DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45927#0061
4.4 Column Shafts
59
we have nothing to suggest any of the possible variants on this scheme such as a broken pediment or triangular
pediment incorporating an arch or vault, the simpler solution is adopted here.
4.3 Column Bases
Approximate positions for the column bases of the lower story can be determined by the location of pryholes
cut for shifting them into place and by pairs of dowel holes used for securing the bases to the stylobates. There
are no setting lines however, or significant changes in tooling in the upper surfaces to indicate their precise
locations, which would remain unknown but for a pair of shallow holes made with a pointed tool in the eastern
half of the crown course over the first broad pedestal (ped. 5; pls. 36, 3; 37; plan 4). These are spaced 0.83 m
apart, and, as one of the pair is located on the axis of the pryholes, we can assume that their purpose was to help
in positioning a base whose plinth was 0.83 m wide. A fragmentary column base (cat. 1.1; pl. 72) for which this
width can be restored lay shifted slightly to the west at the beginning of this project. A pair of dowel holes in
the underside on one of the main axis is spaced 0.455 m apart and corresponds precisely with the dowel holes
in the stylobate.
The base belongs to a class that is rather unusual in the eastern half of the Roman Empire146: Above a quad-
ratic plinth is a convex torus followed by a concave scotia between fillets, a projecting astragal, a second scotia
between fillets, and a badly preserved but easily restorable upper torus. The total height was 0.31 m and the
bedding surface ca. 0.62 m. The bottom surface contains, in addition to the dowel holes, a small compass hole
from which short masons’ lines extend out on two sides to mark the main axes. Concentric with the compass
hole are two roughly chiseled circles with radii of 0.369 m and 0.385 m. In the top of the base is a lewis hole
that became a dowel hole in the construction phase when it was provided with a narrow pour channel. Work-
manship is of high quality. Top and bottom surfaces were finished with fine point and toothed chisel. The sides
were worked smooth with crisply cut profiles. Both scotiae dip slightly below the tops of their lower fillets to
form shallow annular channels.
The small positioning holes in the crown course of the first broad pedestal are also important for the infor-
mation they provide about the precise location of the other bases and thus of the columns they supported, at
least along the east-west axis (plan 4). The easternmost hole is vertically aligned with the bearing surface of the
base molding below and we can safely assume that this was also the case with the other bases whose original
positions on their respective pedestals are given approximately by the dowel holes cut to secure them and more
accurately by the pedestal base moldings, most of which are in situ. This arrangement must have been followed
in positioning the bases on the north-south axis as well.
4.4 Column Shafts
Identification of the shafts that went with these bases is more difficult, depending as it does largely on the
circumstantial evidence of size and present location. J. T. Wood reported finding column shafts made of
“Egyptian syenite”, the red granite quarried at Aswan, which he assumed “had fallen from the circular colon-
nade above.”147 A few small pieces of these shafts can still be seen in the diazoma near the east vomitorium
(pl. 12, 1) while a series of longer lengths have been collected together in recent times in the “Staatsmarkt”
near the southeast corner of the temple excavations and in the Basilica Stoa directly south of the Prytaneion
(pls. 73, 1-2).
The fragments (cat. 2-1-2-10 in appendix 1), about two dozen in all, include the tops and bottoms of col-
umn shafts that seem to belong to a two-storied facade. Moldings consist of a flare that is too irregular in pro-
file to be called a torus, and a fillet which sometimes tapers outwards from the bottom. The flares at the base
of the larger shafts measure about 0.62 m in diameter and the lower shaft diameter is ca 0.60 m. This fits well
with the Bouleuterion column base. Included among the fragments are some in gray limestone which share the
same dimensions, technique and style, indicating a polychrome arrangement. The original shaft height cannot
be given for either the first or second story.
146 See below chap. 5.1.1.
147 Wood 1877, 51.
59
we have nothing to suggest any of the possible variants on this scheme such as a broken pediment or triangular
pediment incorporating an arch or vault, the simpler solution is adopted here.
4.3 Column Bases
Approximate positions for the column bases of the lower story can be determined by the location of pryholes
cut for shifting them into place and by pairs of dowel holes used for securing the bases to the stylobates. There
are no setting lines however, or significant changes in tooling in the upper surfaces to indicate their precise
locations, which would remain unknown but for a pair of shallow holes made with a pointed tool in the eastern
half of the crown course over the first broad pedestal (ped. 5; pls. 36, 3; 37; plan 4). These are spaced 0.83 m
apart, and, as one of the pair is located on the axis of the pryholes, we can assume that their purpose was to help
in positioning a base whose plinth was 0.83 m wide. A fragmentary column base (cat. 1.1; pl. 72) for which this
width can be restored lay shifted slightly to the west at the beginning of this project. A pair of dowel holes in
the underside on one of the main axis is spaced 0.455 m apart and corresponds precisely with the dowel holes
in the stylobate.
The base belongs to a class that is rather unusual in the eastern half of the Roman Empire146: Above a quad-
ratic plinth is a convex torus followed by a concave scotia between fillets, a projecting astragal, a second scotia
between fillets, and a badly preserved but easily restorable upper torus. The total height was 0.31 m and the
bedding surface ca. 0.62 m. The bottom surface contains, in addition to the dowel holes, a small compass hole
from which short masons’ lines extend out on two sides to mark the main axes. Concentric with the compass
hole are two roughly chiseled circles with radii of 0.369 m and 0.385 m. In the top of the base is a lewis hole
that became a dowel hole in the construction phase when it was provided with a narrow pour channel. Work-
manship is of high quality. Top and bottom surfaces were finished with fine point and toothed chisel. The sides
were worked smooth with crisply cut profiles. Both scotiae dip slightly below the tops of their lower fillets to
form shallow annular channels.
The small positioning holes in the crown course of the first broad pedestal are also important for the infor-
mation they provide about the precise location of the other bases and thus of the columns they supported, at
least along the east-west axis (plan 4). The easternmost hole is vertically aligned with the bearing surface of the
base molding below and we can safely assume that this was also the case with the other bases whose original
positions on their respective pedestals are given approximately by the dowel holes cut to secure them and more
accurately by the pedestal base moldings, most of which are in situ. This arrangement must have been followed
in positioning the bases on the north-south axis as well.
4.4 Column Shafts
Identification of the shafts that went with these bases is more difficult, depending as it does largely on the
circumstantial evidence of size and present location. J. T. Wood reported finding column shafts made of
“Egyptian syenite”, the red granite quarried at Aswan, which he assumed “had fallen from the circular colon-
nade above.”147 A few small pieces of these shafts can still be seen in the diazoma near the east vomitorium
(pl. 12, 1) while a series of longer lengths have been collected together in recent times in the “Staatsmarkt”
near the southeast corner of the temple excavations and in the Basilica Stoa directly south of the Prytaneion
(pls. 73, 1-2).
The fragments (cat. 2-1-2-10 in appendix 1), about two dozen in all, include the tops and bottoms of col-
umn shafts that seem to belong to a two-storied facade. Moldings consist of a flare that is too irregular in pro-
file to be called a torus, and a fillet which sometimes tapers outwards from the bottom. The flares at the base
of the larger shafts measure about 0.62 m in diameter and the lower shaft diameter is ca 0.60 m. This fits well
with the Bouleuterion column base. Included among the fragments are some in gray limestone which share the
same dimensions, technique and style, indicating a polychrome arrangement. The original shaft height cannot
be given for either the first or second story.
146 See below chap. 5.1.1.
147 Wood 1877, 51.
