PLINTH, ORLE, or ORLO, in architecture, a flat square member, in the form of a brick. It is used as the foundation of columns, being that flat square table under the moulding of the base and pedestal at the bottom of the whole order. It seems to have been originally intended to keep the bottom of the original wooden pillars from rotting. Vitruvius also calls the tuscan abacus plinth.
PLINTH of a Statue, &c. is a base, either flat, round, or square, that serves to support it.
PLINTH of a Wall, denotes two or three rows of bricks advancing out from a wall; or, in general, any flat high moulding, that serves in a front-wall to mark the floors, to sustain the eaves of a wall, or the larder of a chimney.
PLINY the ELDER, or Cæcilius Plinius Secundus, one of the most learned men of ancient Rome, was descended from an illustrious family, and born at Verona. He bore arms in a distinguished post; was one of the college of Augurs; became intendant of Spain; and was employed in several important affairs by Vespasian and Titus, who honoured him with their esteem. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which happened in the year 79, proved fatal to him. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, relates the circumstances of that dreadful eruption, and the death of his uncles, in a letter to Tacitus. Pliny the Elder wrote a Natural History in 37 books, which is still extant, and has had many editions; the most esteemed of which is that of Father Hardouin, printed at Paris in 1723, in two volumes folio.