To this brief description John of Antioch, the author of a book of
antiquities in the eighth century, adds the fact that the mausoleum was
surmounted by a statue of Hadrian in a car drawn by four horses and so
large that a full grown man might pass through one of the horses’ eyes.
And yet he says, that in consequence of the great height of the
mausoleum, the horses as well as the statue of Hadrian, seen from below,
have the effect of being quite small. This would seem to indicate that
the horses were hollow, and if so, they must have been cast in bronze
and not made of marble as stated by Procopius, and as were those on the
tomb of Mausolus.
Hadrian’s mausoleum was constructed of brickwork and square blocks of
peperino-stone laid with such care and exactness that lightning, battles
and earthquakes have failed to shake it from its perfect solidity.
Inside and outside it was faced with courses of Parian marble. The
basement was a square of about 340 feet each way and about 75 feet
high. Above this rose a circular tower of some 235 feet in diameter and
140 in height, divided into two or three stories and ornamented with
columns. Between these columns were statues executed by the ablest
artists of the period; and as Hadrian was devoted to the fine arts and
especially to that of sculpture, there can be little doubt that the
statues and bas-reliefs which adorned this splendid structure were among
the noblest works in Rome. Above the circular tower was a dome or a
curvilinear roof which must have risen to the height of some 300 feet.
This was probably crowned by the colossal group, above mentioned,
representing Hadrian in a chariot drawn by four horses, after the plan
of the tomb of Mausolus, its Grecian prototype. Rich friezes girdled it
around, some storied with figures, some architectural with heads of oxen
and festoons of flowers. On each of the four sides of the square
basement was a massive door of gilt bronze and at each of these doors
were four horses also of gilt bronze. Between the doors on the basement
were large tablets, on which were inscribed the names and titles of the
emperors who were buried within it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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