ARCHITRAVE, (from aproc, chief, and Crabs, a bean,) that division of the entablature which rests upon the columns, and which may perhaps represent the linteling beam placed over the columns, and over the intercolumns, for supporting the cross beams, in the roof of the primitive wooden structure.
In the remains of ancient Grecian structures, the archi trave is of very great height, being nearly equal to the superior diameter of the column, and in some instances even more, as in the Doric temples of Theseus at Athens, Corinth, near the ancient city of that name, Paestum in Italy, and in the Ionic temple on the river Ilissus at Athens ; but there are few or no instances where it is so high as to be equal to the inferior diameter. Examples in which the low est architraves are to be found are the portico of Philip, king of Macedon, and the Doric portico at Athens ; the altitude of the former being only thirty-eight minutes, and that of the latter forty-five minutes, or two-thirds of the bottom dia meter. in the remains of Roman buildings, the architraves are low, being in most cases between two-thirds and three.
fourths of a diameter. The lowest architrave in these remains is that of the theatre of Marceflus at Rome, which is only half' a diameter. This proportion has been generally followed in the Doric order by the modern restorers of an cient architecture. What relates particularly to the forms and parts of the architrave of each particular order will he seen under the heads of DORIC, IONIC, CORINTHIAN, and RoIAN ORDERS.
The soffits of the architraves of Grecian buildings are always found to exceed the upper diameter of the columns ; but in the Roman they are equal.
In the Saxon and early Norman styles of architecture, arches rise from the capitals of the pillars, instead of being linteled by the architrave as in the Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman buildings : this is one of the most striking differences between ancient architecture and the styles afterwards prac tised in the middle ages.