OF

THE TEMPLE OF ANTONINUS AND FAUSTINA ,

IN ITS PRESENT STATE.

PLATE LVII.

On the Sacred Way, in or near to the Forum Romanum , is the Temple raised by theSenate to Antoninus, and Faustina his wife, as the inscription on the architrave imports.

The portico consists of ten columns, six of which form the front of the Temple. Theshafts of these columns are of cippolino marble, each in one piece, four feet ten inchesthree tenths in diameter, and thirty-eight feet three inches one tenth in height. Thismarble is supposed* to have been brought from Carysta, one of the Cyclades Islands ,in the iEgean Sea; and alluded to by Statius‘f *, “ Non te, saxosa Carysteand also byLucan “ Qua maris angustat fauces saxosa Carystos.” The green veins, or layers, ofwhich it is composed, are justly compared, by the former poet, to the waves of the sea,“ Ft Chios , et gaudens fluctus aequare Carystos JJ.”.

The present name of “ cippolino” appears to be given to it from the resemblanceof its layers to the green and white shades of the leek. The peculiar decay of thesecolumns, which separate in large flakes, is attributable to their being placed in the buildingdifferently from their natural bed in the quarry. Although their effect, as here used,is evidently preferable to that which would arise from a repetition of horizontal layers orrings, that would appear on the surface, had they been set in the same position as theywere found, it does not rank among the fine sorts of marble used by the ancients intheir buildings.

The bases and capitals are of white marble; the foliage of the latter is finely executed,but much dilapidated. The entablature is also of white marble, slightly veined. Onthe front architrave and frieze is the inscription,

DIVO ANTONINO, ET

DIVAE FAVSTINAE. EX. S. C.

* Visconti Museo Pio Clem. tom. vii. pag. 13.J De Bel. Civ. lib. v. v. 232.

| Stat. Theb. vii. v. 370.|| Stat. Syl. lib. ii.