Personally I feel inclined to believe that the architects were content to use the figures of their plan in determining their heights, and made them 8, 9, 21, 63, 72, 80 cubits, &c., and to obtain this were content with the imperfect ratio of 17 to 21. By this process it will be observed that they obtained the ratio that the first figure should be 1/8 and 1/10 of the two last respectively, and the second figure 1/7 and 1/8 of 63 and 72 respectively; and there may be other ratios which I have failed to detect. The real difficulty is, that this involves abandoning to a certain extent Pliny’s figures, which at present I do not feel inclined to agree to. All this, however, is mere idle speculation, in no way affecting the scheme of restoration, though amusing as a problem in Greek art.
Architectural Ordinance.
Having now obtained all the dimensions of the building, except the 411 feet as the “totus circuitus” mentioned by Pliny, to which we shall come presently, the next point is to explain the architectural peculiarities of the structure.
Unfortunately neither Pliny nor any other ancient author gives us the smallest hint as to how the interior of the building was arranged, and were it not for Guichard’s narrative we should have nothing but the analogy of other buildings to guide us. His account of the remains, and of the discovery of the chamber in the basement, is so clear, so circumstantial, and in every respect so probable, that there does not seem any reason to doubt that it was substantially correct, and no restoration can be accepted which does not admit of and explain its details.
Although it is true no such catastrophe is expressly mentioned by any author, the position in which the horses of the quadriga were found renders it almost certain that the upper part of the building had been shaken down by an earthquake prior to the year 1402.
Had the building been perfect, it is hardly probable that even such barbarians as the Knights of St. John would have knocked it down; but, be this as it may, in 1522 it seems that the basement was covered up by the débris of the upper part and other rubbish, probably also by the sand and dust entangled in the heap. In consequence of this it was not till after a considerable quantity of the ruins had been removed that the Knights “saw an opening such as would lead into a cellar, and, taking a candle, let themselves down into the interior, where they found a beautiful large square hall, ornamented all round with columns of marble, with their bases, capitals, friezes, cornices, engraved and sculptured in half-relief. The space between the columns was lined with slabs and bands or fillets of marble of different colours, ornamented with mouldings and sculptures in harmony with the rest of the work, and inserted in the white ground of the wall, where battle-scenes were represented sculptured in half-relief.”[18]
It is not quite clear whether the hole the Knights found was in the roof of the apartment or in its side, at some height above the floor. I strongly suspect the latter, but of this more hereafter. From the description it is quite clear that this hall was not the cella surrounded by the pteron as described by Pliny; for on any theory of restoration the floor of that must have been 50 feet from the ground, and it could consequently neither have been buried nor could the Knights have descended into it. It must have been in the basement, and if so must have been lighted. For it need hardly be stated that the Greeks would never have applied such an amount of ornamentation to a hall where it could not have been perfectly seen.[19] It could not have been lighted by windows in the ordinary sense of the term, as its walls could not be less than 21 feet thick, but there seems no difficulty in introducing any amount of light required by the mode suggested in the accompanying plan and sections.[20] As shown there, there are four openings on each side, 17 feet high by about 6-1/2 wide, opening into a corridor 8 ft. 6 in. in width, which was separated from the outer air by piers 4 feet in width. It was, in fact, a peristele under a peristyle. As these words exactly express the difference between the two corridors, they will be so used in future—peristele (from περι and στήλη, a stele) being used for the lower, and peristyle (from στυλος, a column) for the colonnade which it supported. If more light was wanted, it could be introduced to any desired extent at the end opposite the door, but the eight openings shown in the plan are, it is conceived, more than sufficient. By this arrangement, too, the light is introduced in the most pleasing manner. The direct rays of the sun could never penetrate the sepulchral chamber, but a diffused high light was introduced sufficient to show all its beauties without disturbing its repose.
The existence of some such arrangement as this appears indispensable in order to understand the passage in Martial:—
“Aere nec vacuo pendentia Mausolea