The Rhombus or Lozenge figure so visible in this order, was also a remarkable form of battle in the Grecian Cavalry,[141] observed by the Thessalians, and Philip King of Macedon, and frequently by the Parthians, As being most ready to turn every way, and best to be commanded, as having its ductors, or Commanders at each Angle.
The Macedonian Phalanx (a long time thought invincible) consisted of a long square. For though they might be sixteen in Rank and file, yet when they shut close, so that the sixt pike advanced before the first, though the number might be square, the figure was oblong, answerable unto the Quincuncial quadrate of Curtius. According to this square Thucydides delivers, the Athenians disposed their battle against the Lacedemonians brickwise,[142] and by the same word the Learned Guellius expoundeth the quadrat of Virgil[143] after the form of a brick or tile.
And as the first station and position of trees, so was the first habitation of men, not in round Cities, as of later foundation; For the form of Babylon the first City was square, and so shall also be the last, according to the description of the holy City in the Apocalyps. The famous pillars of Seth before the floud had also the like foundation, if they were but antidiluvian Obelisks, and such as Cham and his Ægyptian race, imitated after the Floud.
But Nineveh which Authours acknowledge to have exceeded Babylon, was of a longilaterall[144] figure, ninety five Furlongs broad, and an hundred and fifty long, and so making about sixty miles in circuit, which is the measure of three dayes journey, according unto military marches, or castrensiall mansions. So that if Jonas entred at the narrower side, he found enough for one dayes walk to attain the heart of the City, to make his Proclamation, And if we imagine a City extending from Ware to London, the expression will be moderate of six score thousand Infants, although we allow vacuities, fields, and intervals of habitation, as there needs must be when the monument of Ninus took up no lesse then ten furlongs.
And, though none of the seven wonders, yet a noble peece of Antiquity, and made by a Copy exceeding all the rest, had its principal parts disposed after this manner, that is, the Labyrinth of Crete, built upon a long quadrate, containing five large squares, communicating by right inflections, terminating in the centre of the middle square, and lodging of the Minotaur, if we conform unto the description of the elegant medal thereof in Agostino.[145] And though in many accounts we reckon grosly by the square, yet is that very often to be accepted as a long-sided quadrate which was the figure of the Ark of the Covenant, the table of the Shew-bread, and the stone wherein the names of the twelve Tribes were engraved, that is, three in a row, naturally making a longilateral Figure, the perfect quadrate being made by nine.
What figure the stones themselves maintained, tradition and Scripture are silent, yet Lapidaries in precious stones affect a Table or long square, and in such proportion, that the two laterall, and also the three inferiour Tables are equall unto the superiour, and the angles of the laterall Tables, contain and constitute the hypothenusæ, or broder sides subtending.
That the Tables of the Law were of this figure, general imitation and tradition hath confirmed; yet are we unwilling to load the shoulders of Moses with such massie stones, as some pictures lay upon them, since ’tis plainly delivered that he came down with them in his hand; since the word strictly taken implies no such massie hewing, but cutting, and fashioning of them into shape and surface; since some will have them Emeralds, and if they were made of the materials of Mount Sina, not improbable that they were marble: since the words were not many, the letters short of seven hundred, and the Tables written on both sides required no such capacity.
The beds of the Ancients were different from ours at present, which are almost square, being framed oblong, and about a double unto their breadth; not much unlike the area, or bed of this Quincuncial quadrate. The single beds of Greece were six foot,[146] and a little more in length, three in breadth; the Giant-like bed of Og, which had four cubits of bredth, nine and a half in length, varied not much from this proportion. The Funeral bed of King Cheops, in the greater Pyramid, which holds seven in length, and four foot in bredth, had no great deformity from this measure; And whatsoever were the bredth, the length could hardly be lesse, of the tyrannical bed of Procrustes, since in a shorter measure he had not been fitted with persons for his cruelty of extension. But the old sepulchral bed, or Amazonian Tomb[147] in the market-place of Megara, was in the form of a Lozenge; readily made out by the composure of the body. For the armes not lying fasciated or wrapt up after the Grecian manner but in a middle distention, the including lines will strictly make out that figure.
Footnotes
[127] Of a structure five parts, Fundamentum, parietes, Aperturæ, Compartitio tectum, Leo. Alberti. Five Columes, Tuscan, Dorick, Ionick, Corinthian, Compound. Five different intercolumniations, Pycnostylos, dystylos, Systylos, Areostylos, Eustylos. Vitru.