Newton, Charles T. [Hrsg.]; Pullan, Richard P. [Hrsg.]: A history of discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus and Branchidae (Band 2, Teil 1) (London, 1862)

188' SUMMARY OF ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR

ever, be perhaps more convenient to reserve the
discussion of these objections till the grounds on
which Mr. Pullan's Restoration mainly depends
have been stated in a succinct, form, detached
from the mass of details with which in the pre-
ceding pages they are necessarily involved. The
identity of the steps discovered in situ with those
of the pyramid, is therefore, for the present, taken
for granted.

The next point to be considered, is the degree
of credit to be attached to Pliny's description of
the Mausoleum; a passage which has hitherto
been a stumbling-block to all commentators, and
which, taken by itself, presents apparent con-
tradictions which have never been satisfactorily
explained.

Those who have hitherto proposed restorations
of the Mausoleum with nothing to guide them but
this isolated passage, have made use of Pliny as
an authority, in so far as his statements accorded
with their own theories, deliberately setting them
aside, or altering the text, whenever they found it
convenient.

Now it is evident that, in a difficulty like this,
mere arbitrary alteration of an author's text, or
disregard of his meaning, can lead to none but
uncertain conclusions, unless the felicity of the
result obtained by such experiments be such as to.
carry instant conviction with it; in which case
the hypothesis is regarded as a truth obtained by
intuition.
- If the various restorations of the Mausoleum