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Roman architecture
Timeline and influences
Geographical
The central and commanding position of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea enabled Rome to act as an
intermediary in spreading art and civilization over Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The methods
adopted by Rome for extending her influence differed from those of Greece. The Romans were not a
seafaring people like the Greeks, and depended for the extension of their power, not on colonization, but
on conquest. The Roman Empire was not only confined geographically to Italy, but included all those
parts of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia which constituted the then-known world.
Geological
The Romans took very great pains to exploit natural resources to the full. The geological formation of
Italy differs from that of Greece, where the chief and almost the only building materials are stone and
marble; whereas in addition to these, the Romans could procure suitable earths for the making of Terra-
cotta and brick, the latter very extensively used, even for important buildings. In the neighborhood of
Rome, building stones included Tufa, of varying degrees of hardness, from calcerous deposits in Rome
itself and immediate vicinity; peperino, a stone of volcanic origin from Mount Albano; Travertine, a hard
limestone of fine quality from Trivoli; lava from volcanic eruptions; besides excellent sand and gravel.
The building materials however which led to great structural innovations'was concrete, formed of stone or
brick rubble and a mortar of which the important ingredient was pozzolana, a volcanic earth, found in
thick strata in and around Rome and in the region of Naples. Enormous quantity of white and coloured
marbles were imported from all parts of the Empire to special wharves on the Tiber.
Climatic
North Italy has the climate of the temperature region of Europe, Central Italy is genial and sunny, while
the south is almost tropical. This variety of climatic conditions is sufficient to account for diversity of
architectural features and treatment in the peninsula itself, while the differing climates of the various
Roman provinces produced local modifications in details, though Roman architectural character was so
pronounced and assertive as to leave little choice in general design.
Historical and social
From its legendary foundation C 753 B.C. and throughout the sixth century B.C. Rome was little more
than an insignificant hill town in South Etruria. It was under Etruscan domination and ruled by Etruscan
Kings, aided by a form of popular assembly. Towards the close of the sixth century B.C. etruscan
supremacy began to decline and fall. The declaration and development of a constitutional republic and
civil service are indicative of Roman charac-teristics; they were great organizers, thrifty, patient farmer-
soldiers, dutiful to authority and the law and concerned with efficiency and justice.
en The Romans began to conquer peoples outside Italy. The prolonged and often desperate wars had a
deleterious effect on the Roman personality and on constitutional government.
The economic and social dislocations led to the drift of refugees and the dispossessed to Rome, procuding
social unbalance and class strife which with the acquisition of territories and the beginning of Empire
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overwhelmed and broke the system of government devised for a city state. These troubles are further
aggravated by the problems of maintaining large standing armies serving for a long campaigne in distant
territories -a citizen soldiery had to be transformed into a professional army, the reform and control of
which was exasperated ineffective republican government and gave rise to a succession of military
dictatorships of which Julius Caesar is the most famous.
The social life of the Romans is clearly revealed in their architecture. There were ther-mae for bathing
and games, circuses for races, amphitheatres for gladiatorial contests, theatres for drama, basilicas for
Lawsuits, state Temples for religion and the apartment house or the "DOMUS" for family life, while the
forum was everywhere the centre of public life and national commerce. Amidst all this diversity of
pursuits, one constant trait runs through all Roman life, the capacity for obedience which was the basis
alike to society and the state. The "Patria- Potestas" or supreme power of the father, was the foundation
stone of family life, and out of their obedience to authority, whether to the head of the household, or to
censors in the state, the Romans developed their capacity as lawmakers. Based on slavery, and aristocratic
in origin, the Roman system lacked a strong middle class. Roman women were held in high respect,
family life was protected and the temple of vesta. The most sacred spot in Rome, has recorded for all
time. The sacredness attached by the Romans to their family hearth.
Religious
Since the Romans were originally a mixed people, their polytheistic religion was the fusion of several
cults, but owed most to the Etruscans who involved a scrupulous attention to ritual, to conformity, and to
the will of the gods in a Fatalistic acceptance of their domination. In the course if time many of the chief
Roman gods acquired similar attributes to those of the Greeks, but retained their lain names and rites.
Religious feelings had not so strong a hold on the Romans as on the Greeks, and did not enter into the life
of the people to the same degree nor do find that it formed a bond of union among the different provinces
of the Empire. Dissatisfaction with state refigion showed itself from time to time in the introduction to
Rome of alien cults from Egypt and the Near East.
Architectural character
The Romans adopted the columnar and trabeated style of the Greeks, and developed also the arch and the
vault from the beginnings made by the Etruscans. This combined use of column, beam and arch is the
keynote of the Roman style in its earliest stages. In the colosseum piers strengthed and faced by attached
half columns support arches, which in their turn carry the entablature. In the acqueducts, the arch was
supported on piers without the facing column. Thus the orders of architecture (Greeks used in
constructively) were used by Romans as decorative features which could be omitted.
The Romans added as Fourth and Fifth orders of Architecture the TUSCAN and the composite orders.
The Tuscan order is a simplified version of the Doric order, about 7 diameters high, with base, unfluted
shaft, and simply, moulded capital, and with a plain entablature.
The composite order was not evolved until the first century A.D.
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Famous structures
falerii novi
The ancient settlement of Falerii Novi belonged first to the Falisci Italic people, then the Romans. The city
was known as Falerii Veteres, located 50 kilometers north of Rome. It was part of the Etruria zone with
trading ties to the Etruscans, when the Romans overtook it, demonstrating their military might and
destroyed the Falisci, but 5,000 people died in the siege. They went about rebuilding it into a Roman city,
with two kilometers of protective walls and 50 towers. Of the six original city gates, two remain: the Porta
di Giove and the Porta Bove. Incredibly, much of the protective wall is intact, along with many of the
torrette (short towers).
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etruscan sarcophagi
both ordinary burial, and cremation were practiced in Etruria. The receptacles grew increasingly large, until
in the 4th century B.C.
Sarcophagi of stone, alabaster and terracotta were used in very large numbers.
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Pantheon
The Pantheon at Rome, the finest of all illustrations of Roman construction, embodies every form of Roman
buttress. The building is two tiers high to the springing of the hemispherical dome inside, but there is an
extra tier on the outside, providing rigid and weighty haunches to prevent the dome from splitting outwards
and as an extra precaution, a further series of steps of concrete rises two-thirds the height of the dome. It is
for this constructional reason that Roman domes are always saucer-shaped outside, though hemispherical
within. The weight of the vault is reduced by omitting a portion at the crown - the most difficult part to
construct -to provide an "eye" which is the sole source of natural light. The 6.1 m (20 ft.) thick walls are
not by any means solid; the decorative recesses inside are contrived within spur buttresses linking inner and
outer shells, and between these recesses are constructional niches which run the full three-tier height and
are crowned with semi-domes at the top of each tier; in the upper tiers they are split in half by spur
buttresses. Thus all forms of buttress used later in developed medieval architecture was anticipated by
Roman architects, but with the difference that the Roman were farless light and compact, and seldom plainly
exposed to view.
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thermae of Caracalla
served as protection from the sun. A large reservoir fed by a special aqueduct supplied all the water needed
for the bath apartments, fountain and miscellaneous purposes.
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the colosseum
The Coloseum, Rome-a vast ellipse 189 x 156.5 m with eighty external arcaded openings on each storey,
those on the ground floor forming entrances from which the various tiers of seats were reached. The arena
proper is an oval 87.47 m x 54.86 m surrounded by a wall 4.57 m high, behind which was the podium, with
the Imperial throne and seats for the officers of the state.
Behind the podium rose the auditorium seats for some 50,000 spectators, with corridors and stairs beneath,
while dens for the wild beasts were under the lowest tier, on a level with the arena.
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Early Christian architecture
Influences
Geographical
Christianity had its birth in Judaea, an Eastern province of the Roman Empire, but directly it became a
living organism it was naturally carried by St. Peter, St. Paul and other missionaries to Rome, as the centre
of the World-Empire. There at the fountain-head of power and influence, and in spite of opposition and
persecution, the new religion took root and grew, till it was strong enough to become the recognized
universal religion of the whole Roman Empire. Early Christian architecture in Rome was influenced by
existing Roman art.
Geological
Geological influences maybe said to have acted indirectly rather than directly on early chris-tian
architecture, for the ruins of Roman buildings often provided the quarry whence materials were obtained.
This influenced the style, both as as regards construction and decoration, for columns and other architectural
features as well as fine sculptures and mosaics from older buildings, were worked into basilican churches
of the new faith.
Historical and social
The early Christian period is generally taken as lasting from constantine to the coronation of Charlemagne
(800). The incursions of the Huns into Europe about 376 eventually brought about invasions from the North
into Italy, and in 410 Rome itself was sacked by the Goths under Alaric. So many conflicting forces were
at work in Europe that the spread of the new religion was arrested during this period of change and upheaval,
until 451, when the defeat of Attila, King of the Huns, at the battle of chalors aided in the consolidation of
christianity in Europe. In 568 the Lombards penetrated into Italy and held the Northern part for 200 years.
Then in 800 Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope in Rome, and from this date, the empire was styled te
Holy Roman Empire, a title which survived until 1806.
Constantine changed the capital of the Empire from Rome to Byzantium in 330 when the old Roman
political system came to an end, and this royal convert reigned as an absolute monarch till his death in 337.
The series of Emperors in the West came to an end in A.D. 476, and the Eastern and Western empires was
nominally reunited by Zeno, who reigned at Constantinople. The emancipation of Western Europe from
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direct Imperial control resulted in the development of Romano-Teofonic civilization, which facilitated the
growth of new states and nationalities, gave a fresh impulse to christianity, and eventually strengthened the
power of the bishops of Roman.
Religious
In this period and all ages, christianity has inspired the building of same of the greatest architectural
monuments. Unlike those temples of the old Greeks and Romans which were built to shetter the statues of
the gods, the purpose of the Christian Church was to shelter worshippers who met for prayer and praise to
an unseen deity and during the unsettled conditions at the beginning of christianity, various places were
adapted for this worship. This is the buildings of pagan temples ceased before any attempt was. made to
build christian churches.
Architectural character
The early christians, as Roman craftsmen, continued old Roman traditions, but prosperity was declining
and it was natural that for their new buildings, they should utilize as far as possible the materials from
Roman temples which had become useless for their original pur-pose. Further, in their churches, modelled
on Roman basilicas, they used old columns which by various devices were brought to a uniform height.
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Famous structures
St. peter’s basilican church
Erected by Constantine near the site of the martyrdom of St. Peter in the circus of Nero, was pulled down
to make way for the present cathedral. The atrium led through the narthex to the great nave with double
aisles terminating in five arches, the central of which was called the arch of triumph.
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st. paolo fuori le mura
Founded in 380 is the largest and most impressive of all basilican churches. The nave has eighty great
columns of simplon granite, with mosaic mural medallions of the Popes above. The arch of triumph with
5th century mosaics, the double Bema, the apse with mosaics of the 13th century, and the remarkable high
altar with its double baldachino over the confessio of St.Paul, all contribute to the grandeur of the interior.
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tomb of galla placidia
Of simple appearance externally, the walls of brick-work are relieved by shallow blind ar-ches. A square
tower, roofed by a shallow pyramid, conceals the unusual dome in which both the dome and pendentives
are a part of the same sphere.
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Byzantine Architecture
Influences
Geographical
Byzantium, renamed Constantinople after Constantine the great, and later to Istanbul, was also called the
"New Rome," was inaugurated as the capital of the Roman empire in 330. It stood at the junction of the
Bosphorus and the sea of Marmora, where Asia and Europe are divided by only a narrow strip of water.
This gave it a commanding and central position. For the government of the eastern and most valuable part
of the Roman Empire.
Byzantine art pervaded all parts of the Eastern Roman Empire and was carried by traders to Greece, Serbia,
Russia, Asia Minor, North Africa and further West where it is found in Venice, Ravenna and Perigueux.
Venice, by her situation, was connecting link between the Byzantine and Frankish Empires, and a depot for
merchandise from both East and West.
Geological
Constantinople had no good building stone, and local materials such as clay for bricks and rubble for
concrete were employed. Other materials more monumental in character had therefore to be imported;
marble was brought from the quarries in the island and along the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean to
Constantinople, which was the chief marble-working centre and supplied all parts of the Roman Empire.
Byzantine architecture was further considerably influenced by the multitude of Monolithic columns of such
sizes as were obtainable from the different quarries. These were even introduced into the underground
asterns for the water storage of this Imperial city.
Climatic
Flat roofs for summer resort were combined with oriental domes, and these, with small windows often high
up in otherwise unbroken walls, formed the chief features of the style, and sheltering arcades surrounded
the open courts.
Historical and social
Byzantium was founded as a Greek colony 660 B.C. and A. D. 330 became the capital of the Roman Empire.
On the death of the Emperor Theodosius I (395) the Empire was finally divided and Byzantium continued
to be the capital of the Eastern Empire; and throughout the Middle Ages was the bulwark of Christianity
against the attacks of slav barbarians on the west and of Moslem in the East.
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The history of the Byzantine Empire from the 5th to the 11th century is one of fluctuating and gradually
declining fortunes.
There were always conflicts with Persians and the Moslems. In the 11th century the decline was accelerated
because, besides having enemies of the East and North. The Empire was now attacked by Normans and
Venetians. The old Empire still lingered on for nearly two hundred years, but its vitality had been sapped
by internal dissensions and continuous warfare against the Persians and Turks, and it was finally captured
by Ottoman Turks in 1453. Never-theless, the spirit of the Empire had fallen, especially in Russia and in
the Balkans. Constantinople has continued up to the present day as the seat of a Patriarch of the Orthodox
Church.
Byzantium was an old Greek City, and so the new Imperial buildings were executed by Greek craftsmen
untrammelled by Roman traditions. Within the fortifications of Constantine, the new city was laid out on
Roman lines, so far as the hills and site allowed.
There was the central dividing street running through a succession of six forums of which the original
Augusteam was adjoined, not only by St. Sophia, the greatest glory of early Christendom, but also by the
Imperial palace, senate house and law courts. The forum of Constantine, with its great porphyry column,
was the center of commercial life, while in the Hippodrome hard by, the chariot races took place which
were the chief amusement of New Rome, as gladiatorial combat had been of old Rome.
The Hippodrome held the same position in the social life of New Rome as the collosseum and Thermae did
in old Rome, and was used for all purposes and on all occasions -for election of emperors; burying or
martyrs, execution of criminals, and for triumphal processions.
Religious
In the year 313 the Edict of Milan was issued, which granted toleration to Christians, and in
330 Constantinople became the capital of the first Christian Empire. It follows that the chief buildings
erected in the new capital were churches for the new religions. At first they were of the basilican Early
Christian type. But later the domical Byzantine Style was developed.
Byzantine architecture, devoid of statues has always been and still remains the official style of the Orthodox
church of Greece and eastern Europe which has conserved unchanged its doctrines and ritual.
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Architectural character
The character Byzantine architecture, which dates from the fifth century to the present day, is determined
by the novel development of the dome to cover polygonal and square plans for churches, tombs and
baptisteries.
The practice of using a domical system of roof construction is in strong contrast to the Early Christian
timber trusses.
It may be broadly stated that the basilican type of plan belongs to Early Christian architec-ture, and the
domed, centralized type of plan to the Byzantine.
The system of construction in hand-laid concrete, introduced by the Romans, progressively had become
more like regular brickwork, and in this form was adopted by the Byzantines.
The carcase of brickwork was first completed and allowed to settle before the interior surface sheathing
unyielding marble slabs was added, and this independence of the component parts is characteristic of
Byzantine construction.
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Famous structures
St. Sophia
Was built by Justinian by the architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, or the site of two
successive basilican churches of the same name, erected respectively by Constantine and Theodosius II.
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St. mark’s cathedral
This famous edifice stands on the site of the original basilican church, which was founded in 830 to receive
the body of St. Mark, and partially burnt down 976.
The plan has a central dome 12.8 m (42 ft.) in diameter, and a dome over each arm of the
' cross. The great square piers, 8.5 m x 6.4 m (28 ft. x 21 ft.) which carry the dome are pierced on both the
ground and gallery levels, and arcades support passages connecting the central piers to the extremities of
the nave and transepts.
The addition of the narthex and baptistery makes the church approximately square in
plan.
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