DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4326#0106
68
APHRODISIAS.
. PLATE XIII.
GENERAL PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF APHRODISIAS.
We have now arrived at a very important object in the locality of Aphrodisias, and we shall
begin our observations with stating our conviction that Pococke was right in regarding it, as a
fane dedicated to Bacchus.
There are various considerations which lead us to the conclusion that this temple was an ex-
ample of rare occurrence, attributed by Vitruvius to Hermogenes, the inventor, as he says, of the
Pseudodipteral style. Temples dedicated to Bacchus at Teos are twice mentioned by this author;
in one passage the building is said to be hexastyle, and monopteral, and in the other it is called
octastyle. The latter reading had led the Society into the error of supposing the word octastyle
ought to have been used in both places. But all the MSS. concur in the use of the term hexas-
tyle in the passage quoted below.* In our recent reprint of the first part of the Antiquities of
Ionia the error has been corrected. An hexastyle Temple could not he pseudodipteral.
* The following is the quotation from Vitruvius, L. iii. c. 2.
" Hujus exemplar Romse nullum habemus. Sed in Asia Teo
hexastylon Liberi Patris. Eas autem symmetrias constituit
Hermogenes qui etiam primus octastylum Pseudodipterive ra-
tionem invenit. Ex Dipteri enim aedis symmetria sustulit in-
teriors ordines columnarum XXXVIII ea operatione sumptus
operisque compendia fecit. Is in medio ambulationi in laxa-
mentum egregie circa cellam fecit de adspectuque nihil imminuit,
sed sine desiderio supervacuorum conservavit auctoritatem totius
operis distributione. Pteromatos enim ratio et columnarum
circum aedem dispositio ideo est inventa, ut adspectus propter
asperitatem intercolnmniorum haberet auctoritatem.
It has been thought that Vitruvius was all along alluding to
the same temple at Teos, the confusion arising from some of
the editors using hexastylon and others octastylon. This can
by no means be inferred from the passage in question ; what
seems absurd is that the omission of these columns is extolled as
an immortal invention. What follows however gives us reason
to think that the omission was to be accompanied by a different
arrangement of the only row left, and that the asperitas as
it is called must be essentially affected ; to this part of the sub-
ject we shall return when the original plan of the temple comes
under discussion.
The temple originally consisted of 13 columns in the flanks
and 8 in the east and west fronts. The Greek Christians availed
themselves of the facilities afforded by the remains, to form out
of them a spacious and splendid Church, which they effected
first by removing wholly the walls of the cella ; the 13 columns
in each flank were suffered to remain in their places while
all those of the east front, and two at the west, were "wheeled
into line" in the manner shewn in the plan. On the north
and south flanks, at the distance of nearly twenty feet from
them, two walls were built along their whole extent and parallel
to the flanks ; thus they formed a church with a nave 58 feet
wide, and two aisles of nearly twenty. Following the usual mode
they made new entrances at the west end, and placed the altar
in a large circular recess in the east, where a mass of masonry
was constructed by walls, whose foundations were those of the
east portico of the peribolus. The length they thus obtained for
the church was 122 feet. On a reference to the view Plate III.
the reader will see from the angular capital, that the second co-
lumn in the flank was originally the angular column of the west
end of the temple. What is now the first was the second of the
west front. The occurrence of another angular volute may
yet be seen in the fourteenth column of the south flank. The
temple thus stood within a peribolus whose inner dimensions
were about 200 feet by 168. To the east beyond there ap-
pears to have been a street 60 feet wide, the wall of which
forms that of another peribolus of greater extent, and the same
width. Some of the Corinthian columns of its portico still
retain their original positions.
APHRODISIAS.
. PLATE XIII.
GENERAL PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF APHRODISIAS.
We have now arrived at a very important object in the locality of Aphrodisias, and we shall
begin our observations with stating our conviction that Pococke was right in regarding it, as a
fane dedicated to Bacchus.
There are various considerations which lead us to the conclusion that this temple was an ex-
ample of rare occurrence, attributed by Vitruvius to Hermogenes, the inventor, as he says, of the
Pseudodipteral style. Temples dedicated to Bacchus at Teos are twice mentioned by this author;
in one passage the building is said to be hexastyle, and monopteral, and in the other it is called
octastyle. The latter reading had led the Society into the error of supposing the word octastyle
ought to have been used in both places. But all the MSS. concur in the use of the term hexas-
tyle in the passage quoted below.* In our recent reprint of the first part of the Antiquities of
Ionia the error has been corrected. An hexastyle Temple could not he pseudodipteral.
* The following is the quotation from Vitruvius, L. iii. c. 2.
" Hujus exemplar Romse nullum habemus. Sed in Asia Teo
hexastylon Liberi Patris. Eas autem symmetrias constituit
Hermogenes qui etiam primus octastylum Pseudodipterive ra-
tionem invenit. Ex Dipteri enim aedis symmetria sustulit in-
teriors ordines columnarum XXXVIII ea operatione sumptus
operisque compendia fecit. Is in medio ambulationi in laxa-
mentum egregie circa cellam fecit de adspectuque nihil imminuit,
sed sine desiderio supervacuorum conservavit auctoritatem totius
operis distributione. Pteromatos enim ratio et columnarum
circum aedem dispositio ideo est inventa, ut adspectus propter
asperitatem intercolnmniorum haberet auctoritatem.
It has been thought that Vitruvius was all along alluding to
the same temple at Teos, the confusion arising from some of
the editors using hexastylon and others octastylon. This can
by no means be inferred from the passage in question ; what
seems absurd is that the omission of these columns is extolled as
an immortal invention. What follows however gives us reason
to think that the omission was to be accompanied by a different
arrangement of the only row left, and that the asperitas as
it is called must be essentially affected ; to this part of the sub-
ject we shall return when the original plan of the temple comes
under discussion.
The temple originally consisted of 13 columns in the flanks
and 8 in the east and west fronts. The Greek Christians availed
themselves of the facilities afforded by the remains, to form out
of them a spacious and splendid Church, which they effected
first by removing wholly the walls of the cella ; the 13 columns
in each flank were suffered to remain in their places while
all those of the east front, and two at the west, were "wheeled
into line" in the manner shewn in the plan. On the north
and south flanks, at the distance of nearly twenty feet from
them, two walls were built along their whole extent and parallel
to the flanks ; thus they formed a church with a nave 58 feet
wide, and two aisles of nearly twenty. Following the usual mode
they made new entrances at the west end, and placed the altar
in a large circular recess in the east, where a mass of masonry
was constructed by walls, whose foundations were those of the
east portico of the peribolus. The length they thus obtained for
the church was 122 feet. On a reference to the view Plate III.
the reader will see from the angular capital, that the second co-
lumn in the flank was originally the angular column of the west
end of the temple. What is now the first was the second of the
west front. The occurrence of another angular volute may
yet be seen in the fourteenth column of the south flank. The
temple thus stood within a peribolus whose inner dimensions
were about 200 feet by 168. To the east beyond there ap-
pears to have been a street 60 feet wide, the wall of which
forms that of another peribolus of greater extent, and the same
width. Some of the Corinthian columns of its portico still
retain their original positions.