PANTHEON, a beautiful edifice at Rome, anci-
ently a temple, dedicated to all the gods; but now Pantheon, converted into a church, and dedicated to the Virgin and all the martyrs.
This edifice is generally thought to have been built by Agrippa son-in-law to Augustus, because it has the following inscription on the frieze of the portico:
M. AGRIPPA L. F. COS. TERTIUM FECIT.
Several antiquarians and artists, however, have supposed that the pantheon existed in the times of the commonwealth; and that it was only embellished by Agrippa, who added the portico. Be this as it will, however, the pantheon when perfected by Agrippa was an exceedingly magnificent building; the form of whose body is round or cylindrical, and its roof or dome is spherical: it is 144 feet diameter within; and the height of it, from the pavement to the grand aperture on its top, through which it receives the light, is just as much. It is of the Corinthian order. The inner circumference is divided into seven grand niches, wrought in the thickness of the wall: six of which are flat at the top; but the seventh, opposite to the entrance, is arched. Before each niche are two columns of antique yellow marble fluted, and of one entire block, making in all 14, the finest in Rome. The whole wall of the temple, as high as the grand cornice inclusive, is cased with divers sorts of precious marble in compartments. The frieze is entirely of porphyry. Above the grand cornice arises an attic, in which were wrought, at equal distances, 14 oblong square niches: between each niche were four marble pilasters, and between the pilasters marble tables of various kinds. This attic had a complete entablature; but the cornice projected less than that of the grand order below. Immediately from the cornice springs the spherical roof, divided by bands, which cross each other like the meridians and parallels of an artificial terrestrial globe. The spaces between the bands decrease in size as they approach the top of the roof; to which, however, they do not reach, there being a considerable plain space between them and the great opening. That so bold a roof might be as light as possible, the architect formed the substance of the spaces between the bands, of nothing but lime and pumice stones. The walls below were decorated with lead and brass, and works of carved silver over them; and the roof was covered on the outside with plates of gilded bronze. There was an ascent from the springing of the roof to the very summit by a flight of seven stairs. And if certain authors may be credited, these stairs were ornamented with pedestrian statues, ranged as an amphitheatre. This notion was founded on a passage of Pliny, who says, "That Diogenes the sculptor decorated the pantheon of Agrippa with elegant statues; yet that it was difficult to judge of their merit, upon account of their elevated situation." The portico is composed of 16 columns of granite, four feet in diameter, eight of which stand in front, with an equal intercolumniation all along, contrary to the rule of Vitruvius, who is for having the space answering to the door of a temple, wider than the rest. On these columns is a pediment, whose tympanum, or flat, was ornamented with bas-reliefs in brass; the cross beams which formed the ceiling of the portico were covered with the same metal, and so were the doors. The ascent up to the portico was by eight or nine steps.
Such was the pantheon, the richness of which indu-
Pantheon. ced Pliny to rank it among the wonders of the world.
The eruption of Vesuvius, in the reign of Tiberius, damaged the pantheon very considerably; it was repaired by Domitian, which occasioned some writers to mention that prince as the founder of the building. The emperor Adrian also did something to it. But it appears, that the pantheon is more indebted to Septimius Severus, than to any one since its erection. The most, perhaps, that any of his predecessors had done, was the adding some ornament to it: Septimius bestowed essential reparations upon it. The following inscription appears upon the architrave: