Ancient Roman architecture
Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine. The building's northern aisle is all that remains. | |
Years active | 509 BC (establishment of the Roman Republic)–4th century AD |
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Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical
Roman architecture covers the period from the establishment of the Roman Republic in 509 BC to about the 4th century AD, after which it becomes reclassified as
The Romans only began to achieve significant originality in architecture around the beginning of the
The Romans produced massive public buildings and works of civil engineering, and were responsible for significant developments in housing and public hygiene, for example their public and private baths and latrines, under-floor heating in the form of the hypocaust, mica glazing (examples in Ostia Antica), and piped hot and cold water (examples in Pompeii and Ostia).
Overview
Despite the technical developments of the Romans, which took their buildings far away from the basic Greek conception where columns were needed to support heavy beams and roofs, they were reluctant to abandon the
Innovation started in the 3rd or 2nd century BC with the development of Roman concrete as a readily available adjunct to, or substitute for, stone and brick. More daring buildings soon followed, with great pillars supporting broad arches and domes. The freedom of concrete also inspired the colonnade screen, a row of purely decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. In smaller-scale architecture, concrete's strength freed the floor plan from rectangular cells to a more free-flowing environment.
Factors such as wealth and high population densities in cities forced the ancient Romans to discover new architectural solutions of their own. The use of
Especially under the empire, architecture often served a political function, demonstrating the power of the Roman state in general, and of specific individuals responsible for building. Roman architecture perhaps reached its peak in the reign of Hadrian, whose many achievements include rebuilding the Pantheon in its current form and leaving his mark on the landscape of northern Britain with Hadrian's Wall.
Origins
While borrowing much from the preceding
Roman architectural revolution
The
A crucial factor in this development, which saw
These enabled the building of the many
The
The Romans first adopted the arch from the Etruscans and implemented it in their own building.[10] The use of arches that spring directly from the tops of columns was a Roman development, seen from the 1st century AD, that was very widely adopted in medieval Western, Byzantine and Islamic architecture.[citation needed]
Domes
The Romans were the first builders in the
Monumental domes began to appear in the 1st century BC in
Influence on later architecture
Roman architecture supplied the basic vocabulary of
In Europe the Italian Renaissance saw a conscious revival of correct classical styles, initially purely based on Roman examples.[15] Vitruvius was respectfully reinterpreted by a series of architectural writers, and the Tuscan and Composite orders formalized for the first time, to give five rather than three orders.[16] After the flamboyance of Baroque architecture, the Neoclassical architecture of the 18th century revived purer versions of classical style, and for the first time added direct influence from the Greek world.
Numerous local classical styles developed, such as
Roman influences may be found around us today, in banks, government buildings, great houses, and even small houses, perhaps in the form of a porch with Doric columns and a pediment or in a fireplace or a mosaic shower floor derived from a Roman original, often from Pompeii or Herculaneum. The mighty pillars, domes and arches of Rome echo in the New World too, where in Washington, D.C. stand the Capitol building, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and other government buildings. All across the US the seats of regional government were normally built in the grand traditions of Rome, with vast flights of stone steps sweeping up to towering pillared porticoes, with huge domes gilded or decorated inside with the same or similar themes that were popular in Rome.
In Britain, a similar enthusiasm has seen the construction of thousands of neoclassical buildings over the last five centuries, both civic and domestic, and many of the grandest country houses and mansions are purely Classical in style, an obvious example being Buckingham Palace.[17]
Materials
Stone
Marble is not found especially close to Rome, and was only rarely used there before Augustus, who famously boasted that he had found Rome made of brick and left it made of marble, though this was mainly as a facing for brick or concrete. The Temple of Hercules Victor of the late 2nd century BC is the earliest surviving exception in Rome. From Augustus' reign the quarries at Carrara were extensively developed for the capital, and other sources around the empire exploited,[18] especially the prestigious Greek marbles like Parian. Travertine limestone was found much closer, around Tivoli, and was used from the end of the Republic; the Colosseum is mainly built of this stone, which has good load-bearing capacity, with a brick core.[19] Other more or less local stones were used around the Empire.[20]
The Romans were fond of luxury imported coloured marbles with fancy veining, and the interiors of the most important buildings were often faced with slabs of these, which have usually now been removed even where the building survives. Imports from Greece for this purpose began in the 2nd century BC.[21]
Roman brick
The Romans made
The Romans perfected brick-making during the first century of their empire and used it ubiquitously, in public and private construction alike. They took their brickmaking skills everywhere they went, introducing the craft to the local populations.[24] The Roman legions, which operated their own kilns, introduced bricks to many parts of the Empire; bricks are often stamped with the mark of the legion that supervised their production. The use of bricks in southern and western Germany, for example, can be traced to traditions already described by the Roman architect Vitruvius. In the British Isles, the introduction of Roman brick by the ancient Romans was followed by a 600–700 year gap in major brick production.
Roman concrete
Concrete quickly supplanted brick as the primary building material,[
Although concrete had been used on a minor scale in Mesopotamia, Roman architects perfected Roman concrete and used it in buildings where it could stand on its own and support a great deal of weight. The first use of concrete by the Romans was in the town of Cosa sometime after 273 BC. Ancient Roman concrete was a mixture of lime mortar, aggregate, pozzolana, water, and stones, and was stronger than previously used concretes. The ancient builders placed these ingredients in wooden frames where they hardened and bonded to a facing of stones or (more frequently) bricks. The aggregates used were often much larger than in modern concrete, amounting to rubble.
When the framework was removed, the new wall was very strong, with a rough surface of bricks or stones. This surface could be smoothed and faced with an attractive stucco or thin panels of marble or other coloured stones called a "revetment". Concrete construction proved to be more flexible and less costly than building solid stone buildings. The materials were readily available and not difficult to transport. The wooden frames could be used more than once, allowing builders to work quickly and efficiently. Concrete is arguably the Roman contribution most relevant to modern architecture.
Building types
Amphitheatre
The
The earliest Roman amphitheatres date from the middle of the first century BC, but most were built under Imperial rule, from the Augustan period (27 BC–14 AD) onwards.[27] Imperial amphitheatres were built throughout the Roman Empire; the largest could accommodate 40,000–60,000 spectators, and the most elaborate featured multi-storeyed, arcaded façades and were elaborately decorated with marble, stucco and statuary.[28] After the end of gladiatorial games in the 5th century and of animal killings in the 6th, most amphitheatres fell into disrepair, and their materials were mined or recycled. Some were razed, and others converted into fortifications. A few continued as convenient open meeting places; in some of these, churches were sited.[29]
Architecturally, they are typically an example of the Roman use of the classical orders to decorate large concrete walls pierced at intervals, where the columns have nothing to support. Aesthetically, however, the formula is successful.
Basilica
The Roman basilica was a large public building where business or legal matters could be transacted. They were normally where the magistrates held court, and used for other official ceremonies, having many of the functions of the modern town hall. The first basilicas had no religious function. As early as the time of Augustus, a public basilica for transacting business had been part of any settlement that considered itself a city, used in the same way as the late medieval covered market houses of northern Europe, where the meeting room, for lack of urban space, was set above the arcades. Although their form was variable, basilicas often contained interior colonnades that divided the space, giving aisles or arcaded spaces on one or both sides, with an apse at one end (or less often at each end), where the magistrates sat, often on a slightly raised dais. The central aisle tended to be wide and was higher than the flanking aisles, so that light could penetrate through the clerestory windows.
The oldest known basilica, the Basilica Porcia, was built in Rome in 184 BC by Cato the Elder during the time he was censor. Other early examples include the basilica at Pompeii (late 2nd century BC). After Christianity became the official religion, the basilica shape was found appropriate for the first large public churches, with the attraction of avoiding reminiscences of the Greco-Roman temple form.
Circus
The
The performance space of the Roman circus was normally, despite its name, an oblong rectangle of two linear sections of
Forum
During the years of the Republic, Augustus claimed he "found the city in brick and left it in marble".[30] While chances are high that this was an exaggeration, there is something to be said for the influx of marble use in Roman Forum from 63 BC onwards. During Augustus' reign, the Forum was described to have been "a larger, freer space than was the Forum of Imperial times."[31] The Forum began to take on even more changes upon the arrival of Julius Caesar, who drew out extensive plans for the market hub. While Caesar's death came prematurely, his ideas, as well as Augustus' in regards to the Forum proved to be the most influential for years to come. According to Walter Dennison's The Roman Forum As Cicero Saw It, the author writes that "the diverting of public business to the larger and splendid Imperial fora erected in the vicinity resulted in leaving the general design of the Forum Romanum".[31]
Every city had at least one
Horreum
A
The first horrea were built in Rome towards the end of the 2nd century BC,[35] with the first known public horreum being constructed by the ill-fated tribune Gaius Gracchus in 123 BC.[36] The word came to be applied to any place designated for the preservation of goods; thus, it was often used to refer to cellars (horrea subterranea), but it could also be applied to a place where artworks were stored,[37] or even to a library.[38] Some public horrea functioned somewhat like banks, where valuables could be stored, but the most important class of horrea were those where foodstuffs such as grain and olive oil were stored and distributed by the state.[39]
The word itself is thought to have linguist roots tied to the word hordeum, which in Latin means barley.[40] In the Johns Hopkins University Press, The Classical Weekly states that "Pliny the Elder does indeed make a distinction between the two words. He describes the horreum as a structure made of brick, the walls of which were not less than three feet thick; it had no windows or openings for ventilation".[41] Furthermore, the storehouses would also host oil and wine and also use large jars that could serve as cache's for large amounts of products. These storehouses were also used to keep large sums of money and were used much like personal storage units today are. "These horrea were divided and subdivided, so that one could hire only so much space as one wanted, a whole room (cella), a closet (armarium), or only a chest or strong box (arca, arcula, locus, loculus)."[41]
Insula
Multi-story apartment blocks called insulae catered to a range of residential needs. The cheapest rooms were at the top owing to the inability to escape in the event of a fire and the lack of piped water. Windows were mostly small, facing the street, with iron security bars. Insulae were often dangerous, unhealthy, and prone to fires because of overcrowding and haphazard cooking arrangements.[citation needed] There are examples in the Roman port town of Ostia, that date to the reign of Trajan, but they seem to have been found mainly in Rome and a few other places. Elsewhere writers report them as something remarkable, but Livy and Vitruvius refer to them in Rome.[42] External walls were in opus reticulatum and interiors in opus incertum, which would then be plastered and sometimes painted.
To lighten up the small dark rooms, some tenants able to afford a degree of painted colourful murals on the walls. Examples have been found of jungle scenes with wild animals and exotic plants. Imitation windows (trompe-l'œil) were sometimes painted to make the rooms seem less confined.
Ancient Rome had elaborate and luxurious houses owned by the elite. The average house, or in cities apartment, of a commoner or plebeius did not contain many luxuries. The domus, or single-family residence, was only for the well-off in Rome, with most having a layout of the closed unit, consisting of one or two rooms. Between 312 and 315 AD Rome had 1781 domus and 44,850 of insulae.[43]
Insulae have been the subject of debate for historians of Roman culture, defining the various meanings of the word.
Lighthouses
Many
Thermae
All Roman cities had at least one thermae, a popular facility for public bathing, exercising and socializing. Exercise might include wrestling and weightlifting, as well as swimming. Bathing was an important part of the Roman day, where some hours might be spent, at a very low cost subsidized by the government. Wealthier Romans were often accompanied by one or more slaves, who performed any required tasks such as fetching refreshment, guarding valuables, providing towels, and at the end of the session, applying olive oil to their masters' bodies, which was then scraped off with a strigil, a scraper made of wood or bone.
Roman bath-houses were also provided for private villas, town houses and forts. They were normally supplied with water from an adjacent river or stream, or by aqueduct. The design of thermae is discussed by Vitruvius in De architectura.
Temples
Roman temples were among the most important and richest buildings in Roman culture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Their construction and maintenance was a major part of
Remains of many Roman temples survive, above all in Rome itself, but the relatively few near-complete examples were nearly all converted to Christian churches, usually a considerable time after the initial
The form of the Roman temple was mainly derived from the
The Greek
There was considerable local variation in style, as Roman architects often tried to incorporate elements the population expected in its
Theatres
Roman theatres were built in all areas of the Empire, from Spain to the Middle East. Because of the Romans' ability to influence local architecture, numerous theatres were built around the world with uniquely Roman attributes.[52]
These buildings were semi-circular and possessed certain inherent architectural structures, with minor differences depending on the region in which they were constructed. The scaenae frons was a high back wall of the stage floor, supported by columns. The proscaenium was a wall that supported the front edge of the stage with ornately decorated niches to the sides. The Hellenistic influence is seen through the use of the proscaenium. The Roman theatre also had a podium, which sometimes supported the columns of the scaenae frons. The scaenae was originally not part of the building itself, constructed only to provide sufficient background for the actors. Eventually, it became a part of the edifice itself, made out of concrete. The theatre itself was divided into the stage (orchestra) and the seating section (auditorium). Vomitoria or entrances and exits were made available to the audience.[53]
Villa
A
Suburban villas on the edge of cities were also known, such as the Middle and Late Republican villas that encroached on the Campus Martius, at that time on the edge of Rome, and which can be also seen outside the city walls of Pompeii, including the Villa of the Mysteries, known for its frescos. These early suburban villas, such as the one at Rome's Auditorium site[55] or at Grottarossa in Rome, demonstrate the antiquity and heritage of the villa suburbana in Central Italy. It is possible that these early, suburban villas were also in fact the seats of power (maybe even palaces) of regional strongmen or heads of important families (gentes).
A third type of villa provided the organizational center of the large farming estates called
With the colossal Diocletian's Palace, built in the countryside but later turned into a fortified city, a form of residential castle emerges, that anticipates the Middle Ages.
Watermills
The initial invention of the
Decorative structures
Monoliths
In architecture, a monolith is a structure which has been excavated as a unit from a surrounding matrix or outcropping of rock.[67] Monoliths are found in all types of Roman buildings. They were either: quarried without being moved; or quarried and moved; or quarried, moved and lifted clear off the ground into their position (e.g., architraves); or quarried, moved and erected in an upright position (e.g., columns).
Transporting was done by land or water (or a combination of both), in the later case often by special-built ships such as
Obelisks
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top. These were originally called "tekhenu" by the builders, the ancient Egyptians. The Greeks who saw them used the Greek 'obeliskos' to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and then English.[71] The Romans commissioned obelisks in an ancient Egyptian style. Examples include:
- Arles, France – the Arles Obelisk, in Place de la République, a 4th-century obelisk of Roman origin
- Benevento, Italy – three Roman obelisks[72][73]
- Munich – obelisk of Titus Sextius Africanus, Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst, Kunstareal, 1st century AD, 5.80 m
- Rome – there are five ancient Roman obelisks in Rome.
Roman gardens
Gardens were not reserved for the extremely wealthy. Excavations in Pompeii show that gardens attaching to residences were scaled down to meet the space constraints of the home of the average Roman. Modified versions of Roman garden designs were adopted in Roman settlements in Africa, Gaul, and Britannia. As town houses were replaced by tall insulae (apartment buildings), these urban gardens were replaced by window boxes or roof gardens.[citation needed]
Triumphal arches
A
The innovation of the Romans was to use these elements in a single free-standing structure. The columns became purely decorative elements on the outer face of the arch, while the entablature, liberated from its role as a building support, became the frame for the civic and religious messages that the arch builders wished to convey.[77] Little is known about how the Romans viewed triumphal arches. Pliny the Elder, writing in the first century AD, was the only ancient author to discuss them.[78] He wrote that they were intended to "elevate above the ordinary world" an image of an honoured person usually depicted in the form of a statue with a quadriga.[78]
The first recorded Roman triumphal arches were set up in the time of the Roman Republic.[79] Generals who were granted a triumph were termed triumphators and would erect fornices or honorific arches bearing statues to commemorate their victories.[80] Roman triumphal practices changed significantly at the start of the Imperial period, when the first
Most Roman triumphal arches were built during the Imperial period. By the fourth century AD there were 36 such arches in Rome, of which three have survived – the Arch of Titus (AD 81), the Arch of Septimius Severus (203–205) and the Arch of Constantine (312). Numerous arches were built elsewhere in the Roman Empire.[79] The single arch was the most common, but many triple arches were also built, of which the Triumphal Arch of Orange (c. AD 21) is the earliest surviving example. From the 2nd century AD, many examples of the arcus quadrifrons – a square triumphal arch erected over a crossroads, with arched openings on all four sides – were built, especially in North Africa. Arch-building in Rome and Italy diminished after the time of Trajan (AD 98–117) but remained widespread in the provinces during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD; they were often erected to commemorate imperial visits.[80]
The ornamentation of an arch was intended to serve as a constant visual reminder of the triumph and triumphator. The façade was ornamented with marble columns, and the piers and attics with decorative cornices. Sculpted panels depicted victories and achievements, the deeds of the triumphator, the captured weapons of the enemy or the triumphal procession itself. The spandrels usually depicted flying Victories, while the attic was often inscribed with a dedicatory inscription naming and praising the triumphator. The piers and internal passageways were also decorated with reliefs and free-standing sculptures. The vault was ornamented with coffers. Some triumphal arches were surmounted by a statue or a currus triumphalis, a group of statues depicting the emperor or general in a quadriga.[76][80]
Inscriptions on Roman triumphal arches were works of art in themselves, with very finely cut, sometimes gilded letters. The form of each letter and the spacing between them was carefully designed for maximum clarity and simplicity, without any decorative flourishes, emphasizing the Roman taste for restraint and order. This conception of what later became the art of typography remains of fundamental importance to the present day.[81]
Victory columns
Infrastructure
Roads
Aqueduct
The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts in order to bring water from distant sources into their cities and towns, supplying public baths, latrines, fountains and private households. Waste water was removed by complex sewage systems and released into nearby bodies of water, keeping the towns clean and free from effluent. Aqueducts also provided water for mining operations, milling, farms and gardens.
Aqueducts moved water through gravity alone, being constructed along a slight downward gradient within conduits of stone, brick or concrete. Most were buried beneath the ground, and followed its contours; obstructing peaks were circumvented or, less often, tunnelled through. Where valleys or lowlands intervened, the conduit was carried on bridgework, or its contents fed into high-pressure lead, ceramic or stone pipes and siphoned across. Most aqueduct systems included sedimentation tanks, sluices and distribution tanks to regulate the supply as needed.
Ancient Rome's first aqueduct – the Aqua Appia – supplied a water-fountain sited at the city's cattle market in the fourth century BC. By the third century AD, the city had eleven aqueducts, sustaining a population of over a million people in a water-extravagant economy; most of the water supplied the city's many public baths. Cities and municipalities throughout the Roman Empire emulated this model and funded aqueducts as objects of public interest and civic pride, "an expensive yet necessary luxury to which all could, and did, aspire."[86]
Most Roman aqueducts proved reliable, and durable; some were maintained into the
Bridges
Roman bridges, built by ancient Romans, were the first large and lasting bridges built.[87] Roman bridges were built with stone and had the arch as the basic structure. Most used concrete as well, which the Romans were the first to use for bridges.
Roman arch bridges were usually
The Romans also introduced segmental arch bridges into bridge construction. The 330 m long
Canals
Roman canals were typically multi-purpose structures, intended for irrigation, drainage, land reclamation, flood control and navigation where feasible. Some navigational canals were recorded by ancient geographers and are still traceable by modern archaeology. Channels which served the needs of urban water supply are covered at the List of aqueducts in the Roman Empire.
Cisterns
Freshwater reservoirs were commonly set up at the termini of aqueducts and their branch lines, supplying urban households, agricultural estates, imperial palaces, thermae or naval bases of the Roman navy.[90]
Dams
Roman dam construction began in earnest in the
The most frequent dam types were earth- or rock-filled
Roman builders were the first to realize the stabilizing effect of arches and buttresses, which they integrated into their dam designs. Previously unknown dam types introduced by the Romans include arch-gravity dams,[94][100] arch dams,[101][102][103][104][105] buttress dams,[106] and multiple-arch buttress dams.[107][108][100][109]
Defensive walls
The Romans generally fortified cities rather than fortresses, but there are some fortified camps such as the
The Romans walled major cities and towns in areas they saw as vulnerable, and parts of many walls remain incorporated in later defensive fortifications, as at Córdoba (2nd century BC), Chester (earth and wood in the 70s AD, stone from c. 100), and York (from 70s AD). Strategic walls across open country were far rarer, and Hadrian's Wall (from 122) and the Antonine Wall (from 142, abandoned only 8 years after completion) are the most significant examples, both on the Pictish frontier of Roman Britain.
Architectural features
Mosaics
On his return from campaigns in Greece, the general
There were two main techniques in Greco-Roman mosaic.
A specific genre of Roman mosaic obtained the name asaroton (Greek "unswept floor"). It represented an optical illusion of the leftovers from a feast on the floor of rich houses.[113]
Hypocaust
A hypocaust was an ancient Roman system of underfloor heating, used to heat buildings with hot air. The Roman architect Vitruvius, writing about the end of the 1st century BC, attributes their invention to Sergius Orata. Many remains of Roman hypocausts have survived throughout Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa. The hypocaust was an invention which improved the hygiene and living conditions of citizens, and was a forerunner of modern central heating.
Hypocausts were used for heating hot baths (
Roman roofs
In Magna Graecia truss roofs presumably appeared as early as 550 BC.[115] Their potential was fully realized in the Roman period, which saw trussed roofs over 30 meters wide spanning the rectangular spaces of monumental public buildings such as temples, basilicas, and later churches. Such spans were three times as wide as the widest prop-and-lintel roofs and only surpassed by the largest Roman domes.[116]
The largest truss roof by span of ancient Rome covered the Aula Regia (throne room) built for emperor Domitian (81–96 AD) on the Palatine Hill, Rome. The timber truss roof had a width of 31.67 m, slightly surpassing the postulated limit of 30 m for Roman roof constructions. Tie-beam trusses allowed for much larger spans than the older prop-and-lintel system and even concrete vaulting. Nine out of the ten largest rectangular spaces in Roman architecture were bridged this way, the only exception being the groin vaulted Basilica of Maxentius.[116]
Spiral stairs
The
Apart from the
The construction of spiral stairs passed on both to Christian and Islamic architecture.
City design
The ancient Romans employed regular orthogonal structures on which they molded their colonies.
The Romans used a consolidated scheme for city planning, developed for military defense and civil convenience. The basic plan consisted of a central forum with city services, surrounded by a compact, rectilinear grid of streets, and wrapped in a wall for defense. To reduce travel times, two diagonal streets crossed the square grid, passing through the central square. A river usually flowed through the city, providing water, transport, and sewage disposal.[123] Hundreds of towns and cities were built by the Romans throughout their Empire.
Many European towns, such as Turin, preserve the remains of these schemes, which show the very logical way the Romans designed their cities. They would lay out the streets at right angles, in the form of a square grid. All roads were equal in width and length, except for two, which were slightly wider than the others. One of these ran east–west, the other, north–south, and they intersected in the middle to form the center of the grid. All roads were made of carefully fitted flagstones and filled in with smaller, hard-packed rocks and pebbles. Bridges were constructed where needed. Each square marked off by four roads was called an insula, the Roman equivalent of a modern city block. Each insula was 80 yards (73 m) square, with the land within it divided. As the city developed, each insula would eventually be filled with buildings of various shapes and sizes and crisscrossed with back roads and alleys. Most insulae were given to the first settlers of a Roman city, but each person had to pay to construct his own house.
The city was surrounded by a wall to protect it from invaders and to mark the city limits. Areas outside city limits were left open as farmland. At the end of each main road was a large gateway with watchtowers. A portcullis covered the opening when the city was under siege, and additional watchtowers were constructed along the city walls. An aqueduct was built outside the city walls.
The development of Greek and Roman urbanization is well-known, as there are relatively many written sources, and there has been much attention to the subject, since the Romans and Greeks are generally regarded as the main ancestors of modern Western culture. It should not be forgotten, though, that the Etruscans had many considerable towns and there were also other cultures with more or less urban settlements in Europe, primarily of Celtic origin.[124]
Significant buildings and areas
Public buildings
- Kalendsof July in 109.
- Baths of Diocletian – in ancient Rome, these were the grandest of the public baths (thermae), built by successive emperors
- Baths of Caracalla
- Colosseum
- Trajan's Column, in Rome
- Circus Maximus, in Rome
- Curia Hostilia (Senate House), in Rome
- Domus Aurea (former building)
- Forum of Augustus
- Hadrian's Villa
- Pantheon
- Tower of Hercules
- Tropaeum Traiani
- Verona Arena, in Verona
- , Bulgaria
- Roman theatre of Philippopolis, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
- Roman Stadium, Philippopolis, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
- Roman baths, Odessos, Varna, Bulgaria
- Hisarya, Bulgaria
- Roman tomb, Primorsko, Bulgaria[125]
- Tholos
Private architecture
- Alyscamps – a necropolis in Arles, France, one of the most famous necropolises of the ancient world
- Domus
- Catacombs of Rome
- Roman villa
- Pompeii
- Herculaneum
- Stabiae
Civil engineering
- Roman engineering– Romans are famous for their advanced engineering accomplishments, although some of their own inventions were improvements on older ideas, concepts and inventions.
- Roman watermill
Military engineering
See also
- Outline of ancient Rome
- Outline of architecture
- Ancient Greek architecture
- Architecture of Mesopotamia
- Achaemenid architecture
- Roman technology
- Agriculture in ancient Rome
References
Footnotes
- ^ Henig, p. 26
- ^ Yarwood, 38
- ^ Henig, p. 27
- ^ DeLaine 1990, p. 407.
- ^ Rook 1992, pp. 18f..
- ^ Gardner 2005, p. 170.
- ^ Semper, 756
- ^ Ward-Perkins 1956.
- ^ Yarwood, 40
- S2CID 191392502.
- ^ a b Rasch 1985, p. 117.
- ^ Lechtman & Hobbs 1986.
- ^ Mark & Hutchinson 1986, p. 24.
- ^ Heinle & Schlaich 1996, p. 27.
- ^ Summerson, 13, 22–23, 40–44
- ^ Summerson, 10–13,
- ^ Summerson, 13,
- ^ Henig, p. 28
- ^ Henig, p. 32
- ^ Favro, (ii) Materials and construction techniques
- ^ Henig, p. 22; Favro, (ii) Materials and construction techniques, which lists major quarries
- ^ Juracek 1996, p. 310.
- ^ Peet 1911, pp. 35–36.
- ^ a b Walters & Birch 1905, p. 330–40.
- ^ Henig, p. 26. Blagg also mentions baths, granaries, insulae and large villas.
- ^ Bomgardner 2000, p. 37.
- ^ Bomgardner 2000, p. 59.
- ^ Bomgardner 2000, p. 62.
- ^ Bomgardner 2000, pp. 201–223.
- JSTOR 43943460.
- ^ JSTOR 3287491.
- ^ Richardson 1992, p. 193.
- ^ Lampe 2006, p. 61.
- ^ Potter & Mattingly 1999, p. 180.
- ^ Patrich 1996, p. 149.
- ^ Métreaux 1998, pp. 14–15.
- ^ Pliny, Epist. VIII.18
- ^ Seneca, Epist. 45
- ^ Schmitz 1875, p. 618.
- JSTOR 4389377.
- ^ JSTOR 4389377.
- ^ EERA, 134
- ^ Hermansen 1970.
- ^ Storey 2002.
- ^ Storey 2004.
- ^ Tacitus. Annales. II.49.
- ^ Lawrence, 294
- ^ Wheeler, p. 89
- ^ Lawrence, 294
- ^ Fowler, W. Warde (1899). Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press. pp. 202–204.
- ^ Summerson, pp. 8–13
- ^ Wilson Jones 2000.
- ^ Ros 1996.
- ^ Ward-Perkins 2000, p. 333.
- ^ La Villa Romana dell'Auditorium
- ^ Wikander 2000a, pp. 396f..
- ^ Donners, Waelkens & Deckers 2002, p. 11.
- ^ Wilson 2002, pp. 7f..
- ^ Wikander 2000a, pp. 373–378.
- ^ Donners, Waelkens & Deckers 2002, pp. 12–15.
- ^ Wikander 1985, p. 158.
- ^ Wikander 2000b, p. 403.
- ^ Wilson 2002, p. 16.
- ^ Wikander 2000b, p. 407.
- ^ Ritti, Grewe & Kessener 2007.
- ^ Wikander 2000b, pp. 406f..
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- ^ a b Hodge 2000, p. 332.
- ^ Smith 1970, pp. 60f..
- ^ Hodge 2000, pp. 331f..
- ^ Hodge 1992, pp. 86f..
- ^ Smith 1971, p. 49.
- ^ Smith 1971, p. 42.
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- ^ Smith 1971, pp. 33–35.
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- ^ Harris 1989, pp. 375–392: "The Etruscans were, in their turn, probably also influenced in this respect by Greek and Hellenic culture."
- ^ Vitrivius 1914.
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Further reading
- Adam, Jean Pierre. Roman Building: Materials and Techniques. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.
- Anderson, James C. Roman Architecture and Society. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
- Boëthius, Axel. Etruscan and Early Roman Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.
- Fant, J. Clayton. "Quarrying and Stoneworking." In The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World, edited by John P. Oleson, 121–135. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
- Hopkins, John North. The Genesis of Roman Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
- Lancaster, Lynne C. Concrete Vaulted Construction In Imperial Rome: Innovations In Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
- --. "Roman Engineering and Construction." In The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World, edited by John P. Oleson, 256–284. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2008.
- MacDonald, William Lloyd. The Architecture of the Roman Empire. Rev. ed. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1982.
- Macready, Sarah, and F. H. Thompson. Roman architecture in the Greek world. London: Society of Antiquaries, 1987.
- Sear, Frank. Roman Architecture. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1983.
- Thomas, Edmund V. Monumentality and the Roman Empire: Architecture in the Antonine age. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
- Ulrich, Roger B. Roman Woodworking. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2007.
- Ulrich, Roger B., and Caroline K Quenemoen. A Companion to Roman Architecture. Somerset: Wiley, 2013.
External links
- Traianus – Technical investigation of Roman public works
- Housing and apartments in Rome – A look at various aspects of housing in ancient Rome, apartments and villas.
- Rome Reborn − A Video Tour through Ancient Rome based on a digital model. Archived 10 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
- Virtual Rome: What Did Ancient Rome Look Like? on YouTube—A virtual tour through Ancient Rome based on a digital model