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The Mausoleum*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

H. W. Law
Affiliation:
Showells, Chaucer Road, Cambridge

Extract

To attempt a new restoration of the Tomb of Mausolus may seem to some a hopeless, and to others an unnecessary, task. But I have never felt satisfied with any of those hitherto proposed; and only that of Cockerell (dating originally from before the excavation of the monument by Sir Charles Newton in 1857) and that of Mr. J. J. Stevenson appear to me to explain in any way its reputation in antiquity, especially for lightness and beauty, or its inclusion among the ‘Seven Wonders.’ The sources of evidence as to the construction of the building are the well-known description given by the elder Pliny and the facts disclosed by Newton's excavation; it will be best therefore to quote the passage and briefly to state the facts. Pliny's words are: Scopas habuit aemulos eadem aetate Bryaxim et Timotheum et Leocharem, de quibus simul dicendum est quoniam pariter caelavere Mausoleum. Sepulchrum hoc est ab uxore Artemisia factum Mausolo Cariae regulo, qui obiit Olympiadis CVII anno secundo. Opus id ut esset inter septem miracula hi maxime fecere artifices. Patet ab austro et septentrione sexagenos ternos pedes, brevius a frontibus, toto circumitu pedes CCCCXI, attollitur in altitudinem xxv cubitis, cingitur columnis XXXVI. Pteron vocavere circumitum. Ab oriente caelavit Scopas a septentrione Bryaxis a meridie Timotheus ab occasu Leochares, priusque quam peragerent regina obiit.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1939

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