Arch. [= F. stéréobate, It. stereobate, ad. L. stereobata, ad. Gr. *στερεοβάτης, f. στερεός solid + -βάτης as in στυλοβάτης STYLOBATE.] A solid mass of masonry serving as a base for a wall or a row of columns. (See also quots.)
The term occurs only once in ancient use (Vitruvius III. iii.). Vitruvius explains it as a massive wall built from the ground as a support for a row of columns. Modern writers (Latin in the 15–16th c., Italian, French and English) have used it in various applications. According to some, stereobate is the generic term for a basement either under a wall or a row of columns, and a ‘stylobate’ is a stereobate of which the superstructure is columnar. Others restrict stereobate to the basement of a wall, as distinguished from stylobate, a basement under a row of columns. Others, again, use stereobate for the whole basement, and stylobate for the upper portion of this, which is added when there are columns.
1836. Parker, Gloss. Archit. (1840), 206. Stylobate, Stereobate, the basement or substructure of a temple below the columns.
a. 1840. Hosking, Archit., in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), III. 470. Stereobate, a basement. It is sought to make a distinction between this term and Stylobate q. v., by restricting the latter to its real import, and applying stereobate to a basement in the absence of columns.
1875. Encycl. Brit., II. 441/1. [Italian Architecture.] A basement is either a low stereobate or a lofty story, according as it is intended to support a single ordinance [etc.].
Hence Stereobatic a., pertaining to or having the character of a stereobate.
1875. Encycl. Brit., II. 408/1. A stereobatic dado raised on the stylobate and antæ-base mouldings.
