PEOPLE get tired of seeing the same styles in dresses and hats and try to start something new.Ladies nowadays go to Paris for their styles.In the same way，architects used to go to Greece for their styles in buildings.Somearchitects have tried to start new styles in columns just to have something new and different，but the columns they have invented have all been less beautiful than the two Greek columns I have described.
The Greeks started a new style of column called the Corinthian，but they didn’t like it very much themselves and hardly used it at all.The old architect Vitruvius，who told us the story of the Ionic column，tells us another fairy-tale to explain the Corinthian capital.
Vitruvius said that a basket of toys with a tile over the top was placed on the grave of a little girl in Corinth，as was the custom in those days.By chance，the basket had been placed directly over a thistle plant and the leaves of the thistle grew up around the basket.An architect，seeing this basket with the leaves curling round it，thought it would make a good design for a capital of a column，and so he copied it in marble and put it on an Ionic column in place of the Ionic capital.In this way was invented the Corinthian column.
So the Corinthian column is just an Ionic column with a different capital.The Greek thistle is called the acanthus，so the leaves which curl upward and outward on each side of the Corinthian capital are acanthus leaves.JustNo.65-1CORINTHIAN COLUMN
（科林斯柱式）
underneath the tile，which is called the abacus，are four corner scrolls or curls.They are like curl shavings the carpenter makes with his plane，but not like those of the Ionic capital，which are like rolls of music.The Ionic curls faced front and back，but the Corinthian curls faced cornerwise.
Many people think the Corinthian capital more beautiful than either the Doric or the Ionic，but others think it too fancy and not natural to have stone beams resting on leaves.At any rate，though the Greeks invented the Corinthian column，they hardly used it at all.
The Greeks finished all their great buildings about three hundred years before Christ was born，and all their great architects seem to have died，for no great ones lived after that time.
You know，from your geography，that Greece is nearly-an-island （called a peninsula）in the Mediterranean Sea.Next door to Greece is another near-island or peninsula called Italy.The capital of Italy was Rome，and after Greece had lost her power Rome became the capital—that is，the head—of most of the world.
The Greeks were great architects，but the Romans were great builders.There is a difference.The Romans built many fine buildings，but they didn’t have as good taste as the Greeks.The Romans liked the Corinthian column better than either the Doric or the Ionic.The Romans also made another column composed of both Ionic and Corinthian capitals and so this column is called Composite.It had the large curls，or volutes，of the Ionic and the acanthus leaves of the Corinthian.Often it is hard to tell whether a column is Corinthian or Composite.In the Composite column，the Ionic top is larger than in the Corinthian，that is all.The Romans also changed the Doric column—gave it a base and left out the flutings and the saucer shaped part of the capital.This kind of Roman column was called Etruscan Doric or Tuscan.
The Romans made other changes in their styles of building changes for the worse.In order to make columns seem higher than they were，they frequently put a box-like base or pedestal beneath each column.They also placed split half-columns against walls.Such half-columns built against the wall are called engaged.Other columns they flattened out against the wall so that they appeared square.A column so flattened out is called a pilaster.You can remember the name by thinking of “plaster”and putting an i between the p and l.
The greatest thing the Romans did for building was to use the arch.As you know，the Assyrians invented the arch but used it very little because they had very little stone with which to build arches.But they never rested their arches on columns.The Greeks and other architects before them placed a single stone across from column to column.But a single slab of stone could not reach very far，so the spaces between columns were never very great and never could be very great.The Romans were the first to make arches from column to column instead of using straight slabs of stone from column to column.
The Romans also made barrel vaults and domes which，you remember，were arched ceilings built on the same principle as the arch.By using the dome and the vault，they were able to roof over much larger spaces than ever could have been roofed over with single slabs of stone or with wooden roofs.Furthermore，a vaulted or domed roof of stone was fireproof，whereas a wooden roof，of course，was not.
ROMAN CORINTHIAN COLUMN
（罗马科林斯柱式）COMPOSITE COLUMN
（混合型柱式）TUSCAN COLUMN
（托斯卡纳柱式）
Another great thing the Romans did for building was to use cement and concrete.Concrete is a mixture of cement with water and sand and pebbles.This mixture turns into stone when it dries.The Romans used cement between the stones of their arches and they made their domes and vaults of concrete.Now，an arch or a dome or a vault，if properly put together，needs no cement，for the stones push against one another so tightly they can’t slip through and down.But，as I have told you，an arch does need heavy walls at the side so that the stone in the arch will not push over the walls，for the weight of each stone pushes and shoves sideways.
The Romans found a way out of this difficulty.They made their vaults and domes with cement or concrete to hold the stones together so that the vault or dome became a single solid stone.Such a concrete dome pushes downward but doesn’t push sideways，so that heavy side walls are not really necessary.