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The oldest original synagogue building in the Diaspora: the Delos synagogue reconsidered
Hesperia, Fall, 2004 by Monika Trumper
Clearly, the restoration of the colonnades remains hypothetical. In theory, the columns could have had a bottom diameter of 0.45-0.725 m, but probably it was about 0.60 m. (86) According to Vitruvian standards (Vitr. 4.1.8, 4.3.4), (Doric) columns would have measured between 3.15 m and 5.075 m in height (4.20 m for a bottom diameter of 0.60 m), including the capital. For columns with these diameters in diastyle (Vitr. 3.3.1, 4), the intercolumniation would have measured between 1.80 m and 2.90 m (2.40 m for a bottom diameter of 0.60 m). Vitruvius's rules, however, are rarely found to have been applied precisely in Delian architecture and cannot, therefore, be used as reliable guides for reconstruction. (87)
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Having outlined the conditions that a reconstruction of courtyard C must take into account, can we cite any parallels to support one of the alternative conjectured restorations? For a truncated peristyle closed on its fourth side, parallels can be found in some private houses in Delos, but none involves a space as large as courtyard C. In addition, their builders were operating under certain restrictions: most were additions to existing courtyards with dimensions that were not convenient for the construction of a peristyle. (88)
The symmetrically arranged, open, pi-shaped portico (see Figs. 38, 39, below) would be unique in Delos, as was correctly emphasized by Binder. (89) Neither the porticoes with short projecting wings, such as the Portique d'Antigone (GD 29), which opens onto a large public/sacred space, nor the large pi-shaped portico in the Sanctuaire des Dieux syriens (GD 98), which frames the cult theater, nor the large pi-shaped portico to the south of the Samothrakeion (GD 93), can really serve for comparison. Such a structure as part of GD 80 would have been a rather ambitious monumental entrance with three wings, for which, even outside of Delos, exact parallels are scarce. One could, however, compare it with similar arrangements in some of the Hellenistic sanctuaries that are laid out on several terraces, such as the sanctuaries of Athena on Lindos, Asklepios on Kos, or Fortuna in Palestrina. (90) In addition, the scheme of a three-winged portico recalls the many coastal porticoed villas that appear on small square or horizontal oblong panels in Roman wall painting. (91)
The architectural repertoire of the Hellenistic and Roman periods provided an extensive spectrum of colonnades, stoas, and porticoes that was drawn on with great variety: some were pi-shaped, some had short projecting wings, some framed open spaces, some served as vestibules or entrances to buildings, some (except colonnades) were freestanding buildings, and so on. (92) But with regard to GD 80, the absence of precise local parallels might be attributed to the late date of this pi-shaped portico, which was probably constructed in Roman times, more precisely in the Imperial period (see below, p. 565). Perhaps this would also explain the discrepancy between the portico's apparent aspirations to monumentality and the modest quality of the entire C-complex.
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