DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4376#0333
EXCAVATIONS ON SEVERAL SITES—BUD RUM. 315
Having obtained these results by excavation on
this platform, I did not further explore it, as the
ground was difficult to dig, and gave little promise
of more important discoveries.
It is, however, a matter of some interest to have
proved by excavation, that an Ionic edifice stood
here, that it was on a considerable scale, and that
it was probably executed in the same school of art
as the Mausoleum; and if, with a knowledge of
these facts, we revert to the statement of Vitruvius
in reference to the Temple of Mars, I think there
can be little doubt that it stood on this platform.
In the passage in Vitruvius already referred to,
ante, p. 266, he states that the ancient city rose
from the shore like a theatre, being shut in by hills
bending round in a semicircle from the north;
that in the centre of tbis curve, halfway up the
height, per mediam allitudinis curvaturam, stood
the Mausoleum, and that, higher up the hill, but
still in a central position relatively to the curved
form of the city, was the Temple of Mars.
The precise expression used by Vitruvius in
reference to this latter building is, that it stood
in summa arce media, a phrase which admits of
more than one mode of translation, and which,
I think, can hardly be understood without a visit
to the locality which the topographer describes.
In my Memoir already referred to I have trans-
lated these words, " in the centre of the fortified
heights above ; " an examination of the upper part
of the city enabled me to attach a still more precise
meaning to the words of Vitruvius.
Having obtained these results by excavation on
this platform, I did not further explore it, as the
ground was difficult to dig, and gave little promise
of more important discoveries.
It is, however, a matter of some interest to have
proved by excavation, that an Ionic edifice stood
here, that it was on a considerable scale, and that
it was probably executed in the same school of art
as the Mausoleum; and if, with a knowledge of
these facts, we revert to the statement of Vitruvius
in reference to the Temple of Mars, I think there
can be little doubt that it stood on this platform.
In the passage in Vitruvius already referred to,
ante, p. 266, he states that the ancient city rose
from the shore like a theatre, being shut in by hills
bending round in a semicircle from the north;
that in the centre of tbis curve, halfway up the
height, per mediam allitudinis curvaturam, stood
the Mausoleum, and that, higher up the hill, but
still in a central position relatively to the curved
form of the city, was the Temple of Mars.
The precise expression used by Vitruvius in
reference to this latter building is, that it stood
in summa arce media, a phrase which admits of
more than one mode of translation, and which,
I think, can hardly be understood without a visit
to the locality which the topographer describes.
In my Memoir already referred to I have trans-
lated these words, " in the centre of the fortified
heights above ; " an examination of the upper part
of the city enabled me to attach a still more precise
meaning to the words of Vitruvius.