Pantheon

• the great temple of Jupiter, built by Agrippa, and restored by Hadrian, M. Aurelius, Septimius Severus, and Caracalla, now the Tempio di S. Maria Rotonda: Agrippae Pantheum, Plin. 36, 5, 4, § 38 (but id. 36, 15, 24, § 102, read tectum diribitori); 34, 3, 7, § 13; 9, 35, 58, § 121; cf. Inscr. Orell. 34; Spart. Hadr. 19; Amm.16, 10, 14.—
• II The statue of a god, adorned with the symbols of several other deities, Aus. Epigr. 30; Inscr. Grut. 1, 3 sq.; cf. Spon. Miscell. Antiq. p. 19.

(Πάνθειον, “all divine”) or Panthēum. The Pantheon, the only ancient edifice at Rome whose walls and vaulting have been perfectly preserved. The original statues that adorned it have long ago been removed, but the mighty dome-like building with its vast colonnade attests better than any existing work the massive strength and splendour of the architecture of imperial Rome. The purpose for which the temple was first built is not known, but we learn from an inscription on the porch that it was erected by M. Vipsanius Agrippa in B.C. 27. (M. Agrippa L. F. cos. tertivm fecit.) At a later time the name Pantheon was thought to mean “the temple of all the gods,” a notion which led Pope Boniface IV. to dedicate the building, in A.D. 609, as a Christian church to the memory of all the martyrs, under the name of S. Maria ad Martyres (now S. Maria Rotonda, or simply La Rotonda). The building had been already repeatedly enlarged in ancient times by Domitian, Hadrian, and last of all, in A.D. 202, by Septimius Severus and Caracalla. It consists of a circular structure, 140 feet 6 inches in height and inner diameter, with a portico 103 feet long formed by sixteen Corinthian columns 39 feet high. Eight of these in front supported a massive pediment, behind which rose another pediment of still higher elevation, resting against the square projection which connects the portico with the dome. The other columns divide the portico into three parallel portions, originally vaulted over. In the interior of the portico on each side of the entrance are two niches, which formerly contained colossal statues of Augustus and Agrippa. The massive walls of the great rotunda, which is completely circular in form, are divided by ring-cornices into two stories, an upper and a lower. Above these springs a cupola of concrete, of vaster dimensions than any that had been attempted in previous times. The diameter of this lofty cupola corresponds to that of the vast cylindrical building on which it rests. The walls of the latter are 19 feet thick. The interior of the cupola is divided into five rows of deeply sunk panels (lacunaria), 28 in each row. At its vertex an opening about 30 feet in diameter lights the whole of the interior. The gilt-bronze tiles of the roof were taken by the emperor Constans II. to Constantinople in A.D. 655. The remains of the costly marble wall-linings of the interior, which dated from the last restoration, and consisted of 56 compartments, divided by 112 Corinthian columns, and covered with white marble, porphyry, serpentine, and pavonazetto, were not carried off until 1747. In 1632 the great bronze tubes which supported the roof of the portico were melted down by Pope Urban VIII. (Barberini) to be cast into pillars for the baldacchino in St. Peter's and into cannon for the castle of S. Angelo—which led to Pasquin's famous epigram, Quod non fecerunt barbari fecerunt Barberini. The Pantheon now contains the tomb of King Victor Emmanuel. See an article by Lanciani in the Atlantic Monthly for June, 1893.

• at Athens: Paus. 1.5.5, built by Hadrian: Paus. 1.18.9
• at Corinth: Paus. 2.2.8
• at Marius in Laconia: Paus. 3.22.8
• at Messene: Paus. 4.32.1
• at Orneae in Argolis: Paus. 2.25.6