The Doric order of the Greeks had degenerated sadly in style and design, before the Romans began to build; besides, it was utterly unsuited to their use, since they had neither sculpture nor painting with which it should be completed and adorned. But it was in keeping with their inartistic character to adopt what they could not comprehend, and yet further degrade its already attenuated columns into a closer resemblance to the wooden posts of their Etruscan teachers. No specimen of the Ionic order probably existed in Italy, anterior to the epoch of Roman superiority, and the imitation of it was, therefore, not attempted till a late period. In the times of imperial voluptuousness, however, they did use it to some extent, and succeeded in degrading that delicate type of art more grossly even than they did the sturdy Doric. Nothing could be more lean and ungraceful than the Ionic order became in the hands of Roman builders, who, having no skill of their own as architects, were successful only in defacing what departed genius had produced. One of the first things the Romans borrowed from Greece was their Corinthian order; but we neither know when it was introduced into Rome, nor can we trace its history from the time it was lost under Alexander the Great, during the three hundred years that transpired before its reappearance in the age of Augustus. To the purposes of a people who were as unable to appreciate as to execute the Doric, or even the lighter, but not less elegant, Ionic, the richness of the Corinthian was admirably adapted. The plan of a building, after that order, required little thought, and its execution necessitated still less. No delicate spirals, sculpture, or painting, was requisite, but every thing was purely mechanical, and such as any stone-mason could execute. The pillars could be lengthened, or shortened, at will, the intercolumniations made wide or narrow, and be placed at angles, or used in interiors with equal facility. No wonder, therefore, that this order became a favorite with the Romans; and though it was brought from Greece, and at first executed by imported Attic genius, they so modified its features as to give them a thoroughly Roman aspect, and in the temple of Jupiter Stator left the most perfect specimen of monumental art Rome ever produced. From bad to worse they proceeded, and blended their degraded Ionic, or Corinthian styles, into the hideousness of their Composite order. For them to make one harmonious whole out of two realms of artistic excellence, was not to be expected; they could only combine, without uniting, and join incongruous parts, while not one joint was concealed. To fit two into one, as the Greeks had elaborated one out of two, required invention and taste, of which the Romans had neither; therefore, in all their architecture, they have left some grand works of talent, but not one monument that attests the presence of creative and delicate genius.