rst type--convex, and was probably
moulded in stucco: the second is represented by the richly carved
example of the columns (fig 5) flanking the tomb of Agamemnon in Mycenae
(c. 1100 B.C.), also convex, carved with the chevron device, and with an
apophyge on which the buds of some flowers are sculptured. The Doric
capital of the temple of Apollo at Syracuse (c. 700 B.C.) follows, in
which the echinus moulding has become a more definite form: this in the
Parthenon reaches its culmination, where the convexity is at the top and
bottom with a delicate uniting curve The sloping side of the echinus
becomes flatter in the later examples, and in the Colosseum at Rome
forms a quarter round.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Early Greek Capital from the Tomb of Agamemnon,
Mycenae.]

In the Ionic capital of the Archaic temple of Diana at Ephesus (560
B.C.) the width of the abacus is twice that of its depth, consequently
the earliest Ionic capital known was virtually a bracket capital. A
century later, in the temple on the Ilissus, published in Stuart and
Revett, the abacus has become square. One of the most beautiful
Corinthian capitals is that from the Tholos of Epidaurus (400 B.C.)
(fig. 6); it illustrates the transition between the earlier Greek
capital of Bassae and the Roman version of the temple of Mars Ultor
(fig. 7).

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Corinthian Capital from the Tholos of
Epidaurus.]

The foliage of the Greek Corinthian capital was based on the Acanthus
spinosus, that of the Roman on the Acanthus mollis; the capital of the
temple of Vesta and other examples at Pompeii are carved with foliage of
a different type.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Roman Capital from the Temple of Mars Ultor,
Rome.]

[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Byzantine Capitals from the central portal of St
Mark's, Venice.]

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Byzantine Capital from the Church of S. Vitale,
Ravenna.]

[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Byzantine Capital from the Church of S. Vitale,
Ravenna.]

[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Cushion Capital.]

[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Romanesque Capitals from the Cloister of
Monreale, near Palermo, Sicily.]

Byzantine capitals are of endless variety; the Roman composite capital
would seem to have been the favourite type they followed at first:
subsequently, the block of stone was left rough as it came from the
quarry, and the sculptor, set to carve it, evolved new types of design
to his own fancy, so that one rarely meets with many r