DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1083#0119
POMPEIAKA. 225
courses, so as to form a ground for the plaster
fillets and flutes. The plaster is peculiarly good,
and has almost the hardness of porcelain.
Also two Antefixes, from the basilica. One is orna-
mented with a head persona, the other, 14 inches
high, with foliage, of which the lower part was
painted green, the upper yellow. Two forms of
tiles were used in ancient buildings: the imbrex,
placed in regular rows, to receive the shower ; and
the tegula1, which covered and prevented the
rain from penetrating the joints. The latter were
finished at the eaves with upright ornaments,
shaped as those before us; and which were re-
peated also at the junction of these tiles, along
the ridge.
These ornaments are called by Pliny persona?".
He refers their invention to Dibutades, a Sicyo-
nian potter, established at Corinth, who called
them proti/pes3, being stamped in front only:
those upon the ridge were an after-thought of
the same artist, and, worked on all sides, were
named ectypes. From the circumstance of their
having been originally formed of a plastic material,
the ornamented ridges still continued to be called
plasteSy after Byzes of Naxos had introduced
1 hidor—InLrvY,26—23, the victory upon the apex ofapediment, struck
by lightning, is arrested in its fall, and hangs upon the antefixes. See also
the speech of Cato, in 34—4.
* Cretea persona.—Lucretius, 4—498. They were probably at first
niaslcst Persons pallentis hiatura.—Juvenal, 3—175.
3 Pliny, 35.
Q
courses, so as to form a ground for the plaster
fillets and flutes. The plaster is peculiarly good,
and has almost the hardness of porcelain.
Also two Antefixes, from the basilica. One is orna-
mented with a head persona, the other, 14 inches
high, with foliage, of which the lower part was
painted green, the upper yellow. Two forms of
tiles were used in ancient buildings: the imbrex,
placed in regular rows, to receive the shower ; and
the tegula1, which covered and prevented the
rain from penetrating the joints. The latter were
finished at the eaves with upright ornaments,
shaped as those before us; and which were re-
peated also at the junction of these tiles, along
the ridge.
These ornaments are called by Pliny persona?".
He refers their invention to Dibutades, a Sicyo-
nian potter, established at Corinth, who called
them proti/pes3, being stamped in front only:
those upon the ridge were an after-thought of
the same artist, and, worked on all sides, were
named ectypes. From the circumstance of their
having been originally formed of a plastic material,
the ornamented ridges still continued to be called
plasteSy after Byzes of Naxos had introduced
1 hidor—InLrvY,26—23, the victory upon the apex ofapediment, struck
by lightning, is arrested in its fall, and hangs upon the antefixes. See also
the speech of Cato, in 34—4.
* Cretea persona.—Lucretius, 4—498. They were probably at first
niaslcst Persons pallentis hiatura.—Juvenal, 3—175.
3 Pliny, 35.
Q