This spiral form, with its sheathing, is the basis of the Roman and Italian Renascence styles, and sharply differentiates them from the Gothic ornament, in which the construction line is continuous and unbroken. The rosette, a survival of the traditional Assyrian form was frequently used upon the architrave (fig. 6), and the funeral stele (fig. 5 plate 5) where its circular and radiating form contrasts so beautifully with the functional straight lines of architectural design. The extraordinary vitality and versatility of the Greek craftsmen may be traced through a magnificent series of coins dating from B.C. 700 to B.C. 280. The interest of subject, beauty of composition and largeness of style, combined with the utmost delicacy of technique, of these gold, silver and electrum coins are a reflex on the artistic feeling for beauty of the early Greeks. [Illustration] [Illustration: ROMAN ARCHITECTURE. Plate 7. ] ROMAN ARCHITECTURE. Roman Architecture is differentiated from that of Greece by the extensive use of the arch and of superposed orders. The many fine remains of Roman temples and public buildings show the extraordinary versatility and conception of the Roman architects, their constructive skill, and their remarkable power of assimilating the arts of other nations. The Roman temples were somewhat similar in plan to the Greek prototypes, but usually without the side colonnade, larger in scale, and with an ostentatious display of mouldings and ornament, less refined in contour and detail. [Illustration] A typical example is given here of a triumphal arch, namely, that of Septimus Severus, A.D. 211. Other examples are the Arch of Titus, A.D. 79, and the Arch of Constantine, A.D. 326. Trajan’s Arch, A.D. 114, was destroyed by Constantine, who used many of the reliefs for the building of his own arch. The superposition of columns and arches is shown in the annexed illustration from the Theatre of Marcellus, where the lower order is of the Doric and the upper of the Ionic. The Colosseum has a third story, having the Corinthian order, and an attic story, with Corinthian pilasters; the whole reaching to a height of 156 feet. [Illustration] One of the best preserved buildings of the Roman period is the Pantheon, with its fine domed ceiling of coffered panels, enriched with bronze ornaments. The portico, octastyle and di-prostyle, is of the Corinthian order, beautifully proportioned and enriched. The finest example of the Corinthian order was used in the temple of Castor and Pollux, frequently called Jupiter Stator; some 50 examples of this Corinthian order date from the Roman period. The _Tuscan_ and _Composite_ orders were added by the Romans to the Doric, Ionic and the Corinthian, forming the five orders of architecture. [Illustration] The following table gives the relative proportions of the typical Roman orders, the columns in modules, and the capital, entablature, &c., in parts:--