"At Segeste, the ancient iEgesta, is a famous Grecian Doric temple, almost entire, standing in a splendid situation on the brow of a precipice. There are 6 columns in each front, and 14 at each side, making 36 in all ; these are about 30 feet high ; the length of' the building is 190 feet, its width 78 feet ; the stones composing the arehitrave are of great size, and one extends over two columns : the date of it erection, as well as the nature of its dedication, are unknown. The columns, which are fluted, are 6 feet 7 inches in diameter at the base, and 4 feet 11 inches below the capital.
"In a notice of Greeian-Doric architecture, we must not omit to speak of some ancient temples in Italy, namely, at Paestum, the ancient Posidonium, so denominated from its tutelary God, Neptune, who, by the Greeks, was called lIooei&wv. From its unhealthiness, the place had, in very early times, fallen into decay, and Augustus visited the temples as venerable antiquities in his day ; but they were completely forgotten, until in 1755 discovered by an artist of Naples. Among the ruins, which are very extensive. are three buildings of imposing character, two of them are tem ples. The temple of Neptune, raised on 3 steps, was 191 feet long, and 78 feet broad, having 6 fluted columns in each front, and 14 (including the angular ones) at each side. The entablature and capitals were equal to half the height of the columns, of which the shafts only were 27 feet, the lower diameters (1 feet 10 inches, the upper diameter 4 feet S inches, and with 24 flutings ; the intercolumns are 7 feet 7 inches wide. The cell is 90 feet by 43 feet, having 14 columns in 2 rows, with shafts 16 feet 11 inches high, 4 feet 9 inches in diameter, and with 20 flutings. These columns support a deep architrave, on which rises another set of columns. about 11 feet high. The largest stone in this building is 13 feet S inches by 4 feet S inches by 2 feet 3 inches. Professor Wilkins, in this temple, detects a close resemblance to the temple of Solomon, (Prolusiones). The temple of Ceres is in a lighter style than the former building. It is 108 feet long. and 48 feet with the same number of columns, as in the temple of Neptune ; the diameter of the columns is at bottom .1 fl'et :1 incites; at top, :1 feet :; inches ; and their shafts have :20 flutings. The third building is called a because there is no appearance of a eel], or altar. It is I 70 feet long, and SO broad ; and it is raised on three steps, having nine columns in each front (the only example of such arrangement), and eighteen on each side, with the lower diameter 4 feet 6 inches, and :20 flutings. Both fronts have a vestibule, and the interior was divided by columns. The date of these structures is unknown. One of the most ancient Doric temples in Greece is in the island of Egina ; this was a hexastyle temple, dedicated to Jupiter Panhelle nins. " It is said by Pansanias to have been built by Laces, considerably before the 'Fr( jan war, a story wholly incredi ble, but which serves to prove that it had outlived all tradi tion of its real Origin. It is still nearly entire." There were twelve columns on each flank, snaking thirty-six its all, of a porous stone, covered with a thin stucco, and the architrave and cornice were painted in colours. Fifteen statues, for
merly belonging to this temple, are now at Munich: they are supposed to represent the Greeks and Trojans contending for the body of Patroclus ; they have been restored by Tho••aldsen. Illustrations of the Temple of Jupiter have been published by Al r. C. It.. Cockerell, and have proved a valuable addition to our knowledge of Doric Modern examples of this order are to be seen in Covent Garden Theatre; the Corn Market, Alark Lane, where the details of the monument of Th•asyllus are copied ; in the new galleries mid entrance of the British Museum, where polychrome is introduced ; and at the entrance-gateway to the Terminus of the North Western ]railway.
The origin of the Doric order has ever been a disputed point amongst writers upon the subject, some fillowing one theory, and some another. Vitruvius, whose opinion is valua ble., as coining from the oldest writer upon architectural matters, will have it, that the earliest stone temples of Greece were but imitations (tithe wooden structures previously employed. and that the members of the Doric order, both structural and ornamental, owe their origin to similar parts in the less permanent building. This primitive mode of build big is supposed to have been similar, in some respects, to the loglionses erected by colonists of the present day, consist ing of trunks of trees fixed vertically in the ground, at short distances from. each other, and firming the support to the several members of the roof. From the various portions of this timber construction, are supposed to have been derived those of the later stone edifice. The fdlowing opinion as to some (tithe corresponding parts of the two kinds of structures, is given by Vitruvius : " In the upper part of all edifices, timbers, called by various names, are disposed, which, as in names so in uses, dillbr. The trabes are those laid over the columns, parastaue and ante, in the continuations and floors. If the span of the roof is great, under the eulmen, in the top of the fastigium, arc disposed (from whence columns derive their name), transtrre, and capreols; but if the span is small, columens and canthcrs, projecting to the extremities of the eaves. Above the canthers arc the templats, and over them, but under the tiles, are the assers, projecting so far as to shel ter the walls. Thus each, according to its use, has its proper place and order. This disposition of the work, the artificers, when they erected sacred edifices, imitated in sculptures of stone and marble ; and this invention the ancient workmen thought proper to pursue. Thus, whenever they constructed any building, they laid the joists from the interior walls to the extreme parts, then built up the interjoist, and, to give the work a pleasing appearance, adorned the top with a cornice and fast igiu ; then, as much of the joists as projected beyond the wall they sawed off, which, appearing unhandsome, they made tablets, like triglyphs 11011• in use, fixed them against the sawed ends of the joists, and painted them in wax, that the scctures of the joists might not offend the sight. Thus, the triglyphs, interjoists, and ore, in Doric work, had their origin from the disposition of the timbers of the roof.