46 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF VAULTS*

compared with either Roman or modem productions ;that they were grossly ignorant of construction ; andif their buildings were uncovered, it was becausethey knew not how to cover them,” * notwithstandingwhat has been said of the Opisthodomus of the Tem-ple of Minerva, which Mr. Reveley says was roofed 5how, Stuart has not informed us. Le Roi shows ushow the pronaos and posticum of Theseus wereroofed; and we cannot doubt as to the manner ofthat of the Opisthodomus of the Temple of Minerva.Stuart says there were six columns in this part of thebuilding, which Spon and Wheeler saw. Had theprinciple of construction been part of Stuart’s object,he might have found, perhaps, the marks of six more.The mode of roofing, which was stone, cannot atpresent be explained j for we cannot suppose theGreeks used stone beams 40 feet long. The wholeTemple was covered with a roof when Wheeler saw it,which must have been of modern construction, asthe middle of the cell was never covered in suchbuildings. He tells us, that it had been covered out-wardly with great planks of stone which lay in themosque.

A captain in the Venetian army (Lettere memo-rabile di Bulifone raccolta seconda) says of the Tem-ple of Minerva, “ Era detto Tempio - in forma diparallelogrammo: le mura tutte composte di famosis-simo marmo bianco, le colonne che l’accompanavanoerano al numero di 60, sopra le quaii posava un cielodi grandissima mole, in alcuni luoglii per ornainento,vi erano alcune cupole le di cui estremita si compone-

* This was probably the case with the Temple of Apollo Didy-mseus. Strabo says, that “ it continued without a roof on accountof its great size.”