INT,

367

sir CHRISTOPHER WREN,

Of the Sepulchre of Mausolus King of Caria,

T HE Sepulchre of Mausolus is so well described by Pliny, that I have at-tempted to design it accordingly, and also very open, cpnformable to theDescription in Martial.

Acre vacuo pendentia Mausolea.

And yet it wanted not the Solidity of the Dorick Order, which I rather call theTynan, as used in that Age.

The Skill of four famous Artists, Scopus, Briaxes , T imotheus, and Leccharcs,all of the School of Praxiteles , occasioned this Monument to be esteemed one ofthe seven Wonders of the World. These Architects living before the Time ofAlexander , and before the Beginning of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus , (forMausolus died, according to Pliny , in the second Year of the * hundredth Olym- * Aliter 106piad, which was before the Ionick Order was first in Use) 1 conclude this Workmust be the exactest Form of the Dorick. It appeared from the City Halicar-najsus to the Sea, that is, North and South, 64 Feet, and so much every way $for, each Artificer took his Side: and being hexastyle, contained in all 36 Pil-lars; that is to fay, 20 for the four Fronts, and 16 within, which supportedthe Pteron, (as Pliny calls it) in the Manner exprested in the Plan.

Pteron is an unusual Term, and not, I think, to be found in the Authorswe have. Harduin, in his Notes on Pliny, and others consider the Word, asin the plural Number, Ptera , (slTEPA') Alee, and think it imports the fameMeaning as Pteromata in Vitruvius ; Muri duo in altitudinem consurgentes alaruminjlar. But if we take it, as it is, in the singular Number, it cannot bear herethat Signification ; but may relate, ae I conclude, to what wp now call an AttickOrder, and what rose above the Cornice, to have been called by this Term, inGreek Authors of Architecture, now lost.

This Pteron was here raised as high again as the Order below, to bear thetriumphal Chariot of King Mausolus. The like the Romans did in their triumphalArches; but in this, it is raised so high, because it stands upon a second Rangeof Columns within, and that the Chariot might be seen at Sea; for such was theSituation of Caria, where all the Ships that doubled this South-west Cape ofAsa must keep the usual Tract to Rhodes.

Supposing then in the Order, which Vitruvius calls Sy/Iyle, (where the Inter-column is double to the Diameter of the Column) if the Column is 4 FeetDiameter, and the Inter-column 8 Feet, the whole Fapade will be 64 Feet.

The Heighth of the Columns of 7* Diameter will be 30 Feet, and with theDorick Entablature of a fourth Part of the Column, will make 374 Feet, whichis just 2 5 Cubits; as Pliny makes the Heighth of the first Story : above the Cymaof the Cornice must be a Zocle of 24 Feet, for fixing the Statues, which will makein all 40 Feet from the Floor. Upon the 16 inward Columns rose the Pteron, (theancient Greek Term, as I have noted, for whatever was erected above the Cornice,which we now call an Attick Story) the Pilasters whereof, that they might bevisible, were supported on a Substructure, or Pedestal, of 20 Feet, so elevatedto be seen above the Statues of 7 Feet, and being 14 Feet behind the Cyma ofthe outward Columns, could not well be lower. The Pilasters then of thePteron being 24 Feet, made with their Cornice 30 Feet more; and upon thisthe Stone Covering rising 24 Feet more, in metre cacumen, (as Pliny phrases it)made the whole Pteron 74 Feet. Now, if round about the lower Colonade isadded an Ascent in Steps of 10 Feet, (the third of the Pillar) there will be tothe Platform on the Top 124 Feet, upon which stood the triumphal Chariot4 . of