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

f, 22 COLOSSUS. COLUM.
cwaparl'VLov, so called from the place of its origin Among the colossal statues of Greece, the most
on the coast of Africa, not far from Egypt. There celebrated, according to Pliny, was the bronze
was also a white earth of Eretria, and the annu- colossus at Rhodes by Chares of Lindus, a pupil of
larian white, creta anulas a or anulare, made from Lysippus. (See Diet. of' G. and R. Biog. art.
the glass composition worn in the rings of the Cliares.) Pliny mentions another Greek colossus
poor. of Apollo, the work of Calamis, which cost 500
Carbonate of lead or white lead, cesussa, *4iuv- talents, and was twenty cubits high, in the city of
Owov, was apparently not much used by the ancient Apollonia, whence it was transferred to the capitol
painters; it was nowhere found amongst the Ro- by M. Lucullus; and also those of Jupiter and
man ruins. Hercules, at Tarentum, by Lysippus. (Dict. of'
Sir H. Davy is of opinion that the azure, the G. and R. Biog. art. Lysippus.) To the list of
red and yellow ochres, and the blacks, have not Pliny must be added the more important colossal
undergone any change of colour whatever in the statues of Pheidias, the most beautiful of which
ancient fresco paintings; but that many of the were his chryselephantine statues of Zeus, at
greens, which are now carbonate of copper, were Olympia, and of Athena, in the Parthenon at
originally laid on in a state of acetate. Athens; the largest was his bronze statue of
Pliny divides the colours into colores floridi and Athena Promachus, on the Acropolis.
colores austeri (xxxv. 12); the colores floridi were Amongst the works of this description made exthose which, in his time, were supplied by the pressly by or for the Romans, those most freemployer to the pinter, on account of their ex- quently alluded to are the following:- 1. A statue
pense, and to secure their being genuine; they were of Jupiter upon the capitol, made by order of Sp.
mlninium, Armellium, cinnabaris, chrysocolla, Indi- Carvilius, from the armour of the Samnites, which
cum, and purpurissum; the rest were the austeri. was so large that it could be seen from the Alban
Both Pliny (xxxv. 12) and Vitruvius (vii. 7) mount. (Plin. 1. c.) 2. A bronze statue of Apollo
class the colours into natural and artificial; the at the Palatine library (Plin. I. c.), to which the
natural are those obtained immediately from the bronze head now preserved in the capitol probably
earth, which, according to Pliny, are Sinopis, belonged. 3. A bronze statue of Augustus, in the
r:ubrica, paraetonium, rmelinum, Eretrca, and auri- forum, which bore his name. (Mart. Ep. viii. 44.
pigmentumr; to these Vitruvius adds ochra, san- 7.) 4. The colossus of Nero, which was executed
daracha, minium (verceilios), and chrysocolla, by Zenodorus in marble, and therefore quoted by
being of metallic origin. The others are called Pliny in proof that the art of casting metal was
artificial, on account of requiring some particular then lost. Its height was 110 or 120 feet. (Plin.
preparation to render them fit for use. 1. c.; Suet. Nero, 31.) It was originally placed in
To the above list of colours, more names might the vestibule of the domus aurea (Mart. Spect. ii.
still be added; but being for the most part merely 1, Ep. i. 71. 7; Dion Cass. lxvi. 15) at the bottom
compounds or modifications of those already men- of the Via Sacra, where the basement upon which
tioned, they would only take up space without it stood is still to be seen, and from it the congiving us any additional insight into the resources tiguous amphitheatre is supposed to have gainled
of the ancient painters; those which we have the name of " Colosseum." Having suffered in the
already enumerated are sufficient to form an in- fire which destroyed the golden house, it was
finite variety of colour, and conclusively prove repaired by Vespasian, and by him converted into
that the ancient painters, if they had not more, a statue of the sun. (Hieronym. in Hab. c. 3;
had at least equal resources in this most essential Suet. Vesp. 18; Plin. 1. c.; compare Lamprid.
branch of painting with the artists of our own Commod. 17; Dion Cass. lxxii. 15.) Twentytimes. [R. N. W.] four elephants were employed by Hadrian to reCOLOSSUS (KcoXooe-rds). The origin of this move it, when he was about to build the temple of
word is not known, the suggestions of the gram- Rome. (Spart. IHadr. 19.) 5. An equestrian
marians being either ridiculous, or imperfect in statue of Domitian, of bronze gilt, which was
point of etymology. (Ety7cm. Mag. p. 526. 16; placed in the centre of the forum. (Stat. Sylv. i.
Festus, s. v.) It is, however, very ancient, pro- 1. 1; Mart. LEo. i. 71. 6.) [A. R.)
buably of Ionic extraction, and rarely occurs in the COLUM (Qjuo's), a strainer or colander, was
Attic writers. (Blomf. Gloss. ad A esch. Agani. used for straining wine, milk olive-oil, and other
406.) It is used both by the Greeks and Romans
to signify a statue larger than life (Hesych. s. v.;
Aesch. AgcinL. 406; Schol. ad Juv. Sat. viii. 230),
and thence a person of extraordinary stature is
termed co!osseros (Suet. Calig. 35); and the architectural ornaments in the upper members of lofty
buildings, which require to be of large dimensions
in consequence of their remoteness, are termed.
colossicoterac (1oXoo'tuccirepa, Vitruv. iii. 3, compare Id. x. 4). Statues of this kind, simply
colossal, but not enormously large, were too
common amongst the Greeks to excite observation
merely from their size, and are, therefore, rarely
referred to as such; the word being more frequently applied to designate those figures of gigantic dimensions (moles statuarusm, tursbaus paevs,
Plin. IJ. NT. xxxiv. 7. s. 18) which were first
executed in Egypt, and afterwards in Greece and
Italy.