Roman Culture and Society
Abigail.Graham@warwick.ac.uk
Lecture 16: What is Roman Architecture?
Sources:
Vitruvius De Architectura
Pliny the Elder, Natural History
Pausanias, A travel guide to Ancient Greece
Frontinus
Intro. We Built this City: Urban Plans & the Context of Roman Architecture
1. Urban plan of Rome
2. Urban Plan of Pompeii (Greek, then Oscan city, founded as a colony in 80 BC)
3. Urban Plan of Timgad (Algeria, founded ca. AD 100)
4. Urban Plan of Orange (France: Gallia Narbonensis, ca. 40 BC)
5. Urban Plan of Ephesus (Asia Minor)
6. Urban Plan Palmyra (Made part of Roman Syria ca. AD 14-27)
What are ‘Roman Buildings’?
How many of these had precedents in Greece and the Near East?
Are Romans merely plunderers of other cultures?
1. Temples: Hierarchy, Equality & the Ideology of Architectural Space
A. A battle of Precedents: Greek vs. Etruscan Styles
1. Greek Temples
a. Temples of Hera and Poseiden at Paestum (Italy)
2. Etruscan Temples: Vitruvius, Book IV. Chapter 7:
B. ‘Roman’ Temples in Rome (Vitruvius Book IV; Chapters 1-4)
a. Temple to Hercules Victor (100BC)
b. Temple of Concordia (vowed 367, rest 121 & by Tiberius (AD 7-14)
* Pliny, Natural History
c. Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
d. Pantheon
C. ‘Roman’ Temples in the Provinces
a. Temple of Augustus(Nimes: Gallia Narbon: ca. 16 BC– AD2-4: Agrippa/G&L)
b. Temple of Bel (Zeus Megistos?) (Palmyra)
c. Temple of Minerva Sulis (Bath)
What civic values do they represent?
What is ‘Roman’ about these buildings?
Are canonical models of Roman buildings useful ?
2. Theatres: Setting the Stage: Equality, Separation and Control
A. Greek models
1. Greek theatre at Taoromina (Sicily)
B. The History of the Roman Theatre: A history of innovation
1. The theatre at Pompeii (ca. 75 BC)
2. The theatre of Pompey in Rome (63 BC?)
C. Vitruvius, the Scaenae Frons & the canonical theatre (De Arch. Book V. Ch. 6)
D. ‘Roman’ Theatres in the Provinces
1. The best(?) preserved Scaenae Frons: The theatre at Sabratha (Libya) 3rd. c. AD
2. Theatre at Orange (early 1st c. AD)
3. Theatre Ephesus (before & after)
4. Theater at Palmyra
E. The Scaenae Frons: Theatrical Architecture
1. Library of Celsus & Nymphaeum Trajani (Ephesus)
2. Sebasteion (Aphrodisias)
3. Baths: Rome takes on the elements: Water, Earth, Light and Gravity
Balnea, vina, Venus corrumpunt corpora nostra; sed vitam faciunt balnea, vina, Venus, "Baths,
wine and sex corrupt our bodies; but baths, wine and sex make life worth living."
- Epitaph of Tiberius Claudius Secundus (CIL VI.15258)
A. Greek models: Balnaea (Vitruvius De Arch, Book V, Chapter 10)
B. Rome and the Dome: light and space. Thermae
a. A short but marvelous history of Waterproof concrete
b. Forum Baths at Pompeii: Balnaea (ca. 80 BC)
c. Baths of Agrippa (Rome) (ca. 19 BC)
d. Baths of Caracalla
C. ‘Roman’ Baths in the Provinces
a. Eastern Examples: Ephesus
b. British Baths: Bath
c. Timgad: Hunting Baths
4. The Arch: Rome’s Architectural Triumph
A. The Roman Triumph: Triumphal Arches in Rome
a. Arch of Claudius (text largely restored)
"The Senate & People of Rome [dedicated this] to Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus
Germanicus...because he received 11 surrendered Briton kings, conquered without loss and he
first brought the barbarian peoples across the Ocean under the authority of the Roman people.
b. Arch of Titus
The Senate and People of Rome dedicated (this arch) to Divine Titus Vespasianus Augustus, son
of Divine Vespasian
c. Arch of Constantine
To the Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantinus, the greatest, pious, and blessed Augustus: because
he, inspired by the divine, and by the greatness of his mind, has delivered the state from the
tyrant and all of his followers at the same time, with his army and just force of arms, the Senate
and People of Rome have dedicated this arch, decorated with triumphs.
B. Arches in the Province
a. Arch at Orange(?)
b. Mithridates and Mazeus’ Arch (Ephesus) (ca. 3BC)
c. Arch at Timgad
C. Tetrapyla in the East: Something funny happened on the way to the Forum..
a. Aphrodisias: Plan & Tetrapylon
b. Palmyra: Plan & Tetrapylon
D. Arches, Arches Everywhere: The Greater Architectural Context
a. The Colloseum
b. The Amphitheatre in Pompeii
c. Pont du Gard
d. Pollio’s Aqueduct in Ephesus
5. Exotic Miscellany: Basilicas, Pyramids, Obelisks and more…
II. Conclusions: Architecture, Monumentality and the Mirror of Erised
How useful are architectural models? Was ‘Roman’ architecture a universally defined term?
What do regional variations demonstrate? How does these structures reflect civic ideology?
Bibliography
Weblinks: For a nice outline of Vitruvius extensive De Architectura:
http://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/garden_landscape_design_articles/landscape_theory/
vitruvius
For images, plans or basic details of theatres go to:
http://www.whitman.edu/theatre/theatretour/
For baths: Imperial Thermae
http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/ge/BT-001-PA.html
http://www.penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/.../Thermae_Agrippae.html
Baths in Bath
http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/walkthrough/the_roman_site.aspx
Adam, J-P. (1994) Roman Building: materials and techniques [NA 310.A3]
Barton, I.M. Roman Public Buildings
Boethius, A. (1960) The Golden House of Nero [NA 310.B6]
Clarke, J.R. (1991) The Houses of Roman Italy [NA 324.C5]
Davies, P. (2000) Death and the Emperor: Roman Imperial Funerary Monuments fromAugustus
to Marcus Aurelius (Cambridge) [NB 1875.D2]
DeLaine, J. (1997) The Baths of Caracalla: a study in design, construction and economicsof a
large scale building project in imperial Rome. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement 25
(Portsmouth RI) [DG 68.1.D3]
Henig, M., ed. (1990) Architecture and Architectural sculpture in the Roman Empire
Macdonald, W.L. The Architecture of the Roman Empire vols. I and II (1986) Macready, F. &
Thompson, S. (1987) Roman Architecture in the Greek World
[NA 310.R6]
Sear, F. (1988) Roman Architecture [NA 310.S3]
Sear, F.B., 'The Theatre at Lepcis Magna and the Development of Roman Theatre Design',
Journal of Roman Archaeology 3 (1990) 376-382
Ward-Perkins, J.B. (1981) Roman Imperial Architecture (Harmondsworth) [N 5300.P3]
Wilson Jones, M. (2008) Principles of Roman Architecture
Yegul, F.K., "Roman" Architecture in the Greek World,' Journal of Roman
Archaeology 94 (1990) 345- 355
Delaine, J (1993) ' Roman Baths and Bathing', JRA (Journal of Roman Archaeology 6, 348-58.
& Johnston's (eds) Roman Baths & bathing (esp. Bathing and society, JRA supp. 37 (1999).
Fagan, G.G. Bathing in Public in the Roman world (1999)
I. Nielsen, (1990) Thermae and Balnea. The Architecture and Cultural History of
Roman Public Baths I-II .
Yegül F., (1992) Baths and Bathing in Classical Antiquity.