In looking a little carefully into the matter we can now guess how it was that Pliny came to state these dimensions in so enigmatical a manner; for we learn from Vitruvius[3] that Satyrus and Phytheus, two of the architects employed in the building, wrote a description of their work, which no doubt Pliny had access to; but as he was thinking more of the sculpture than of the architecture, he jotted down these dimensions without probably realising the form of the building himself, and left them as a bewildering enigma for posterity. Now that we have the means of verifying them, these figures are ten times more valuable than the most vivid description of the general appearance of the building would be to us; but it is only now that we feel this. The only other author who furnishes us with any dimensions is Hyginus, a grammarian in the time of Augustus. In enumerating the seven wonders of the world, he describes the “Monument of King Mausolus, built of shining (?) (_lychnicis_) stones, 80 feet in height, and 1340 feet in circumference.” Neither of these dimensions agrees with Pliny’s; but the latter evidently refers to the peribolus, the wall of which was found in the recent excavations.[4] The former, for reasons to be given hereafter, I fancy should be 80 _cubits_, meaning thereby Halicarnassian or Babylonian cubits of 21 inches each. If so, it is Pliny’s exact dimension; but the matter is not important, as the text of Hyginus is avowedly so corrupt, and he is of such low repute, that his assertion is of little importance in the controversy. Vitruvius unfortunately adds very little to our knowledge of the building. He describes its situation as in the centre of the curve formed by the town, encircling its bay like a theatre, and with a broad street, “_platea_,” leading from the _agora_ on the shore up to the Mausoleum.[5] He adds, “Mausoleum ita egregiis operibus est factum;” from which we may infer, as in fact we do from all other descriptions, that the building was more remarkable for its sculpture and its details than for its dimensions.