Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1110 TEMPLUM. TlEMlPLUML.
along each side of it, as represented in the right- II. The PERIPTEROS had a circular cella, siurhand division of the plan and elevation. rounded by a single peristyle of columns, standing
Circular Tempkles, properly so called, were pro- on three steps, and the whole surmoilted by a
bably not used by the Greeks in early times. The dome. Specimens are preserved in the so-called
round buildings of which we have notices were temples of Vesta at Rome (see wood-cut on p. 299)
either tholi or mere monumental edifices. Several and at Tivoli.
round buildings of this kind are mentioned by
Pausanias; such as the tholus at Athens, in which
there were several small silver statues; where the
Prytaneis sacrificed (Paus. i. 5), and where, according to Pollux (viii. 155) they also banquetted.
There was another tIolues at Epidaurus, in the sacred grove of Asclepios, which he describes as well
worth seeing: it was built of white marble, after
the design of Polycleitus, and adorned on the inside _ _
with paintings by Pausias. (Paus. ii. 27.) (See h. - 7?'
Stieglitz, vol. ii. pp. 38, fol.) Vitruvius (iv. 7)
however recognizes two regular forms of circular
temples, to which a third m'ast be added.
I. The MONOPTEROS consisted of a single circle
of columns, standing on a platform (tlribunal), the
outer wall of which formed a stylobate or continuous pedestal for the columns, and surmounted by
a dome; but without any cella. For the proportions see Vitruvius. The remains of such a temple r,
have been found at the ruins of Puteoli.
The proportions of the temples of tlhis form were
very carefully regulated. The existing specimens
agree in most particulars with the rules laid down
by Vitruvius, according to'whom the distance of
the wall of the cella from the edge of the substruc- —.. | (X)<tion was one-fifth of the whole diameter of the substruction;and consequently the diameter of the cella
(including its walls) was three-fifths of the whole:
the internal diameter of the cella, was equal to the
height of the columns: the height of the dome was
equal to a semi-diameter of the whole building:
and the centre of the dome was surmounted by a
pyramid (or cone), to support an ornament equal in
height to the capitals of the columns. (For a full
discussion of the passage, see Hirt, Lehile d. Gebaude, pp. 29, 30.)
Both species of round temples are mentioned by
Servius (ad Asen. ix. 408), who says that they were
peculiar to Vesta, Diana, Hercules, and Mercury;
and he distinguishes the Mlonoptferos by the following description: - lectusn sine parietiLus colusr7si
subnixum.