Rudiments of ancient architecture, containing an historical account of the five orders, with their proportions, and examples of each from antiques also, extracts from Vitruvius, Pliny, &c. relative to the buildings of the ancients (London, 1810 (4. Aufl.))

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE. 71

OF

THE HOUSES OF THE ANCIENTS;

THEIR

SITUATION AND DISTRIBUTION.

This article was intended for its proper
place in the dictionary, but in making it at
all satisfactory, it has so much increased,
I think it more advisable to make a sepa-
rate article of it.

Respecting the dwellings of the ancients,
we can only conjecture the situation of
their various apartments, from combining
the descriptions of several classic authors ;
little of such buildings remaining to guide
our researches. Those of which traces are
found, such as the baths of Titus, Cara-
calla, Dioclesian, the Villas of Adrian,
Mecasnas, &c. are of little use to this en-
quiry their extent and magnificence ex-
ceeding that of common structures.

To speculate on the accounts left by
Pliny, and others, may not be unenter-