Panthēon
（
Πάνθειον, “all divine”) or
Panthēum. The Pantheon, the only ancient edifice at Rome whose
walls and vaulting have been perfectly preserved. The original statues that adorned it have
long ago been removed, but the mighty dome-like building with its vast colonnade attests
better than any existing work the massive strength and splendour of the architecture of
imperial Rome. The purpose for which the temple was first built is not known, but we learn
from an inscription on the porch that it was erected by M. Vipsanius Agrippa in B.C. 27. (M. Agrippa L. F. cos. tertivm fecit.) At a later time the name Pantheon
was thought to mean “the temple of all the gods,” a notion which led Pope
Boniface IV. to dedicate the building, in A.D. 609, as a Christian church to the memory of all
the martyrs, under the name of
S. Maria ad Martyres (now S. Maria Rotonda, or
simply La Rotonda). The building had been already repeatedly enlarged in ancient times by
Domitian, Hadrian, and last of all, in A.D. 202, by Septimius Severus and Caracalla. It
consists of a circular structure, 140 feet 6 inches in height and inner diameter, with a portico 103 feet long formed by sixteen Corinthian columns 39 feet high.
Eight of these in front supported a massive pediment, behind which rose another pediment of
still higher elevation, resting against the square projection which connects the portico with
the dome. The other columns divide the portico into three parallel portions, originally
vaulted over. In the interior of the portico on each side of the entrance are two niches,
which formerly contained colossal statues of Augustus and Agrippa. The massive walls of the
great rotunda, which is completely circular in form, are divided by ring-cornices into two
stories, an upper and a lower. Above these springs a cupola of concrete, of vaster dimensions
than any that had been attempted in previous times. The diameter of this lofty cupola
corresponds to that of the vast cylindrical building on which it rests. The walls of the
latter are 19 feet thick. The interior of the cupola is divided into five rows of deeply sunk
panels (
lacunaria), 28 in each row. At its vertex an opening about 30
feet in diameter lights the whole of the interior. The gilt-bronze tiles of the roof were
taken by the emperor Constans II. to Constantinople in A.D. 655. The remains of the costly
marble wall-linings of the interior, which dated from the last restoration, and consisted of
56 compartments, divided by 112 Corinthian columns, and covered with white marble, porphyry,
serpentine, and pavonazetto, were not carried off until 1747. In 1632 the great bronze tubes
which supported the roof of the portico were melted down by Pope Urban VIII. (Barberini) to be
cast into pillars for the
baldacchino in St. Peter's and into cannon
for the castle of S. Angelo—which led to Pasquin's famous epigram,
Quod non
fecerunt barbari fecerunt Barberini. The Pantheon now contains the tomb of King
Victor Emmanuel. See an article by Lanciani in the
Atlantic Monthly for June,
1893.
