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Emplekton
Emplekton
Author(s): R. A. Tomlinson
Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies , 1961, Vol. 81 (1961), pp. 133-140
Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
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1 I have to thank Dr Plommer for drawing my 3 MSS.frontatis, emended by Marini. Even if this
attention to this problem. is not correct, the sense required must be 'from one
2 One MS. (Sc.) reads farciunt factis, the rest face to the other'.
faciunt factis. But cf. una media farturae and non media
farciunt, immediately below.
FIG. I.
In Greek walls that made use of headers and stretchers the head
narrow; they look like vertical threads, the stretchers like horizo
to a woven pattern is striking and obvious, and would, I feel,
to the Greeks. The effect of the pattern is not spoilt by the f
Greeks often employed two or three stretchers to every header.9
Vitruvius in fact takes the name for granted, and does not
much more concerned with the technique of construction, and wi
over Roman technique. It is advisable to pay attention to this ques
considering the equally important question whether the term e
applied to any wall with a 'woven' surface pattern of headers and
it was built.
Vitruvius begins his description of Greek structura with isodomum and pseudisodomum
(ii 8.5). They are built of coursed rough stone, laid in mortar much as we lay bricks.
This he considers more stable than Roman structura, which consists basically of a mixture
of unbalanced broken rubble and mortar. The reason for this is that he is suspicious of the
lasting qualities of mortar. He expects it to crumble when dry, and therefore naturally
prefers the coursed Greek structura walls, which would remain standing even if the mortar
dried out, to the unbalanced Roman structura, which would collapse (and quite possibly
did, until the quality of Roman mortar improved). To Vitruvius the strength of a wall
rests in the coursing of its stonework, not in the mortar.
This remains true of emplekton structura. This is distinguished from the other structura
described simply by the fact that it is given a casing of ashlar masonry. Inside there is the
same difference between Greek and Roman, Greek with balanced and bonded courses of
stone, Roman with an unbalanced 'mix' of broken rubble and mortar.
The only similarity between the two is the ashlar facings, but even here the technique
differs. In the Roman walls the stones are placed erecta: this is explained by the contrast
with the Greeks plana conlocantes and perhaps the plana et librata cubilia of isodomic and
pseudisodomic structura. In the Greek walls the stones are greater in width than in height,
so they lie flat and balanced. The Roman stones are either equal in width and height, or
else the height is greater, so that they do not seem to lie flat but upright, and so less stable.
9 For an example, see the outer wall of the three-
and stretchers are typical of the Hekatomnid (fourth
storey stoa at Aegae, Bohn and Schuchhardt, Alter-century B.C.) walls at Labraunda: Jeppesen,
tiimer von Aegae (JdI Erg. Heft ii) fig. 15. Headers
Labraunda i I (The Propylaea) 14.
15 Caley and Richards in their recent edition of not therefore attempted to translate the term
have
the HEpl Al0cov point out the difficulties of Theo-
ytWpog where it occurs in a Hellenistic context.
phrastus' account, which seems to confuse under the
16 Cumont, Fouilles de Doura-Europos, 1922-1923
single term yt6pog gypsum (plaster of Paris)4and f. The use of gypsum, as opposed to quicklime, is
of course here certain.
quicklime. It seems probable that in Theophrastus'
time no distinction was made between the two. I
19 So we have large stones, not rubble, used for the Athens, the diateichisma on the Pnyx
fill of the walls of the fourth-century fort at Phyle in (Hesperia xii 303 sq.);
Attica (Wrede, op. cit. in n. 6), while IG ii2 244, the Chalkis, Aetolia (Woodhouse, Aetolia I Io);
specification for the fortifications at Eetioneia and Sounion, the 'Granary' (Wrede, Attische
Mounychia, states categorically that the rubble must Mauern 37);
be removed from inside the round tower, and replaced Gortys in Arcadia (R. Martin, BCH
by stones greater than a certain minimum size. lxxi/lxxii 120).
20 Some examples: (iii) Walls with coursed, large stone fill:
(i) Headers, stretchers (and through-stones) with Phyle (Wrede, loc. cit.; Siiflund, Opusc.
rubble fill: Arch. i 98).
Assos (Clarke et al., Investigations at Assos,(iv) Experimental walls:
189); Corinth, E. city wall (Parsons, Corinth iii 2
Magnesia ad Maeandrum (Humann, Mag- Appendix A 282), fill of unbaked mud-
nesia 19). brick; W. long wall (ibid., 93), fill of
(ii) 'Compartment' walls with rubble fill: packed earth.