Full text: Vitruvius: The civil architecture of Vitruvius

259 
conical roof, with which the earliest buildings of a circular 
form, yet existing in Greece, are found to have been 
covered. The building in this state would resemble an 
umbrella; the column, which may be supposed to have 
passed through the roof', being represented by the handle 
or stick. It is a curious circumstance that the prytaneum 
at Athens was termed both «es and wa?; which latter word 
signifies an umbrella. If we can imagine a roof of this kind 
supported on the sides with props placed in the periphery of 
the area, the whole building will present us with the prototype 
of that kind of temple called by Vitruvius monopteral; the 
covering of which he terms tholus. The sepulchre of 
Porsenna mentioned by Pliny' was roofed in a similar 
manner: the account he gives of it is in the following 
words, * supra id quadratum pyramides stant quinque, 
quatuor in angulis, et in medio una, in imo latae pedum 
septuagenum, ita fastigiatae, ut in summo orbis aeneus et 
petasus* unus omnibus sit impositus. 
a....The gates of the wall. 
e.... Prothyrum. 
b....The aula or great court. f.... Doors of the coenaculum. 
c.c.. Portico called aithousa. 
g..... The wooden threshold. 
h. Coenaculum. 
d.d..Thalami under the 
i... The stone threshold. 
portico. 
1 This supposition will explain the manner in which the cable was made to 
surround the roof after it had been fastened to the great column. 
2 Talves d nal o à Ahaos  . Suidas in v. Zuias. 
3 XXXVI. 13. 
4 The petasus was either a bonnet or umbrella, and was sometimes termed 
tholia. Schol. in Theocr. Idyl. XV. 38.
	        
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