Ionic

Refers to the style associated with the second of both the three Greek architectural orders and the later five traditional classical orders of architecture that, with Doric, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite, was used by the Romans and through the Renaissance and beyond. It developed in the eastern Greek Aegean islands and on the coast of Asia Minor, probably influenced by Jewish and Phoenician architecture that employed "lily capitals." Stone versions are found in Greece in the sixth century BCE, though wooden examples may have existed earlier. In ancient Greek architecture it is characterized by a form that is more delicate than Doric, a capital composed of two lateral volutes, a column that often has an Attic base and a shaft often with twenty-four semi-circular flutes with fillets between them, and an entablature that is more variable than Doric, including an architrave with overlapping courses, decorative moldings above, and a continuous carved frieze and/or row of dentils under the cornice. In Roman and later architecture the style was often modified and is recognized primarily by the volutes of the capital. It is distinct from "Ionic order," since an architectural order refers strictly to the specific system or assemblage of parts that is subject to uniform established rules and proportions, regulated by the role that each part has to perform.