Unless acquainted with history, an architect will be unable to justify the use of many ornaments that may be introduced. For instance, should any one question the origin of those draped matronal figures crowned with a mutule and cornice, called Caryatides, the explanation lies in the following history. Carya, a city of Peloponnese, joined be Persians in their war against the Greeks. These in return for the treachery, after having freed themselves by a most glorious victory from the intended Persian yoke, unanimously resolved to levy war against the Caryans. Carya was, in consequence, taken and destroyed, its male population extinguished, and its matrons carried into slavery. That these circumstances might be better remembered, and the nature of the triumph perpetuated, the victors portrayed these women as draped, and apparently suffering under the burden with which they were loaded, to expiate the crime of their native city. Thus, in their edifices, did the ancient architects, by the use of these statues, hand down to posterity a memorial of the crime of the Caryans.