Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Septizonium

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

SEPTIZO'NIUM and SEMPTEMZO'DIUM. A particular kind of edifice, of great magnificence, consisting of seven stories of columns, one above the other, supporting seven distinct entablatures or zones, from which it received the name. It does not appear for what particular purpose these structures were designed; but two such are specially recorded in the city of Rome, one in the XIIth Region, which existed before the time of the Emperor Titus (Suet. Tit. 2. Ammian. xv. 6. 3.), and the other in the Xth Region, under the Palatine hill, and near to the Circus Maximus, which was built by Septimius Severus. (Spart. Sev. 19.) Three stories of this last structure remained standing during the pontificate of Sixtus V., but were taken down by him for the purpose of employing the columns in building the Vatican. These are exhibited by the annexed wood-cut (Septizonium/1.1), from an engraving of the 16th century (Gamucci, Antichità di Roma); and though they form but a small portion of the original structure in its entirety, yet that is sufficient to convey an accurate notion of the general plan upon which such monuments were designed.

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  Septizonium/1.1