Furniture and Ornament about the Temple. 257 surface of the bronze to be seen. The base of our pillar resembles that of the Euphrates Valley, where it is always an important member of the column, having had as much thought bestowed upon it as the capital, of which it is sometimes the counterpart, differing in that from the Egyptian, which is often nothing more than a disc interposed between the ground and the shaft. 1 This applies to the bases found at Persepolis as well as those of Punic stelas ; the latter, though archaic in make, exhibit a profile analogous to that of our pillar (Fig. 171). With due regard to similar analogies, we have connected our base with the shaft by a tore moulding, over which falls a ring of conventional leaves, a design common to Assyria and Phoenicia, 2 followed by a reversed striated cavetto ; which, resting en a listel or flat band, invests the column with a restful appearance of solidity. The " striae " deserve particular attention, as having been seen on the pediment of a pier recovered at Samos, which has been classed among those monuments forming a link be- tween Oriental and Greek methods. 3 The striae of the Samian monument were doubtless suggested to the artist by similar lines formed in the clay, whilst still soft, with a sharp point, or even more likely by those made on bronze leaf. Their introduction, there- fore, in Hiram's pillars was both fitting and legitimate ; whilst the nature of the material admitted of the large pomegranates about the capital, being made to depend from tenuous chains. Albeit the whole scheme of the forms applied to the pillars might with equal propriety be associated with stone, they are more particularly suited to metal, and have been found, from the earliest age, among nationalities the most diverse and remote from each other, wherever the native ore supplied the material. [71.— Punic Stela. Bibliothèque Nationale. 1 Hist, of Art, torn. ii. Fig. 71. 2 Ibid., Figs. 129, 383, 386; torn. iii. Figs. 80, 81, 84, 630. 3 Ch. Chipiez, Hist. Critique de l'Origine it de la Formation des Ordres Grecs, pp. 266-268. VOL. 1. g
