monument of Lysicrates (fig. 6), there is a lower range of small
leaves of some river plant, between which and the tops of the
flutes (which here are turned over as leaves) is a sinking which
was probably filled with a metal band. From the lower range of
leaves spring eight acanthus leaves, bending forward at the top,
with small flowers between, representing the heads of nails
which in the metal prototype fastened these leaves to the bell;
from the caulicolae, on the right and left, spring spiral tendrils
rising to the angles under the abacus, and from the same caulicolae
double spirals which cross to the centre of the bell, the upper ones
carrying the anthemion flower, which rises across the abacus.
The abacus in this capital has a deep scotia with fillet, and an
echinus above, and is one of the few great examples in which
the angles are canted. The architrave, frieze and cornice are
adaptations from the Ionic order. The corona has in the place
of the cymatium a cresting of antefixae, which is purely decorative,
as there are no covering tiles, the roof of the monument being
in one block of marble carved with leaves.
 Fig. 5. — Greek |
 Fig. 6. |
Set back and on the same plane as the architrave and frieze is a second cresting with the Greek wave scroll. There are other types of Greek Corinthian capital, of which the finest example is in the interior of the Tholos at Epidaurus (c. 400 B.C.), with two rows of leaves round the lower part, angle and central spirals, and a flower in the centre of the abacus. Of other examples the capitals of the interior of the temple of Apollo Branchidae in Asia Minor, and of the vestibule at Eleusis, and of the two porches of the temple of the Winds at Athens, are the best known. Except for the pointed ends of the abacus, which are Greek, the capital of the temple of Zeus Olympius might almost be classed among the Roman examples, and it is thought to have been the model copied by the Romans from those which Sulla took to Rome for the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.
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| Fig. 7. |
The Roman Doric Order.—The earliest example of this order is probably that of the temple at Cora, about 20 m. from Rome, attributed to Sulla (80 B.C.), in which the leading features of the Greek Doric order are employed, but extremely degraded in style. The temple was raised on a podium with a flight of steps in front; the shaft has 20 flutes and is carried on a small torus base, and the echinus of the capital is very poor. The architrave and triglyph-frieze are cut out of the same stone, the former being much too shallow to allow of its carrying the frieze and cornice. Two other early examples are those employed in the decoration of the arcades of the Tabularium and of the theatre of Marcellus (fig. 7); they are only semi-detached. The Doric order was not a favourite with the Romans, and did not appeal to their tastes for rich decoration; the only other examples known are those at Praeneste, at Albano, and in the thermae of Diocletian. At Albano the echinus of the capital is carved with the egg and anchor, and in the thermae a cyma-recta carved with a leaf ornament takes the place of the echinus. There is no base to any of these examples, the Albano base consisting only of an apophyge and fillet, and only the Diocletian example is fluted.
The Roman Ionic Order.—The complete degradation of the Ionic order is clearly shown in the so-called temple of Fortuna Virilis (ascribed to about 100 B.C.), in the profuse decoration of architrave, frieze and cornice with coarse ornament, and, in the capital, the raising of the echinus to the same level as the top of the second fillet of the volute, so that it is no longer visible under the cushion. The shaft has twenty flutes, the fillet being much wider than in the Greek examples, and the flute is semicircular. Much more refinement is shown in the order as employed on the upper storey of the theatre of Marcellus (fig. 8), where the only part enriched with ornament is in the egg and tongue of the bedmould. In the capital the fillet of the volute runs across above the echinus, and the canalis is stopped at each end over the volute, an original treatment. The most corrupt example of the Roman Ionic capital is that of the temple of Saturn on the Forum Romanum. which fortunately does not seem to have been copied later. The base of all the Roman Ionic columns is that known as the Attic base, viz. a lower and upper torus with scotia and fillets between, always raised on a square plinth.
The Roman Corinthian Order.—The great varieties of design in the Greek Corinthian capital (fig. 9), and the fact that its entablature was copied from Ionic examples, suggests that no definite type sufficient to constitute an order had been evolved by the Greeks; it remained therefore a problem to be worked out by the Romans, who, with the assistance of Greek artists,
