Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Araeostylos

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

ARAEOSTY'LOS (ἀραιοστύλος). Araeostyle; applied to a building or colonnade in which the columns are situated at wide intervals, of not less than 3¼ or 4 of their own diameters apart from each other; as in the lowest line of the annexed diagram (Araeostylos/1.1), which shows the relative width of the five different kinds of intercolumniations adopted by the ancients. The araeostyle construction was particularly employed in the Tuscan order, and for localities frequented by a large concourse of people, in order not to occupy too much room by a multitude of columns. It required an architrave of wood, as stone or marble could not support a superincumbent weight upon supports placed so far apart. The colonnade surrounding the Forum of Pompeii is of this construction, in which vestiges of the wooden architraves were found at the period when it was excavated. Vitruv. iii. 2.

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  Araeostylos/1.1