DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8#0039
• ( 38 )
pies at Athens ; viz, this Ephesian being Ionic, is very
properly more lofty than the Parthenon column, which
Sir Geo. Wheler states at about 44 English feet high ;
and Mr. Stuart found it's diameter 6.. 1.8, and by this
Doric ratio between the diameter and height of the co-
lumn, were the Ephesian to be supposed also Doric,
with a diameter of 7 .. 1.5 it's height then should be but
50.. 11.5 ; but known as it is, to have been not Doric
but Ionic, the ratio between the diameter 7 .. 1.5 and
the height 53.. 6, is perfectly what it ought to be. And
thus the scale, on which the Ephesian Temple was
built, is a medium between the Minerva Parthenon and
the Olympian Temple at Athens, which has columns,
ten in front, on a diameter of 6..3, and are in height
about 60 feet, being Corinthian. This circumstance
alone, indépendant of the above demonstrative proof
from the fragments of columns found and measured,
would be sufficient to refute the hypothesis that the 220
feet and the 425 were either Cossutian Roman feet, or
English ; from the great improbability of a diameter of
above 9 feet English ; which would have produced an
elevation and extent of temple so far exceeding that
even of the Olympian, which for magnificence, was the
wonder of the world, as to render the supposition alto-
gether out of the question.
Hence it is incontrovertibly proved, that Pliny
calculated by the pyramidic foot : and not only so, but
I proceed now to prove that the authors he occasionally
introduces in his work, as the ancients before his time,
also used the same foot.
But before I can draw a satisfactory conclusion, from
the recorded dimensions of objects stated by those au-
thors, I must premise a few words concerning the ancient
measure.
pies at Athens ; viz, this Ephesian being Ionic, is very
properly more lofty than the Parthenon column, which
Sir Geo. Wheler states at about 44 English feet high ;
and Mr. Stuart found it's diameter 6.. 1.8, and by this
Doric ratio between the diameter and height of the co-
lumn, were the Ephesian to be supposed also Doric,
with a diameter of 7 .. 1.5 it's height then should be but
50.. 11.5 ; but known as it is, to have been not Doric
but Ionic, the ratio between the diameter 7 .. 1.5 and
the height 53.. 6, is perfectly what it ought to be. And
thus the scale, on which the Ephesian Temple was
built, is a medium between the Minerva Parthenon and
the Olympian Temple at Athens, which has columns,
ten in front, on a diameter of 6..3, and are in height
about 60 feet, being Corinthian. This circumstance
alone, indépendant of the above demonstrative proof
from the fragments of columns found and measured,
would be sufficient to refute the hypothesis that the 220
feet and the 425 were either Cossutian Roman feet, or
English ; from the great improbability of a diameter of
above 9 feet English ; which would have produced an
elevation and extent of temple so far exceeding that
even of the Olympian, which for magnificence, was the
wonder of the world, as to render the supposition alto-
gether out of the question.
Hence it is incontrovertibly proved, that Pliny
calculated by the pyramidic foot : and not only so, but
I proceed now to prove that the authors he occasionally
introduces in his work, as the ancients before his time,
also used the same foot.
But before I can draw a satisfactory conclusion, from
the recorded dimensions of objects stated by those au-
thors, I must premise a few words concerning the ancient
measure.