[2426] Hence, too, the use of the word “Mausoleum,” as meaning a splendid tomb.
[2427] He means, probably, the extent of the colonnade or screen which surrounded it. The Mausoleum was erected at Halicarnassus.
[2428] Facing east and west.
[2429] Or “wing.” The “ptera,” or “pteromata,” properly speaking, were the two wings at the sides of a building. See Note [2431] below.
[2430] She only survived her husband two years.
[2431] Another reading, and perhaps a preferable one, is “one hundred” feet. The account given by Pliny is very confused, and Littré has taken some pains to explain the construction of this building. He is of opinion that in the first place, a quadrangular main building was erected, 63 feet in length on the north and south, the breadth of the east and west faces being shorter, some 42 feet perhaps. Secondly, that there was a screen of 36 columns surrounding the main building, and 411 feet in circumference. (He adopts this reading in preference to the 440 feet of the Bamberg MS.) That the longer sides of this screen were 113.25 feet in extent, and the shorter 92.125 feet. That between the main building and this screen, or colonnade, there was an interval of 25.125 feet. Thirdly, that the colonnade and the main buildings were united by a vaulted roof, and that this union formed the “Pteron.” Fourthly, that rising from this Pteron, there was a quadrangular truncated pyramid, formed of twenty-four steps, and surmounted with a chariot of marble. This would allow, speaking in round numbers, 37½ feet for the height of the main body of the building, 37½ feet for the pyramid, and twenty-five feet for the height of the chariot and the figure which it doubtless contained.
[2432] Supposed to be the person alluded to by Horace, 1 Sat. 3, 90.
[2433] He is mentioned also by Tatian, and is supposed to have lived about the time of Alexander the Great.
[2434] “Charites.”