Contents
1. Introduction
2. Architectural Priorities of Ancient Rome
3. Architectural Advances: Arches & Concrete
4. Types of architecture of Ancient Rome
o Housing and Apartments
o Public architecture
o Thermae
o Forum
5. Civil engineering
o Aqueduct
o Bridges
o Walls
6. Impact of Politics and Religion on Roman Architecture
Roman Architecture
Unlike the more creative and intellectual Greeks, the Romans were essentially practical people with a flair for engineering, construction and military matters. In their architecture, as in their art, they borrowed heavily from both the Etruscans (eg. in their use of hydraulics for swamp-clearing and in the construction of arches), and also the Greeks, whom they regarded as their superiors in all visual arts. However, without Roman art - with its genius for copying and adapting Greek styles - most of the artistic achievements of Greek antiquity would have been lost.
Architectural Priorities of Ancient Rome
Roman architecture served the needs of the Roman state, which was keen to impress, entertain and cater for a growing population in relatively confined urban areas. Social elements such as wealth and high population densities in cities forced the ancient Romans to discover new (architectural) solutions of their own. Drainage was a common problem, as was security. This, together with Rome's growing desire to increase its power and majesty throughout Italy and beyond, required public buildings to be imposing, large-scale and highly functional. This is exemplified by Roman architectural achievements in drainage systems, aqueducts, bridges, roads, municipal structures like public baths, sports facilities and amphitheatres, even central heating systems. Numerous temples and theatres were also built. Later, as their empire spread, the Roman architects seized the opportunity to create new towns from scratch, designing urban grid-plans based on two wide streets - a north-south axis (the cardo) and an east-west axis (the decumanus). The town centre was located at the intersection of the two roads. They also built upwards; for example, Ostia, a rich port city near Rome, boasted a number of 5-storey apartment blocks.
Roman buildings were then built in the commercial, political, and social grouping known as a forum, that of Julius Caesar being the first and several added later, with the Forum Romanum being the most famous. The greatest arena in the Roman world, the Colosseum, was completed around 80 A.D. at the far end of that forum. It held over 50,000 spectators, had retractable fabric coverings for shade, and could stage massive spectacles including huge gladiatorial contests and mock naval battles. This masterpiece of Roman architecture epitomizes Roman engineering efficiency and incorporates all three architectural orders—Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. Less celebrated but just as important if not more so for most Roman citizens, was the five-story insula or city block, the Roman equivalent of an apartment building, which housed tens of thousands of Romans.
It was during the reign of Trajan (98-117 A.D.) and Hadrian (117-138 A.D.) that the Roman Empire reached its greatest extent and that Rome itself was at the peak of its artistic glory— achieved through massive building programs of monuments, meeting houses, gardens, aqueducts, baths, palaces, pavilions, sarcophagi, and temples.
Architectural Orders. The Romans preferred more ornate columns to the simple Doric and Ionic. The name of the column was also the name of the architectural order. Columns were used to support structures as well as for decoration. A word like octastyle refers to the number (8) of columns on the front row of the porch.
Columns could be made by stacking drums, but many of the Roman columns were made of single pieces with the fluting left off. If made of porphyry or other hard materials, these columns would be polished. The Romans also increased the height of the columns by mounting them on pedestals. Romans also used columns as buttresses.
Architectural Advances: Arches & Concrete
During the Republican era, Roman architecture combined Greek and Etruscan elements, and produced innovations such as the round temple and the curved arch. As Roman power grew in the early empire, the first emperors inaugurated wholesale leveling of slums to build grand palaces on the Palatine Hill and nearby areas, which required advances in engineering methods and large scale design.
Roman architecture was assisted by major advances in both design and new materials. Design was enhanced through architectural developments in the construction of arches and roof domes. Arches improved the efficiency and capability of bridges and aqueducts (fewer support columns were needed to support the structure), while domed roofs not only permitted the building of larger open areas under cover, but also lent the exterior an impressive appearance of grandeur and majesty, as in several important secular and Christian basilicas, like the Pantheon.
The use of vaults and arches together with a sound knowledge of building materials, for example, enabled them to achieve unprecedented successes in the construction of imposing structures for public use.
Developments in materials were also crucial, as chronicled by Vitruvius in his book De Architectura. This is exemplified by the Roman invention of concrete (opus cementicium), a mixture of lime mortar, sand, water, and stones, in the 3rd century BC. This exceptionally strong and convenient substitute for stone revolutionized Roman engineering and architecture. As tile-covered concrete began to replace marble as the main building material, architects could be more daring. Buildings were freed from the rectangular Greek design-plan (with its undomed roofs and lines of pillars supporting flat architraves) and became less geometric and more free-flowing.
Because of these methods, Roman architecture is legendary for the durability of its construction; with many buildings still standing, and some still in use, mostly buildings converted to churches during the Christian era. Many ruins, however, have been stripped of their marble veneer and are left with their concrete core exposed, thus appearing somewhat reduced in size and grandeur from their original appearance, such as with the Basilica of Constantine.
The Roman use of the arch, the use of concrete building methods, the use of the dome all permitted construction of vaulted ceilings and enabled the building of these public spaces and complexes, including the palaces, public baths and basilicas of the “Golden Age” of the empire.
Like their Egyptian and the Greek predecessors, architects in ancient Rome embellished their public buildings with a wide range of artworks, including: Roman sculpture (especially reliefs, statues and busts of the Emperor), fresco murals, and mosaics. The concrete core was covered with a plaster, brick, stone, or marble veneer, and decorative polychrome and gold-gilded sculpture was often added to produce a dazzling effect of power and wealth.