‹‹‹ Vitr. 3.3.7 | Table of Contents | Vitr. 3.3.9 ›››
8There is no example of eustylos in Rome; but there is one at Teos in Asia, which is octastylos, and dedicated to Bacchus. Its proportions were discovered by Hermogenes, who was also the inventor of the octastylos or pseudodipteral formation. It was he who first omitted the inner ranges of columns in the dipteros, which, being in number thirty-eight, afforded the opportunity of avoiding considerable expense. By it a great space was obtained for walking all round the cell, and the effect of the temple was not injured because the omission of the columns was not perceptible; neither was the grandeur of the work destroyed.
8We have no example of this in Rome, but at Teos in Asia Minor there is one which is hexastyle, dedicated to Father Bacchus.
These rules for symmetry were established by Hermogenes, who was also the first to devise the principle of the pseudodipteral octastyle. He did so by dispensing with the inner rows of thirty-eight columns which belonged to the symmetry of the dipteral temple, and in this way he made a saving in expense and labour. He thus provided a much wider space for the walk round the cella between it and the columns, and without detracting at all from the general effect, or making one feel the loss of what had been really superfluous, he preserved the dignity of the whole work by his new treatment of it.