The materials which now exist for restoring the Mausoleum are of four different kinds. These are:—
First.—The passages in various ancient authors which either describe the appearance of the building or give its dimensions.
Secondly.—The actual remains of the building discovered in the recent explorations, and the measurements of the ground then obtained.
Thirdly.—The several tombs existing in Asia and Africa, evidently of the same type, and which afford valuable hints for the restoration.
Lastly.—The system of definite proportions in Greek architecture, which is not only most useful in suggesting forms, but also most valuable in rectifying deductions arrived at from other sources.
1. Scripta.
Among the things written with regard to the Mausoleum, by far the most important is the celebrated passage in Pliny’s Natural History.[2] It is to the following effect: “Scopas had, as rivals in the same age, Bryaxis, and Timotheus, and Leochares, who should be mentioned together, as they were equally employed in the sculptures of the Mausoleum, a sepulchre erected by his wife Artemisia to Mausolus, King of Caria, who died in the second year of the hundred and seventh Olympiad. It was mainly owing to the work of the above-named artists that this building was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. It extends on the north and south 63 feet, but is shorter on the other fronts. The whole circumference is 411 feet. It is raised in height 25 cubits, and is surrounded by 36 columns. This part was called the pteron. The sculptures on the east side were by Scopas, on the north by Bryaxis, on the south by Timotheus, and on the west by Leochares. Before they had finished their work, the Queen Artemisia, who had ordered this building to be constructed in honour of her husband’s memory, died; but they did not on that account cease from their labours till it was entirely finished, regarding it as a monument of their own fame and of art; and to this day the work testifies to their rivalry in merit. A fifth artist was joined to them; for above the pteron there was a pyramid equal in height to the lower part, with 24 steps, contracting into a summit, like that of a meta. On the top of all this was a quadriga in marble, made by Pythis. These being added, the height of the whole work was equal to 140 feet.”
It is easy to see what difficulties were involved in this description. How, in the first instance, was it possible that a building which was only 63 feet in length in plan, and shorter on the other sides, could be 411 feet in circumference? and, in regard to height, what substantive was to be supplied after “inferiorem”? If “partem,” it might apply to the pteron, which is the only part mentioned in the previous description; but the logic seemed to require “pyramidem,” and if so, what was it? If either, how was the whole height of 140 feet to be made up?
In looking a little carefully into the matter we can now guess how it was that Pliny came to state these dimensions in so enigmatical a manner; for we learn from Vitruvius[3] that Satyrus and Phytheus, two of the architects employed in the building, wrote a description of their work, which no doubt Pliny had access to; but as he was thinking more of the sculpture than of the architecture, he jotted down these dimensions without probably realising the form of the building himself, and left them as a bewildering enigma for posterity. Now that we have the means of verifying them, these figures are ten times more valuable than the most vivid description of the general appearance of the building would be to us; but it is only now that we feel this.
The only other author who furnishes us with any dimensions is Hyginus, a grammarian in the time of Augustus. In enumerating the seven wonders of the world, he describes the “Monument of King Mausolus, built of shining (?) (lychnicis) stones, 80 feet in height, and 1340 feet in circumference.” Neither of these dimensions agrees with Pliny’s; but the latter evidently refers to the peribolus, the wall of which was found in the recent excavations.[4] The former, for reasons to be given hereafter, I fancy should be 80 cubits, meaning thereby Halicarnassian or Babylonian cubits of 21 inches each. If so, it is Pliny’s exact dimension; but the matter is not important, as the text of Hyginus is avowedly so corrupt, and he is of such low repute, that his assertion is of little importance in the controversy.