Corinthian columns have their roots in Ancient Greece, but they were truly perfected and popularized by the Romans. The Corinthian order was the last and most ornate of the three primary classical orders of Greek architecture (alongside Doric and Ionic), believed to have been invented in the city-state of Corinth around the 5th century BC. The defining feature is the ornate capital decorated with two rows of acanthus leaves and four small scrolls. In Greece, the Corinthian order was used sparingly, often reserved for interiors or smaller monuments. However, the Romans fell in love with its opulence and complexity, adopting it as their primary architectural style for massive public buildings, temples, and forums. They modified the proportions to make the columns even taller and more slender and often combined them with elements of the Ionic order to create the "Composite" style. Therefore, while the origin is undeniably Greek, the vast majority of the famous Corinthian ruins we see today—including the Pantheon in Rome and the Temple of Zeus in Athens (which was finished by a Roman emperor)—reflect the Roman architectural legacy of utilizing this ornate design on a grand, imperial scale.