Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/219

 ROMAN ARCHITECTURE. l6l different angles of the buildings in relation to each other, a method frequently used by modern architects. The Palace of Diocletian, Spalato, in Dalmatia (No. 59) (a.d. 300), is another famous example, which formed the greater part of the mediaeval town of Spalato, and has thus been called a city in a house. It may be described as a royal country house, or better, perhaps, as a chateau by the sea. The original plan of the palace was approximately a rectangle, occupying an area of 9I acres, being thus almost equal in extent to the Escurial in Spain (page 537, No. 238). There was a square tower at each angle, and in the centre of each of the north, east and west sides was a gateway flanked by octagonal towers, between which and those at the angles were subsidiary towers. These gateways formed entrances to porticoed avenues 36 feet wide, which, meeting in the centre, gave the palace the character of a Roman camp. On each of the fa9ades, between the towers, were rich entrance gateways; the "golden" on the north, the " iron " on the west, and the " brazen " on the east, ending these main avenues, which divided the inclosed area into four parts, each assigned to a particular purpose. The two northern portions were probably for the guests and principal officers of the household ; while the whole of the southern portion was devoted to the palace, including two temples, that of Jupiter (see under circular temples, pp. 130, 136) and iEsculapius( page 125) and the baths. A circular vestibule, with a front portico in antis, formed an entrance to a suite of nine chambers overlooking the sea ; here were placed the private apartments and baths of the emperor, the finest being the portico, 524 feet by 24 feet, on the southern sea front. This served as a connecting gallery, and was probably filled with works of art {cf. Elizabethan gallery, page 555). The columns to the upper portion were detached and rested on carved corbels, a feature also seen in the golden gateway. Lining the inclosing walls of the whole area, on three sides, internally, were the cells that lodged the slaves and soldiers of the imperial retinue. The octagonal temple, and the more lofty halls of the palace proper, being visible above the inclosing walls in distant views by land and sea, were impressive features of the group. The architectural character is somewhat debased in style, broken and curved pediments with decadent detail being employed. The palace has a value, however, as a transitional example, for the entablature of the peristyle is formed as an arch, thus losing its constructive significance, and in the northern gateway arches rest directly on capitals without the intervention of an entablature, being an early example of a principle carried to its logical con- clusion in the Romanesque and Gothic styles. F.A. M