device, worthily completing the essentially Roman Corinthian order. The +Composite+ was formed by combining into one capital portions of the Ionic and Corinthian, and giving to it a simplified form of the Corinthian cornice. The Corinthian order remained, however, the favorite order of Roman architecture. [Illustration: FIG. 43.--ROMAN IONIC ORDER.] +USE OF THE ORDERS.+ The Romans introduced many innovations in the general use and treatment of the orders. Monolithic shafts were preferred to those built up of superposed drums. The fluting was omitted on these, and when hard and semi-precious stone like porphyry or verd-antique was the material, it was highly polished to bring out its color. These polished monoliths were often of great size, and they were used in almost incredible numbers. [Illustration: FIG. 44.--CORINTHIAN ORDER (TEMPLE OF CASTOR AND POLLUX).] Another radical departure from Greek usage was the mounting of columns on pedestals to secure greater height without increasing the size of the column and its entablature. The Greek _anta_ was developed into the Roman pilaster or flattened wall-column, and every free column, or range of columns perpendicular to the façade, had its corresponding pilaster to support the wall-end of the architrave. But the most radical innovation was the general use of engaged columns as wall-decorations or buttresses. The engaged column projected from the wall by more than half its diameter, and was built up with the wall as a part of its substance (Fig. 45). The entablature was in many cases advanced only over the columns, between which it was set back almost to the plane of the wall. This practice is open to the obvious criticism that it makes the column appear superfluous by depriving it of its function of supporting the continuous entablature. The objection has less weight when the projecting entablature over the column serves as a pedestal for a statue or similar object, which restores to the column its function as a support (see the Arch of Constantine, Fig. 63). [Illustration: FIG. 45.--ROMAN ARCADE WITH ENGAGED COLUMNS (From the Colosseum.)]