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 an interesting manner with the Phrygian cities of Laodicea and Colosse.  When St. Paul was preaching the Gospel through this part of Asia Minor, the architects of Rome were conveying this splendid marble from the quarries of the Cadmus, to adorn the palatial buildings of the Imperial City.  No marble was so highly esteemed as this, and no other species is so frequently referred to by the Latin poets.

The high altar of the subterranean church, under which the relics of St. Ignatius and St. Clement are supposed to lie, is covered by a canopy supported by elegant columns of pavonazzetto marble; while the high altar of the upper church is similarly surmounted by a double entablature of Hymettian marble, supported by four columns of pavonazzetto.  The extra-mural church of St. Paul’s had several splendid pillars of Phrygian marble, taken by the emperor Theodosius from the grandest of the law courts of the Republic; but these were unfortunately destroyed during the burning of the old basilica about sixty years ago.  We see in the flat pilasters of this purple-veined marble, now erect against the transepts of the restored church,