ubstance not
only gives to the marbles their colouring, but also their texture.
Even the whitest saccharoidal or statuary marble, which it has not
coloured, it has created by the crystallisation of the limestone
associated with it. And the marbles of the entire province of the
Apuan Alps owe their existence to the large quantities of iron ore
disseminated throughout them, which have exercised a great influence
on the molecular modification they have undergone. The same changes
have been produced on the limestones of Greece and Asia Minor by veins
containing iron ore running through them.

And of the marbles thus produced, one of the most beautiful is that
which is known in Rome by the name of Pavonazzetto, from its
peacock-like markings. The ground is a clear white, with numerous
veins of a dark red or violet colour, while the grain is fine, with
large shining scales. It resembles alabaster in the form and character
of its veins, and in its transparent quality. It is a Phrygian marble,
and was known to the ancients under the name of _Marmor Docimenum_.
The poet Statius notices the legend that it was stained with the blood
of Atys. It was a favourite marble of the emperor Hadrian, who
employed it to decorate his tomb. It was brought to Rome when Phrygia
became a Roman province, after the establishment of Christianity in
Asia Minor. At first the quarry yielded only small pieces of the
marble, but when it came into the possession of the Romans they
developed its resources to the utmost; numerous large monolithic
columns being wrought on the spot, and conveyed at great expense and
labour to the coast. Colonel Leake supposes that the extensive
quarries on the road from Khoorukun and Bulwudun are those of the
ancient Docimenum. Hamilton, in his _Researches_, says that he saw
numerous blocks of marble and columns in a rough state, and others
beautifully worked, lying in this locality. In an open space beside a
mosque lay neglected a beautifully-finished marble bath, once
intended, perhaps, for a Roman villa; and in the wall of the mosque,
and of the cemetery beside it, were numerous friezes and cornices,
whose elaborately-finished sculptures of the Ionic and Corinthian
orders proved that they were never designed for any building on the
spot, but were in all probability worked near the quarries for the
purpose of easier transportation, as is done in the quarries of
Carrara at the present day. Pavonazzetto is thus associated in