Chapter VI. Of the designs of some ancient Temples that are at Rome; and, first, of that of Peace

WE shall, for the sake of good omen, begin with the designs of the temple formerly dedicated to Peace, of which the vestigia are to be seen near the church of Santa Maria Nuova, in the Via Sacra: and writers say, that it is in the same place where the Curia of Romulus, and Hojlilia was first; then the house of Me, the Basilica Portia, and the house of Caesar, and the portico that Augustus (after pulling down the said house of Caesar, which he thought too large and sumptuous an edifice) built, calling it after the name of Livia Drusilla his wife,

This temple was begun by the emperor Claudius, and finished by Vespasian after he returned victorious from Judea, in which he preserved all the vessels, and ornaments (which he carried in his triumph) of the temple of Ferufalm. One reads, that this temple was the greatest, the most magnificent, and the richest of the (city; and certainly its vefligia, ruinous as they are, represent so much grandeur, that one may very well judge what it was when whole.

Before the entrance there was a loggia of three spaces, made of brick; and the remainder was a continued wall equal to the breadth of the front. In the pilasters of the arches of the loggia in the part without, there were columns placed for ornament, the order of which followed also in the wall continued. Over this first loggia there was another uncovered, with its poggio; and directly over each column there must have been a statue. In the part within the temple there were eight marble columns of the Corinthian order, five foot four inches thick, and fifty three foot Jong, with the base and capital. The architrave, the frize, and the cornice were ten foot and an half, and supported the vault of the middle nave. The base of these columns was higher than half the diameter of the column, and had the orlo thicker than the third part of its height; which they perhaps thus made, supposing that it thus would support the weight that was put upon them the better. Its projection was the sixth part diameter of the column. The architrave, the frize, and the cornice, were carved with very beautiful inventions. The cimacium of the architrave is worthy of attention, being different from the others, and very gracefully made. The cornice has mogdilions instead of a goccielatio. The cases of the roses that are between the mogdilions are square; and they ought so to be made, as I have observed they are in all the ancient edifices.

Writers say that this temple was burnt in the time of the emperor Common; but I can’t see how that can be so, there not being the least in it wood. But it might easily happen that has been ruined by earthquakes, or some other such accident, and afterwards restored at some other time, when what related to architecture was not so well understood as it was in the time of Vespasian., What makes me believe this, is because the sculptures are not so well made, or worked with that diligence that one observes in those which are in the arch of Titus, and of other edifices that were made in good times. The walls of this tem-le were adorned with statues, and with pictures, and all the vaults were made with a compartment of stucco, neither was there any part but what was highly adorned. Of this temple I have made three draughts.

In the first the plan is designed. Plate In the second the upright of the outward part, of the part within, of the front, and of the inward part of the flank. In the third are the particular members. «Plate