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COLOSSUS.
so called from the place of its origin on the coast of Africa, not far from Egypt. There was also a white earth of Eretria, and the annu-larian white, Greta anularia or anulare, made from the glass composition worn in the rings of the poor.
Carbonate of lead or white lead, cerussa, Qiov, was apparently not much used by the ancient painters ; it was nowhere found amongst the Roman ruins.
Sir H. Davy is of opinion that the azure, the – red and yellow ochres, and the blacks, have not undergone any change of colour whatever in the ancient fresco paintings ; but that many of the greens, which are now carbonate of copper, were originally laid on in a state of acetate.
Pliny divides the colours into colores fioridi and colores austeri (xxxv. 12) ; the colores floridi were those which, in his time, were supplied by the employer to the puinter, on account of their expense, and to secure their being genuine ; they were minium, Armenium, cinnabaris, chrysocolla, Indi-cum, and purpurissum ; the rest were the austeri. Both Pliny (xxxv. 12) and Vitruvius (vii. 7) class the colours into natural and artificial ; the natural are those obtained immediately from the earth, which, according to Pliny, are Sinopis, rubrica, paraetonium, melinum, Eretria, and auri-pigmentum ; to these Vitruvius adds ochra, san-daracha, minium (vermilion}., and chrysocolla, being of metallic origin. The others are called artificial, on account of requiring some particular preparation to render them fit for use.
To the above list of colours, more names might still be added ; but being for the most part merely compounds or modifications of those already men tioned, they would only take up space without giving us any additional insight into the resources of the ancient painters ; those which we have already enumerated are sufficient to form an in finite variety of colour, and conclusively prove that the ancient painters, if they had not more, had at least equal resources in this most essential branch of painting with the artists of our own times. [R. N. VV.]
COLOSSUS (Kooff<r6s}. The origin of this word is not known, the suggestions of the grammarians being either ridiculous, or imperfect in point of etymology. (Etym. Mag. p. 526. 16; Festus, s. v.} It is, however, very ancient, probably of Ionic extraction, and rarely occurs in the Attic writers. (Blomf. Gloss, ad Aescli. Agam. 406.) It is used both by the Greeks and Romans to signify a statue larger than life (Hesych. s. v. ; Aesch. Agam. 406 ; Schol. ad Juv. Sat. viii. 230), and thence a person of extraordinary stature is termed colosseros (Suet. Calig. 35) ; and the architectural ornaments in the upper members of lofty buildings, which require to be of large dimensions in consequence of their remoteness, are termed colossicotera (/coA-otrtn/ccoTepa, Vitruv. iii. 3, compare Id. x. 4). Statues of this kind, simply colossal, but not enormously large, were too common amongst the Greeks to excite observation merely from their size, and are, therefore, rarely referred to as such ; the word being more frequently applied to designate those figures of gigantic dimensions (moles statuarum, turribus pares, Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 7. s. 18) which were first executed in Egypt, and afterwards in Greece and ,Ita3y.
COLUM.
Among the colossal statues of Greece, the most celebrated, according to Pliny, was the bronze colossus at Rhodes by Chares of Lindus, a pupil of Lysippus. (See Diet, of G. and R. Biog. art. Chares.} Pliny mentions another Greek colossus of Apollo, the work of Calamis, which cost 500 talents, and was twenty cubits high, in the city of Apollonia, whence it was transferred to the capitol by M. Lucullus ; and also those of Jupiter and Hercules, at Tarentum, by Lysippus. (Diet, of G. and R. Biog. art. Lysippus.} To the list of Pliny must be added the more important colossal statues of Pheidias, the most beautiful of which were his chryselephantine statues of Zeus, at Olympia, and of Athena, in the Parthenon at Athens ; the largest was his bronze statue of Athena Promachus, on the Acropolis.
Amongst the works of this description made ex pressly by or for the Romans, those most fre quently alluded to are the following : — 1. A statue of Jupiter upon the capitol, made by order of Sp. Carvilius, from the armour of the Samnites, which was so large that it could be seen from the Alban mount. (Plin. I. c.} 2. A bronze statue of Apollo at the Palatine library (Plin. I. c.), to which the bronze head now preserved in the capitol probably belonged. 3. A bronze statue of Augustus, in the forum, which bore his name. (Mart. Ep. viii. 44. 7.) 4. The colossus of Nero, which was executed by Zenodorus in marble, and therefore quoted by Pliny in proof that the art of casting metal was then lost. Its height was 110 or 120 feet. (Plin. /. c. ; Suet. Nero, 31.) It was originally placed in the vestibule of the domus aurea (Mart. Sped. ii. 1, Ep. i. 71. 7 ; Dion Cass. Ixvi. 15) at the bottom of the Via Sacra, where the basement upon which it stood is still to be seen, and from it the con tiguous amphitheatre is supposed to have gained the name of " Colosseum." Having suffered in the fire which destroyed the golden house, it was repaired by Vespasian, and by him converted into a statue of the sun. (Hieronym. in Hob. c. 3 ; Suet. Vesp. 18 ; Plin. 1. c. ; compare Lamprid. Commod. 17; Dion Cass. Ixxii. 15.) Twenty- four elephants were employed by Hadrian to re move it, when he was about to build the temple of Rome. (Spart. Hadr. 19.) 5. An equestrian statue of Domitian, of bronze gilt, which wag placed in the centre of the forum. (Stat. Sylv. i. 1. 1 ; Mart. Ep. i. 71. 6.) [A. R.]
COLUM (7j0juos), a strainer or colander, wag used for straining wine, milk olive-oil, and other
