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

324 COLUMNA. COLUIMNA.
each of the principal orders of ancient architecture. nificent individuals to employ their wealth in preThe first is from a column of the Parthenon at senting them to public structures. Thus Croesus
Athens, the capital of which is shown on a larger contributed the greater part of the pillars tothe
scale at p. 1. The second is from the temple of temple at Ephesus. (IHerod. i.'92.) In the ruins
Bacchus at Teos, the capital of which is introduced at Labranda, now called Jackly, in' Carits, tablets
at p. 144. The third is from the remains of the in front of the columns record the names of the
temple of Jupiter at' Labranda. donors, as is shown in the specimen of them above
In all the orders the shaft (scapus) tapers from exhibited.
the bottom towards the top, thus imitating the Columns were used in the interior of buildings,
natural form of the trunk of a tree, and at the to sustain the beams which supported the ceiling.
same time conforming to a general law in'regard As both the beams and the entire ceiling'were
to the attainment of strength and solidity in all often of stone or marble, which could not be ohupright bodies. The shaft was, however, made tained in pieces of so great a length as wood, the
with a slight swelling in the middle, which was columns were in such circumstances frequent in
called the entasis. -It was. moreover, almost uni- proportion, not being more than about ten or twelve
versally, and from the earliest times, channelle4 feet apart. The opisthodomos of the Parthenon of
or fluted, i. e. the outside was striped with inci-i Athens, as appears from traces in the remaining
sions parallel to the axis. (Vitruv. iv. 4.) These ruins, had- four columns to support the ceiling. A
incisions, called striae, were always worked with common arrangement, especially in buildings of an
extreme regularity. The section of them'by a oblong form, was to have two rows of columns
plane parallel to the base was, in the Ionic and parallel to the two sides, the distance from each
Corinthian' orders, a semicircle;'in the Doric, it side to the next row of columns being less than
wvas an are much less than a semicircle. Their the distance between the rows themselves. This
number was 20 in the columns of the Parthenon, construction was adoptd not only in temples, but
above represented; in other instances, 24, 28, in palaces (ol noe). The great ball of the palace
or 32. - of Ulysses in Ithaca, that of the king of the
T'he capital was commonly wrought out of one Phaeacians, and that of the palace of Hercules at'block' of' stone, the shaft consisting of several Thebes (Eurip. Here. I'Ur. 9715-1013), are supcylindrical pieces fitted to one another. Whlien posed to have been thus constructed,'the seats of
the column was erected, its component parts were honour both for the master and mistress, and for
firmly joined together, not by mortar or cement, the more distinguished of their guests, being at
but by iron cramps fixed in the direction of the the foot of certain pillars. (Od. vi. 307, viii. 66.
axis. The annexed woodcut is copied from an 473, xxiii. 90.) In these regal halls of the Hoengraving in Swinburne's Tour in the Two meric era, we are also led to imagine the pill~as
Sicilies (vol. ii. p. 301), and represents a Doric decorated with arms. When Telemachus enters
column, which has been thrown prostrate in such his father's ball, he places his spear against a
a manner as to show the capital lying separate, column, and " within the polished spear-holder,"
and the five drums of the shaft, each four feet - y which we must tulderstand one of the striae or
long, with the holes for the iron cramps by which channels of the shaft. (Od. i. 127-129, xvii. 29;
they were united together. Virg. Aen. xii. 92.) Around the base of'the
columns, near the entrance, all the warriors of the
family were accustomed to incline their spears; and
-I...._ r' ~-,-~ from the upper part of the same they suspended
their bows and quivers on nails or hooks. (Honm..... -f - f%-[ Hymsz. in _Ap. 8.) The minstrel's lyre hung upon,-.70' r- A — Ad ( its peg from another column nearer the top of the': X:1 ~1 L1Jroom. (Od. viii. 67; Pind. 01. i. 17.) The columns of the hall were also made subservient to
less agreeable uses. Criminals were tied to them'-_,:;_-~. 2 ~f_~..... in order to be scourged, or otherwise tormented.
(Soph. Ajax, 108; Lobeck ad loc.; Diogr. Laert.
viii. 21; Hesiod, Theog. 521.) According to the
Columns of an astonishing size were nevertheless description in the Odyssey, the beams of the hall
erected, in which the shaft was one piece of stone. of Ulysses were of silver-fir; in such a case, the
For this purpose it was hewn in the quarry into apartment might be very spacious without being
the requisite form (Virg. Aen. i. 428), and was overcrowded with columns. (Od. xix. 38, xxii.
then rolled over the ground, or moved by the aid 176,- 193.)
of various mechanical contrivances, and by im- Rows of columns were often employed within a
mense labour, to the spot where it was to be set building, to enclose a space open to the sky.
up. The mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian, a Beams supporting ceilings passed from above the
circular building of such dimensions that it serves columns to the adjoining walls, so as to form
as the fortress of modern Rome, was surrounded covered passages or ambulatories (aroai). Such
by forty-eight loftyand most beaultiful Corinthian a circuit of columns was called a peristyle (repfpillars, the shaft of each pillar being a single piece avuXov), and the Roman atriuzs was built upon
of marble. About the time of Constantine, some this plan. The largest and most splendid temples
of these were taken to support the interior of a enclosed an open space like an atrium, which was
church dedicated to St. Paul, which a few years accomplished by placing one peristyle upon anlother.
ago was destroyed by fire. The interest attached In such cases, the lower rows of columns being
to the working and erection of these noble co- Doric, the upper were sometimes Ionic or CorinhImns, the undivided shafts of which consisted of thian, the lighter being properly based upon the
the most valuable and splendid materials, led imu- heavier. (Paus. viii. 45. ~ 4.) A-temple so con