TORUS  , a Latin word, meaning a

round swelling or protuberance, applied to a convex moulding in architecture, which in section is generally a semicircle . The earliest examples are found in Egypt, where it was carried up the angles of the pylon and temple walls and horizontally across the same . Its most frequent employment is in the bases of columns; in the Roman Doric order being the lowest moulding; in the Ionic orders there are generally two torus mouldings separated by a scotia with fillets . Both in Greek and Roman bases sometimes the torus is elaborately carved .