doric order

The oldest (dating to the 6th-century B.C.E.) and plainest of the three basic orders of classical Greek architecture (the others being the Ionic and the Corinthian orders). In ancient Greece, the Doric order was the masculine, and the most preferred, order. A Doric column is stout, with a fluted shaft (ideally, with 20 flutes), a plain capital, and no base. In ancient Rome, the Doric order was often replaced with the “Tuscan” order indigenous to the Italian peninsula; it consisted of an unfluted shaft, a simply molded capital, and a base.