Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/80

70 thirty-five miles from Leghorn, which bore many evidences of having been worked in ancient times. It closely resembles the Parian in color and grain, works smoothly, and takes a high polish.

White marbles were also obtained by the ancients from Mount Phelleus, Rhamnus, and Snninm, in Attica; Demetrias, in Thessaly; on the river Sangarius, in Phrygia; from near Alexandria Troas; from Mount Prion, near Ephesus; from Cappadocia, and from Mount Libanus, the modern Lebanon.

The marbles of Phelleus, Rhamnus, and Suniuin, were of good color, but were coarse, and less homogeneous than the Pentelic. The Sangarian marble was sometimes called Coralitic. The Cappadocian was called Phengites (Φἑγγος), on account of its translucence. The temple of Fortuna Seia, built by Nero within the precincts of his Golden House, was built of this stone; and, although it had no windows, it is said to have been perfectly light when the door was closed. The marble of Mount Libanus, usually called Tyrian, was probably the material of Solomon's Temple and of Herod's palace. The Scala Santa in the Lateran Palace, Rome, said to have been brought from Pilate's house in Jerusalem, is of this marble, which is a clear blue-white.

The Proconnesian marble, a pure white with black veins, was quarried in the island of Proconnesus, in the Propontis. The celebrity of this stone has changed the name of the island to Marmora, and also given its modern name (Sea of Marmora) to the Propontis. This marble was also called Cyzican, because it was largely used in the city of Cyzicus, opposite the island in Mysia. The palace of Mausolus, at Halicarnassus, was built of it. It was also much used at Constantinople, under Honorius and the younger Theodosius. Several columns of it in the mosque of St. Sophia were spoils of the temple of Cybele at Cyzicus.

A white marble, with yellow spots, was brought from Cappadocia, and a similar marble from Rhodes, but the spots were of a brighter, more golden, yellow. White marble, with black spots, was quarried in the Troad.

But the most beautiful of the antique variegated marbles, with a white base, was the Synnadic, Docimæan, or Docimite, sometimes called marmor Phrygium. It was quarried at the village of Docimia, not far from Synnada, in Phrygía Major. The ancient authorities generally describe it as pure white, marked with red or purple veins, which the poets compared to the blood of Atys, slain at Synnada; but Hamilton, who visited the quarries about 1835, says that they yield several different kinds. He mentions white, bluish-white, white with yellow veins, white with blue veins, and white with blue spots, the latter having almost a brecciated appearance. He describes the principal quarry as worked horizontally into the hill, the sides of which are cut away perpendicularly to a great height to secure the splendid columns for which it was famous. Strabo says that pillars