MŪRUS

MOENĬA ( τεῖχος ), the wall of a city, in contradistinction to Paries ( τοῖχος ), the wall of a house, and Maceria , a boundary wall. We find cities surrounded by ma ive walls at the earliest periods of Greek and Roman history. Homer speaks of the chief cities of the Argive kingdom as “the walled Tiryns,” and “Mycenae the well-built city,” attesting the great antiquity of those identical gigantic walls which still stand at Tiryns and Mycenae, and which have been frequently attributed to the Cyclopes and Pelasgians. Three principal species can be clearly distinguished:—1. That in which the ma es of stone are of irregular shape and are put together without any attempt to fit them into one another, the interstices being loosely filled in with smaller stones. An example is given in the annexed engraving. IMG:6459379820872971714_ill257a.jpg: Ancient Wall at Tiryns. 2. In other cases we find the blocks still of irregular polygonal shapes, but their sides are sufficiently smoothed to make each fit accurately into the angles between the others, and their faces are cut so as to give the whole wall a tolerably smooth surface. An example is given in the annexed engraving. IMG:6459379820872971714_ill257b.jpg: Ancient Wall of Lari a, the Acropolis of Argos. 3. In the third species, the blocks are laid in horizontal courses, more or le regular (sometimes indeed so irregular, that none of the horizontal joints are continuous), and with vertical joints either perpendicular or oblique, and with all the joints more or le accurately fitted. The walls of Mycenae present one of the ruder examples of this sort of structure; and the following engraving of the “Lion Gate” of that fortre (so called from the rudely sculptured figures of lions) shows also the manner in which the gates of these three species of walls were built, by supporting an immense block of stone, for the lintel, upon two others, for jambs, the latter inclining inwards, so as to give more space than if they were upright.— IMG:6459379820872971714_ill258.jpg: Ancient Wall at Mycenae. The materials employed in walls about the time of Pericles were various sorts of stone, and, in some of the most magnificent temples, marble. The practice of putting a facing of marble over a wall of a commoner material was introduced in the next period of architectural history. For buildings of a common sort, the materials employed were smaller stones, rough or squared, or flints, as well as bricks. These were bound together with various kinds of mortar or cement, composed of lime mixed with different sands and volcanic earths. The history of Roman masonry is not very different from that of the Greek.—The most ancient works at Rome, such as the Carcer Mamertinus , the Cloaca Maxima , and the Servian Walls, were constructed of ma ive quadrangular hewn stones, placed together without cement. [ Cloaca . ] Five species of Roman masonry may be distinguished; namely, 1. when the blocks of stone are laid in alternate courses, lengthwise in one course, and cro wise in the next; this is the most common; 2. when the stones in each course are laid alternately along and acro ; this construction was usual when the walls were to be faced with slabs of marble; 3. when they are laid entirely lengthwise; 4. entirely cro wise; and 5. when the courses are alternately higher and lower than each other. As by the Greeks, so by the Romans, walls of a commoner sort were built of smaller quarried stones ( caementa ) or of bricks. The excellence of the cement which the Romans used enabled them to construct walls of very small rough stones, not laid in courses, but held together by the mortar; this structure was called opus incertum . Another structure of which the Romans made great use, and which was one of the most durable of all, was that composed of courses of flat tiles. Such courses were also introduced in the other kinds of stone and brick walls, in which they both served as bond-courses, and, in the lower part of the wall, kept the damp from rising from the ground. Brick walls covered with stucco were exceedingly common with the Romans: even columns were made of brick covered with stucco.