Identifier: destructionofan00lanc (find matches)
Title: The destruction of ancient Rome : a sketch of the history of the monuments
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Lanciani, Rodolfo Amedeo, 1847-1929
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: PIMS - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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Fig, 9. — Part of the upper story of the Coliseum, repairedwith materials from earlier buildings. surface were built of statues and miscellaneous frag-ments of marble. There were life-size or semi-colossalfigures of Minerva, of the Indian Bacchus and ofAesculapius, besides several torsos and other fragments 30 DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT ROME of considerable value ; a column shaped like the lictorsfasces, Avith capital and base ; and the basin of a foun-tain in pure Greek style.^ A more familiar illustration is the triumphal arch ofConstantine, erected by the Meta Sudans in 315 a.d.This monument, so compact and perfect to the eye, is
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Fig. 10. — Another view of the upper story of the Coliseum, showing repairsmade with architectural fragments from various sources. really a striking example of the way in which oldstructures were pillaged to erect new ones. If weclimb to the chamber above the arcli ftliere is a nar- ^ Bull Com., 1875, p. 79, Tav. XI. Fi?. 1, 2; IIelbi<if, Gnidf^ to thePublic Cfjllections of Classical Antiquities in Bome^ Vol. I. p. 444,no. 601. USE OF EARLIER MATERIALS 31 row staircase in the side facing the Palatine), we shallsee why Milizia gave it the nickname of Cornacchia diEsopo, Aesops crow. We shall find that the bas-reliefs of the attic, the statues of the Dacian kings,the eight medallions above the side passages, the eightcolumns of giallo antico, and the greater part of theentablature were removed from a triumphal arch ofTrajan, probably the aj-cus divi Traiani which spannedthe Via Appia (or the Via Nova) near the PortaCapena. The inside of the structure also is built witha great varie

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