Parker, John Henry: The archaeology of Rome (1,text): I. The primitive fortifications (Oxford [u.a.], 1874)

72

Historical Construction of Walls.

[chap.

one-fourth the height of the column, in Corinthian and Composite
one-fifth. The upper member of the cornice is the cymatium, a
moulded stone generally of two curved faces, the lower convex and
the upper concave, with a fillet above and another below. At the
back of this stone is the gutter from which the water issues through
lions’ heads, placed at regular intervals—the antefixa. The cymatium
in both Greek and Roman edifices is ornamented with honeysuckle
and other ornaments. It is sometimes called the cyma recta.
Below the fillet, in the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, is
a small moulding of similar curves, but reversed, called the cyma
reversa.
A square member follows—the corona; this projects considerably
beyond the face of the frieze. In late Roman buildings, the outer
face is ornamented with perpendicular flutes. On the under side of
it, in the Doric order, are ornaments consisting of eighteen small
projections, guttce, supposed to represent rain-drops under the
eaves.
In the Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite, the corona is supported
by brackets, called modillions, which in the two latter orders are richly
ornamented. Between the modillions are sunk panels, soffits, adorned
with large roses and other sculptured foliage. Below the modillions
is generally an echinus or ovolo—egg and tongue moulding. Beneath
the ovolo are dentels (teeth), oblong projections with indentations at
regular intervals. The cornice is terminated by an ovolo or other
moulding, plain or enriched.
The frieze, the middle member of the entablature, is occasionally
adorned with sculpture, figures, or foliage. In the Doric order it
has triglyphs, flat projections channelled one over each column, and
the intermediate ones, at regular intervals, leaving square spaces
(metopes) for sculpture.
The architrave, or lowest member, has two or sometimes three
fascice (faces or bands), one projecting above the other, and a
cyma, — cavetto (hollow), or other moulding, to separate it from
the frieze.
To the original three Greek orders the Roman added two others,
the Tuscan and the Composite.
The Tuscan, the simplest of all, is a modification of the Doric s. It
was seldom used except where a wide intercolumniation was required,
as in the lowest story of an amphitheatre, such as those at Verona
and Pola. Its base consists of a plain torus (half-round) moulding
placed on a square plinth; its capital of a square abacus, an ovolo
s See Note A, at the end of this Section.