands of the Saracens. 
About fifty years before this, pope Boniface IV. had obtained the 
Pantheon of the emperor Phocas, to make a church of it. The artists 
of these parts spoiled every thing they laid their hands upon. After 
the devastations committed by the barbarians, Rome was contracted 
within a narrow compass. The Pantheon standing at the entrance of 
the Campus Martins, was surrounded with houses, which spoiled the 
fine prospect of it ; and some of them were built close to its walls. 
Pedlars’ sheds were built within its portico, and the intercolumniations 
were bricked up, to the irreparable damage of the matchless pillars, 
of which some lost part of their capitals, and others were chiselled 
out six or seven inches deep, and as many feet high, to let in posts. 
This disorder continued till the pontificate of Eugene IV. who had all 
the houses cleared away, when the miserable barracks in the portico 
were knocked down. Benedict II. covered it with lead, which Nicho- 
las V. renewed in a better style. Raphael Urban, who had no equal 
as a painter, and as an architect no superior, left a considerable sum 
for the reparation of the Pantheon, where his tomb is placed. La 
Vagua, Udino, Hannibal Caracci, Flamingo, Vacca, and Archangelo 
Corelli, did the same. 
Pope Urban VIII. was a protector and practiser of the arts. He 
repaired it; but while he built up with one hand, he pulled down 
with the other. He caused two belfries, of a wretched taste, to be 
erected on the ancient front-work, and div.ested the portico of all the 
remains of its ancient grandeur, viz. the brazen coverture of thecross- 
Ireams, which amounted to a prodigious quantity. This pope, who 
