The Ten Books on Architecture, 3.2

Vitruvius  translated by Joseph Gwilt

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2The principles of temples are distinguished by their different forms. First, that known by the appellation IN ANTIS, which the Greeks call ναὸς ἐν παραστάσι; then the PROSTYLOS,PERIPTEROS, PSEUDODIPTEROS, DIPTEROS, HYPÆTHROS. Their difference is as follows.

2A temple is called IN ANTIS, when it has antæ or pilasters in front of the walls which enclose the cell, with two columns between the antæ, and crowned with a pediment, proportioned as we shall hereafter direct. There is an example of this species of temple, in that of the three dedicated to Fortune, near the Porta Collina.

3The PROSTYLOS temple is similar, except that it has columns instead of antæ in front, which are placed opposite to antæ at the angles of the cell, and support the entablature, which returns on each side as in those in antis. An example of the prostylos exists in the temple of Jupiter and Faunus, in the island of the Tyber.

4The AMPHIPROSTYLOS is similar to the prostylos, but with this addition, that the columns and pediment in the front are repeated in the rear of the temple.

5The PERIPTEROS has six columns in the front and rear, and eleven on the flanks, counting in the two columns at the angles, and these eleven are so placed that their distance from the wall is equal to an intercolumniation, or space between the columns all round, and thus is formed a walk around the cell of the temple, such as may be seen in the portico of the theatre of Metellus, in that of Jupiter Stator, by Hermodus, and in the temple of Honour and Virtue without a POSTICUM designed by Mutius, near the trophy of Marius.

6The PSEUDODIPTEROS is constructed with eight columns in front and rear, and with fifteen on the sides, including those at the angles. The walls of the cell are opposite to the four middle columns of the front and of the rear. Hence from the walls to the front of the lower part of the columns, there will be an interval equal to two intercolumniations and the thickness of a column all round. No example of such a temple is to be found in Rome, but of this sort was the temple of Diana, in Magnesia, built by Hermogenes of Alabanda, and that of Apollo, by Menesthes.

7The DIPTEROS is octastylos like the former, and with a pronaos and posticum, but all round the cell are two ranks of columns. Such are the Doric temple of Quirinus, and the temple of Diana at Ephesus, built by Ctesiphon.

8The HYPÆTHROS is decastylos, in the pronaos and posticum. In other respects it is similar to the dipteros, except that in the inside it has two stories of columns all round, at some distance from the walls, after the manner of the peristylia of porticos. The middle of the interior part of the temple is open to the sky, and it is entered by two doors, one in front and the other in the rear. Of this sort there is no example at Rome, there is, however, an octastyle specimen of it at Athens, the temple of Jupiter Olympius.

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