HISTORICAL SKETCH OF VAULTS.

39

cupola within. In the Voyage Pittoresque de laGreece, Paris, 1782, and in the second volume of theIonian Antiquities there are very interesting sectionsof this temple.

M. L. Dutens, in his Recherches sur le terns leplus recule de l’usage des Voutes, cites, among others,the following authorities. Pausanias ’s Descriptionof King Minyas’s iErarium, built 1350 years beforeChrist ; the Labyrinth of Egypt; the Gardens ofSemiramis at Babylon , and her subterraneous passageunder the Euphrates . The words of Seneca, whichdeny to Democritus , who lived 450 years before Christ,the invention of vaults. The words of Plato , whichrecommend, as a monument to the first magistrate, avery long vault. Aristotle ’s simile of the works ofGod to the stones of a vault.* The arches men-tioned by Sir George Wheeler at the theatre ofBacchus, built 328 before Christ. The Cloaca Maximaof Rome, composed of three courses of stones, begunby Tarquin the Elder, and finished by Tarquin theProud, about 600 years before Christ. The Aque-duct of Ancus Marcius. Sallust ’s account of theprison of Tullius Hostilius. The Tomb of the Sci-pios (L. C. Scipio, great grandfather of Africanus,died 300 years before Christ), and the gate’at Pmstum.Mr. Wilkins conjectures that this gateway, as well asthe pseudodipteral and hexastyle temples of Passtum,were erected subsequent to the conquest of that cityby the Romans, about 27'0 years before Christ $ andhe agrees with Mr. King, in his Muni. Antiq. respect-ing the antiquity of the arch. These authoritiesdeclare, that vaults are very ancient $ but it is to be

* Aristot. wep; xoo-f* ov, c. 6. This work is said to be spurious.

See Wilk. Vitru. Intro. Page 75.

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