Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Columna

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

COLUM'NA (κίων, στῦλος). A column, employed in architecture to support the entablature and roof of an edifice. It is composed of three principal parts: the capital (capitulum); the shaft (scapus); and the base (spira). The column was, moreover, constructed in three principal styles or orders, each possessing characteristic forms and proportions of its own, distinctive of the order, but by unprofessional persons most readily distinguished by the difference in the capitals. 1. Dorica, the Doric, shown by the engraving (Columna/1.1), representing a view of the Parthenon, from Gwilt's "Encyclopaedia of Architecture," the oldest, most substantial, and heaviest of all, which has no base, and a very simple capital (see CAPITULUM, 1. and 2.). 2. Ionica, the Ionic; the next in lightness, which is furnished with a base, and has its capital decorated with volutes (see CAPITULUM, 3. and 4.). 3. Corinthia, the Corinthian, the lightest of all, which has a base and plinth below it, and a deep capital ornamented with foliage (see CAPITULUM, 5.). To these are sometimes added: — 4. Tuscanica, the Tuscan, only known from the account of Vitruvius, and which nearly resembles the Roman Doric; and 5. Composita, the Composite, a mixed order, formed by combining the volutes of the Ionic with the foliage of the Corinthian.

This most perfect and most beautiful of all architectural supports originated, as is generally the case, from the simplest beginnings. A few strong poles, or the straight trunks of trees, stuck into the ground, in order to support a cross-piece for a thatch of boughs or straw to rest upon, formed the first shaft (scapus) of a column. When a tile or slab of wood was placed under the bottom of the trunk to form a foundation, and prevent the shaft from sinking too deeply into the ground, the first notion of a base (spira) was attained; and a similar one, placed on its top to afford a broader surface for the cross-beam or architrave to rest upon, furnished the first capital. Thus these simple elements, elaborated by the genius and industry of succeeding ages, produced the several distinctive properties of the architectural orders. To explain the peculiar properties belonging to each order of columns is rather the province of the architect, than of a work of this nature; for it would require large drawings and minute details, scarcely requisite for the classical student or general reader. One point, however, is to be constantly borne in mind, — that the columna of ancient architecture always implied a real, and not a fictitious, support; for neither the Greeks nor the Romans, until the arts had declined, ever made use of columns, as the moderns do, in their buildings, as a superfluous ornament, or mere accessory to the edifice, but as a main and essentially constituent portion of the fabric, which would immediately fall to pieces if they were removed; and that the abusive application of coupled, clustered, incastrated, imbedded columns, &c., was never admitted in Greek architecture; for the chief beauty of the column consists in its isolation, by means of which it presents an endless variety of views and changes of scene, with every movement of the spectator, whether seen in rank or in file.

2. Columna cochlis. A column with a cockle or spiral staircase in the centre, for the purpose of ascending to the top. (P. Victor. de Reg. Urb. Rom. c. 8. and 9.) These were employed for various purposes; and more especially for honorary columns, to support on their tops the statue of the person whose achievements or memory they were erected to commemorate. Two of the kind still remain at Rome, one constructed in honour of the Emperor Trajan, which is represented in the engraving (Columna/2.1), with a section by its side of part of the interior, to show the spiral staircase, and which, with the statue on the top, now supplanted by Pope Sixtus V., was 130 feet in height; the other, of a similar character, in honour of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus. Both are covered externally by spiral bas-reliefs, representing the various wars carried on by these emperors, from which many figures have been selected to illustrate these pages.

3. Columna rostrata. A column ornamented with images, representing the prows (rostra) of ships all down the shaft. (Virg. Georg. ii. 29. Servius, ad l.) These were erected in commemoration of persons who had obtained a great naval victory; and the example (Columna/3.1) represents the one set up in honour of C. Duilius (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 11.) after his action with the Carthaginian fleet, B. C. 261, now preserved, together with part of the original inscription underneath, detailing the number of vessels and booty taken, in the Capitol at Rome.

4. Columna Bellica. A short column erected before the temple of Bellona, situated near the porta Carmentalis and Circus Maximus, against which the Romans in early times used to hurl a spear when about to declare war. Festus, s. v. Bellona. Ovid. Fast. vi. 206.

5. Columna Maenia. A column erected in the Roman forum, to which slaves, thieves, and other offenders were bound, and publicly punished. Cic. Sext. 58. Id. Div. Verr. 16. Ascon. ib.

6. Columnae Herculis. The columns of Hercules; originally and properly, two large pyramidal columns, which the Phoenicians were accustomed to set up in the course of their extensive voyages, as light-houses and landmarks, whereby to recognise particular coasts upon any future visit, being respectively dedicated to Hercules and Astarte, their sun and moon. They are plainly shown by the annexed wood-cut (Columna/6.1), from the device on a Tyrian coin, where the two columns, with the light-house in front, the conch underneath, which the master of the vessel sounded to announce his arrival in port (see BUCINATOR), and the tree representing the land, evidently explain the objects intended. Remains of such works, or others resembling them, are found in the West of England, in China, and in Africa, and are mentioned by Tacitus (Germ. 34.), as existing in his day on the eastern bank of the Rhine, in the country of the Frisii (Frisons). By the Greeks and Romans, however, the two pyramidal mountains at the Straits of Gibraltar, Calpe and Abyla (Gibraltar in Europe, and Ceuta in Africa) were termed the Columns of Hercules, in consequence of the resemblance which they bear at a distance to the Phoenician columns described above, and a corresponding fable, to account for the name, was invented in favour of their own hero. Mela, i. 5. Plin. H. N., iii. Proem.

7. The king-post, or crown-post in a timber roof, which supports the tie-beams (capreoli) and rafters (cantherii), marked D in the illustration (Columna/7.1). Vitruv. iv. 2. 1.

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  Columna/1.1
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  Columna/2.1
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  Columna/3.1
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  Columna/6.1
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  Columna/7.1