Origins

Roman architecture has its first origins in Etruscan architecture, to which the influence of Greek architecture was later added, especially after the Punic Wars, and therefore presents features of both. Today Roman architecture is dated to the date when the first road and the first aqueduct were built. Around this time, and during Rome's conquests in Sicily and Greece itself, Roman generals used to take a large number of artistic objects as prizes for their victories. On the other hand, Greek and Etruscan artists, attracted by the economic power of the lady of the Mediterranean, brought to Rome the taste and even the passion for fine arts and Roman artists were trained in their schools. But it will not be until the end of the Hellenistic period when Roman architecture presents its own truly differentiated features[1]. The ancient Roman buildings resembled the Etruscan buildings in every way, and were made up of solid blocks of huge blocks of carved or rough stone laid dry.[2]​.

At first, Roman architecture was very austere, limited to the construction of buildings of practical use. Sculptural and pictorial ornaments were very limited and almost absent from all buildings, especially during the monarchy. It was not until the Siege of Syracuse, in 214 BC. C.-212 BC C., when the taste for fine arts began to exert a great influence on Roman society[3].

In 144 BC C., Greece became a Roman province, and many Greek artists, reduced to slavery, went to work in Rome. The triumph of Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus in the Battle of Pydna also contributed to the advancement of artistic taste in Rome, from which he extracted many artistic treasures, in addition to the looting of Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix of the temples of Delphi, Olympia and Epidaurus, the treasures extracted by Octavian of Alexandria and the assault of Publius Cornelius Dolabella on many temples in Asia. All these treasures ended up in Rome, giving rise to a refinement of artistic taste such as had not been known before. The first marble temple to be built in Rome was built by order of the consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, with the Lacedaemonian architects Sauro and Batraco[4].

Technical innovations

Thanks to the technical developments of the Romans for the construction of arches and vaults, the basic Greek conception could be overcome, in which the columns "Column (architecture)") and architraves were necessary to support heavy beams and ceilings, becoming, in most cases, mere decorative elements. The Romans did not feel restricted by Greek aesthetic concerns and made use of the classical orders with considerable freedom. At their maximum splendor, they demonstrated great fertility of invention, a monumental conception of space and a clear sense of large volumes[5]​.

Innovation began in the 10th century BC. C. with the development of Roman concrete as an available complement or substitute for stone and brick. The buildings began to integrate large pillars that supported wide arches and domes. The freedom given by concrete also inspired the development of the arcade and the colonnade, a row of purely decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. In smaller scale architecture, the strength of Roman concrete freed the floor plan from rectangular cells to a free-flowing environment.

The Romans used the arch "Arco (construction)") and the vault profusely. This is not formed with paired stone voussoirs (except in some Asian constructions), as was available in the Etruscan vault, but rather with a mass made of pozzolana and gravel. The vaults used to have thick brick arches, either parallel or diagonal but embedded in the vault itself, which served as temporary support and as internal reinforcement of the vault. A superb example is the dome of Agrippa's Pantheon in Rome.

The Romans not only built barrel vaults and domes, but also rudimentary groin and ribbed vaults. But the latter must have been used infrequently outside the Eastern Empire since only those of the Baths of Caracalla and those of the Basilica of Maxentius are known, in which a system of internal counters applied to the vault can be seen. The historiated capitals that were so popular in the Middle Ages also began to appear in Roman architecture, as some examples of them have been discovered in Pompeii and other sites.

Roman buildings, depending on their use, could be very sober or very sumptuous. Bridges and aqueducts are austere and functional, while temples and palaces are luxurious and monumental, with a clear representative purpose. The noblest buildings were covered in stone forming orders, which did not reflect the real interior structure. The walls of sumptuous buildings were decorated with paintings and the pavements with mosaics.

Augustus' urban renewal

Factors such as wealth and high population density in cities forced the ancient Romans to discover new architectural solutions of their own. The use of vaults and arches "Arch (architecture)"), together with a solid knowledge of building materials, allowed them to achieve unprecedented successes in the construction of an imposing infrastructure for public use. The conquest of Greece brought hundreds of Greek artists to Italy, and the pax Romana sponsored by Augustus led to an unprecedented economic boom, which allowed the development of the arts, including architecture.[6]​.

After defeating Mark Antony in the Battle of Actium, and thus establishing peace in the territory dominated by the Romans, Augustus undertook a major urban reform in Rome that changed the face of the city. Augustus, who not only promoted construction but also all the arts, would have undertaken this reform to condition the city to its new status as imperial capital, but also to fulfill the wish that his adoptive father, Julius Caesar, had had to improve the appearance of Rome. By that time, the city had already reached one million inhabitants, many of whom were immigrants, which led to the formation of popular neighborhoods such as Suburra, Argileto and Velabro. Given such demographic growth, an urban planning program was necessary that included storage warehouses and a port to guarantee the supply of the population.

Under the government of Augustus, the channel of the Tiber River was expanded to avoid flooding and new aqueducts were built, in addition to the first public baths, two theaters, an amphitheater and a public library; A new forum was also built, the Forum Augusti (Forum of Augustus), the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace), temples such as the Pantheon of Agrippa or that of Mars Ultor (Avenging Mars), gardens, porticos and other public buildings. Another of the most important works of Augustus's urban beautification program was the renovation of the Campus Martius (Campus Martius "Field of Mars (Rome)"), which was transformed into an impressive monumental complex. The Mausoleum of Augustus was intended to store his remains and those of his family, and the House of Augustus (Domus Augusti) on the Palatine Hill would be the first building in the complex that would constitute the palatium, the imperial palace.[7]​.

Thanks to the beautification program of the city led by Augustus, architecture had a great boost, as the historian Suetonius reports:

Architectural boom

The architectural peak of the Empire approximately includes the time between the reigns of Nero and Constantine I (that is, between the years 54 to 337), with the works built during the governments of Titus, Trajan and Hadrian being especially notable[9]. Prominent examples include the aqueducts of Rome, the Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Caracalla, the basilicas and the Colosseum. These constructions were reproduced on a smaller scale in the cities and villages of all the provinces of the Empire. Some surviving structures are almost complete, such as the city walls of Lugo in Hispania Tarraconensis (now northern Spain). The administrative structure and wealth of the Empire made very large projects possible, even in places far from the main centers, as did the use of slave labor, both skilled and unskilled.

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 construction. This political function of architecture allowed the State to be exalted and give credibility to the image that was wanted to be given of the Empire. To achieve this, no means was wasted to enhance the impression of majesty in the architectural creations[10]​. Roman architecture perhaps reached its peak in the reign of Hadrian, whose many achievements include rebuilding the Pantheon in its present form and leaving his mark on the landscape of northern Britain with Hadrian's Wall.

Decay

The period of splendor of Roman art covers the first two centuries of the Empire, but already at the beginning of the century of our era a slow decline in good taste begins, which is accentuated with the crisis of the century and is confirmed over the centuries and by the effect of a certain baroque style or irregularity and heaviness in the styles, although the splendor and magnitude of the works increases. However, architecture, as the art of building, continued to develop until the invasion of the barbarians, at least in the main centers of culture. Proof of this are the great basilicas of Rome built in the 19th century, not only those intended for Christian worship, but also civil ones. The remains of the colossal civil basilica of Constantine (also called Maxentius), which still stands in Rome, served as a source of inspiration for Renaissance architects in the 19th century.

It is considered that with Emperor Constantine the decline of Roman architecture began, since under this emperor much old material began to be recycled for the construction of new works, as was done in Constantinople, a city that was built largely with fragments, sculptures, columns and remains taken from all corners of the Empire. In Rome, the Arch of Constantine was built by recycling materials from buildings erected in the times of Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, especially the high reliefs, since at that time it was increasingly difficult to find sculptors qualified to sculpt similar works. However, although in the case of sculpture the decline was evident in a very short time, architecture maintained its consistency for longer because it was easier for architects than for sculptors to imitate the works that still surrounded them.[11]​.

At the end of the Hellenistic period, the first manuals and treatises that summarized and systematized architectural knowledge began to be published. The only treatises that survive are the ten books that make up De architectura, by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, an architect who lived in the time of Augustus. The work of Vitruvius was of fundamental importance during the Italian Renaissance to rescue knowledge of classical architecture. The three great principles of Vitruvian architecture (principles that must be balanced) are the following:[5]​.

According to Vitruvius, the alteration of the balance between the three principles of architecture causes serious errors, both by defect and excess. Likewise, the omission or hypertrophy of just one of the principles will make the work in question anything but architecture. These elementary rules, instead of limiting creativity, allow a whole array of architectural typologies and unlimited variations of the basic types.

stone and marble

Marble is not found particularly close to Rome, and was barely used there before Augustus, who boasted that he had left Rome made of marble after finding it made of brick, although in reality marble was mainly used as a facing for brick or concrete. The Temple of Hercules Victor, from the end of the century BC. C., is the oldest exception preserved in Rome. From the reign of Augustus, the Carrara quarries were developed extensively for the capital and other sources were exploited throughout the Empire, especially the prestigious Greek marbles such as Paros. Travertine limestone was found much closer, around Tivoli, and was used from the end of the Republic; The Colosseum is built mainly of this stone, which has good load-bearing capacity, with a brick core. Other more or less local stones were used throughout the Empire.

The Romans were extremely fond of fancy imported colored marbles with elegant veining, and the interiors of the most important buildings were often tiled with slabs of these marbles, which have generally been removed even where the building survives. Imports from Greece for this purpose began in the century BC. c.

Roman brick

The Romans made baked clay bricks from around the beginning of the Empire, replacing sun-dried mud bricks. Roman brick was almost invariably of a lower height than modern brick, but was made in a variety of different shapes and sizes. Shapes could be square, rectangular, triangular and rounded, and the largest bricks found were more than three feet long. Ancient Roman bricks had a general size of 1½ Roman feet by 1 Roman foot, but common variations of up to 15 inches existed. The ancient Roman bricks found in France measured 8" x 8" ceramic construction.

The Romans perfected brickmaking during the first century of the Empire and used it ubiquitously in both public and private construction. The Romans brought their brick-making skills to conquered territories, introducing the technique to local populations. The Roman legions, operating their own kilns, introduced bricks to many parts of the Empire; The bricks were often stamped with the mark of the legion that oversaw their production. The use of bricks in southern and western Roman Germany, for example, dates back to traditions already described by the Roman architect Vitruvius. In Britain, the introduction of Roman brick was followed by a 600-700 year gap in brick production.

Roman concrete

opus caementicium, or Roman concrete, was used in constructions in which large pillars support wide arches "Arch (architecture)") and domes instead of dense lines of columns supporting flat architraves. The freedom provided by concrete also inspired the colonnade, a row of purely decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. In smaller scale architecture, the strength of concrete freed the floor plan from rectangular cells to a free-flowing environment. Most of these developments are described by Vitruvius, who wrote in the century AD. C. his work De Architectura.

Although concrete had been used on a smaller scale in Mesopotamia, Roman architects perfected Roman concrete and used it in buildings where it could stand on its own and support a large amount of weight. Ancient Roman concrete was a mixture of lime mortar, aggregate, pozzolana, water and stones, and was stronger than the concretes previously used. Ancient builders placed these ingredients in wooden frames or molds where they hardened and joined a facing of stones or, more frequently, bricks. The aggregates used were often much larger than in modern concrete, equivalent to rubble.

When the frame was removed, the new wall was very strong, with a rough surface of bricks or stones. This surface could be smoothed and faced with attractive stucco or with thin panels of marble or other colored stones called veneer. Concrete construction proved to be more flexible and less expensive than solid stone building construction. The materials were available and not difficult to transport. Wooden frames could be used more than once, allowing builders to work quickly and efficiently. Concrete is possibly the most relevant Roman contribution to modern architecture.

Stucco

Roman stucco was mainly used to cover the ceilings and interior walls of the rooms. It was usually an inch thick. Many fragments have been preserved, especially in the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The mixture for making Roman stucco, called marmoratum opus, was composed of three layers of mortar mixed with pulverized marble. A similar mixture, composed of quicklime powder moistened with wine and ground with butter and figs, was used to coat the inside of the cisterns and aqueducts, which were previously rubbed with oil[9].

Roman architecture adapted the three Greek orders and the so-called Etruscan order, modifying them and adding another form of capital that was defined by Renaissance architects with the name of compound order. In this way, five orders are counted, namely:

Roman architecture frequently adopted the superposition of one architectural order to a different one in the same building, with the simplest and most robust being placed beneath the most elegant and delicate, as can be noted in the grandiose Roman Colosseum.

They were models of these orders in Rome:

In the Roman colonies the same orders were also used but, generally, with less perfection and with more alterations than in the metropolis. They are highly celebrated among other buildings:.

The ancient Romans used regular orthogonal structures on which they built colonial cities. They were probably inspired by Greek and Hellenic examples, as well as regularly planned cities that were built by the Etruscans in Italy. However, Rome, the imperial capital, grew disorderly, so there was a marked contrast between the orderly grids of the design of the provincial cities and the chaotic and irregular layout of the capital[12].

The Romans used a consolidated urban planning scheme, developed for civil convenience. The basic plan consisted of a central forum around which the main services of the city were grouped, surrounded by a compact, rectilinear grid of streets. To reduce travel times, two diagonal streets crossed the grid, passing through the central square. Typically, a river flowed through the city, providing water, transportation, and sewage disposal. Hundreds of towns and cities were built by the Romans throughout the Empire. Many European cities, such as Turin, preserve the remains of these schemes, showing the very logical way in which the Romans designed their cities. They would have the streets at right angles, in the form of a grid. All the roads were the same width and length, except for two, which were slightly wider than the others. One of them ran from east to west, the other from north to south, and they crossed in the middle to form the center of the grid. All paths were made of carefully installed flagstones and filled with smaller, more compact stones and pebbles. Bridges were built where necessary. Each square marked 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 intersected with roads and alleys. Most insulae were given to the first settlers of a Roman city, but each person had to pay to build their own house.

During the Late Empire, cities began to be surrounded by walls to protect them from invaders and to mark the city limits. Areas outside the city limits were left open as farmland. At the end of each main road there was a large entrance with watchtowers. As urban decline and decay advanced, portcullises were placed at the gates of the walls to protect the cities in case they fell under enemy siege, and additional watchtowers were built along the city walls.

The development of Greek and Roman urbanization is relatively well known, as there are many written sources and much attention has been paid to the subject, as the Romans and Greeks are generally considered to have given rise to the modern Western city.

Contenido

Los romanos recibieron diferentes tipologías que modificaron o adaptaron a sus gustos o necesidades, desarrollando algunas gracias a nuevas técnicas. Entre estas podemos señalar la domus, el templo, el teatro y los monumentos funerarios.

Forum

The Roman forum was the main public open space of a Roman municipium, or any civitas, mainly used as a market, along with buildings used for shops and stoas used for open stalls. Other large public buildings were often located at the edges or near the forum. The magistrate responsible for the roads would build several forums in remote locations along a main road, in which case the forum was the only settlement on the site and had its own name, such as Forum Popilii or Forum Livii.

Augustus stated that "he found the city in brick and left it in marble." Although there is every possibility that this is an exaggeration, there is something to be said for the influx of marble use in the Roman Forum from 63 BC. C. onwards. During the reign of Augustus, the Forum was described as having been a larger and freer space than the Forum of imperial times. The Forum began to undergo changes with the arrival of Julius Caesar, who drew up extensive plans for the center of the market. While Caesar's death came prematurely, the ideas themselves, as well as those of Augustus regarding the Forum, proved to be the most influential in the years to come. The diversion of public business to the larger and more splendid imperial forums erected nearby resulted in the abandonment of the overall design of the Roman Forum.

Each city had at least one forum of varying size. In addition to its standard function as a market, a forum was a meeting place of great social importance and often the scene of various activities, including political discussions and debates, meetings, meetings, speeches, etc.

In the new Roman cities, the forum was usually located at the intersection of the main north-south and east-west streets (the cardo and the decumanus). Typically, all forums would have a Temple of Jupiter at the northern end, and would also contain other temples, as well as the basilica; Exposed to the public, a table of public weights and measures was displayed, so that customers in the market could ensure that they were charged fairly, and would often have the baths or hot springs nearby.

Basilica

The Roman basilica was a large public building where commercial or legal matters could be transacted, and which was also used for official ceremonies, having many of the functions of current town halls. Its structure was rectangular with a pronaos or portico, naves (central and lateral) for the public, transeptum or chalcidicum for lawyers, apse or exedra for the court, main and lateral entrances and galleries or galleries, on the lateral naves, with views of the central one. Although their shape was variable, basilicas often contained interior colonnades that divided the space, giving corridors 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 side aisles, so that light could penetrate through the clerestory windows.

The oldest known basilica, the Porcia Basilica, was built in Rome in 184 BC. C. by Cato the Elder during the time he was Censor. Other early examples include the Basilica of Pompeii (late century BC). After Christianity became the official religion, the basilica form was considered appropriate for the first large public churches, with the appeal of avoiding reminiscences of the Greco-Roman temple form.

Hot Springs

Every Roman city had at least a thermae, a popular facility for public bathing, exercise, and socializing. The Roman baths included specialized rooms for wrestling, weight lifting, swimming, and even reading rooms and libraries. Bathing was a very important part of the life of the ancient Romans, so several hours a day could be spent in the baths, at a very low cost subsidized by the government. The wealthiest Romans were often accompanied by one or more slaves, who performed any required task, such as bringing refreshments, storing valuables, providing towels, and at the end of the session, applying olive oil to their masters' bodies, which they then scraped with a strigilum, a scraper made of wood or bone.

There were also therapeutic hot springs, located mainly in Roman spas, whose purpose was mainly to cure certain diseases using medicinal thermal water. Depending on the type of ailment, Roman doctors recommended certain hydrotherapy treatments to their patients in pools with water of different temperatures, or in ponds intended for different parts of the body[13].

Roman baths were also provided for private villas, houses and military forts. They were normally supplied with water from an adjacent river or stream, or by aqueduct. The design of the baths is analyzed by Vitruvius in his work De Architectura.

Theater

Roman theaters were built in all areas of the Empire, from Spain to the Middle East. Due to the Romans' ability to influence local architecture, we see numerous theaters around the world with uniquely Roman attributes.

These buildings were semicircular and had certain inherent architectural structures, with minor differences depending on the region in which they were built. The scaenae frons was a high back wall of the stage floor, supported by columns. The proscaenium was a wall supporting the front edge of the stage with ornate niches on the sides. The Hellenistic influence is seen through the use of proscaenium. The Roman theater also had a podium, which sometimes supported the columns of the scaenae frons. The scaenae was originally not part of the building itself, built only to provide sufficient background for the actors. Eventually, it became a part of the building itself, made of concrete. The theater was divided into the stage (orchestra) and the seating section (auditorium). The vomitorium, or entrances and exits, were made available to the audience.

Amphitheater

The amphitheater was, with the triumphal arch and the basilica, the only important new type of building developed by the Romans. Some of the most impressive secular buildings are amphitheatres; More than 200 are known and many of them are well preserved, such as the one in Arles, as well as the Colosseum in Rome. They were used for gladiator fighting, exhibitions, public meetings and bullfights, the tradition of which still survives in Spain and much of Latin America. Their form and functions distinguish them from Roman theaters, which have a more or less semicircular shape; of circuses (similar to hippodromes) whose much longer circuits were designed primarily for horse or chariot racing; and from the smaller stadiums, which were designed primarily for athletics races. When amphitheaters were flooded in order to represent naval battles, they were called naumachias, although sometimes the naumachias were built as independent buildings.

The first Roman amphitheaters date from the mid-century BC. C., but most were built under imperial rule, from the period of Augustus (27 BC-14 AD) onwards. Imperial amphitheaters were built throughout the Roman Empire; the largest could accommodate 40,000 to 60,000 spectators, and the larger, multi-story arcaded facades were elaborately decorated with marble, stucco, and statues. After the banning of gladiatorial games in the 19th century and animal slaughter in the 19th century, most amphitheaters fell into disrepair and their materials were extracted or recycled. Some were razed and others converted into fortifications. Others continued to be convenient places for open meetings; In some of these renovations were carried out to convert them into churches.

Architecturally, they are typically an example of the Roman use of classical orders to decorate large concrete walls pierced at intervals, where the columns have nothing to support. Aesthetically, however, the formula is successful.

Roman circus

The Roman circus was a large outdoor venue used for public events in the ancient Roman Empire. Circuses were similar to ancient Greek hippodromes, although circuses had different uses and differed in design and construction. Along with theaters and amphitheatres, circuses were one of the main entertainment venues of the time. Circuses were venues for chariot races, horse races, and performances commemorating important events of the Empire.

The performance space of the Roman circus was normally, despite its name, an oblong rectangle of two linear sections of race track, separated by a median strip running approximately two-thirds of the track, linked at one end with a semicircular section and at the other end with a section of undivided track closed (in most cases) by a distinctive starting gate known as the carceres, thus creating a circuit for the races.

Roman temple

The Romans initially arranged the temples in a similar way to those of the Greeks (although the rotunda "Rotunda (architecture)") was adopted much more than among them) until they were modified by reducing the number of exterior columns "Column (architecture)") or replacing them with pilasters (columns attached to the wall), vaulting the naves but without pointing out the vault or the arch in the temples rectangular. There were two basic types of plans for temples: the rectangular plan, which was the most common, and the circular plan.

Roman temples were among the most important and richest buildings in Roman culture, although only a few survive in any type of complete state. Its construction and maintenance was an important part of ancient Roman religion, and all cities of importance had at least one main temple, as well as smaller sanctuaries. The main hall (cella "Cella (architecture)")) housed the cult image of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated, and often a small altar for incense or libations. Behind the cella was a room or rooms used by the temple attendants to store utensils and offerings.

Some remains of many Roman temples survive, especially in Rome itself; many survived because they became Catholic churches. The decline of Roman religion was relatively slow, and the temples themselves were not appropriated by the government until a decree by Emperor Honorius "Honorius (Emperor)") in 415. Some of the oldest surviving temples include the Temple of Hercules Victor (mid-century BC) and the Temple of Portunus (120-80 BC), both standing within the Forum Boarius.

The form of the Roman temple was derived mainly from the Etruscan model, but using Greek styles. Roman temples emphasized the front of the building, which was modeled after Greek temples and typically consisted of wide steps leading to a colonnaded portico, a pronaos, and usually a triangular pediment above, which was filled with statues; this was as often in terracotta as in stone, and no examples have survived except as fragments. However, unlike Greek models, which generally gave equal treatment to all sides of the temple, which could be viewed and approached from all directions, the sides and rear of Roman temples could be undecorated (as at Agrippa's Pantheon in Rome), inaccessible by steps (as at the Maison Carrée), and even back to other buildings. As in the Maison Carrée, the columns on the sides may be half columns emerging from the wall. The platform on which the temple sat was usually raised higher in Roman examples than in Greek ones, with ten, twelve or more steps instead of the three typical of Greek temples; The Temple of Claudius was built on twenty steps. These steps were usually only at the front and did not span the entire width of the structure.

The classical Greek orders in all their details were closely followed on the facades of the temples, as in other buildings. However, the idealized proportions between the different elements established by Vitruvius and the theorists of the Italian Renaissance do not reflect actual Roman practice, which could be highly variable, although always aiming for balance and harmony. Following a Hellenistic trend, the Corinthian order and its variant, the composite order, were more common in surviving Roman temples, but for small temples such as that of Alcántara, a simple Tuscan order could suffice.

Dwelling

The domus was the urban Roman house, with a more or less rectangular plan; It used to have between one and two floors; It almost never had windows facing the street, and on some occasions it could have commercial premises. It had a central patio called atrium (atrium) with an overhead skylight. In the atrium there used to be an altar (lararium) for the family gods (lares and penates); the smoke of the burning incense came out of the skylight. The main rooms were the tablinum (reception room and dining room) and the bedroom with the conjugal bedchamber. In the century BC. C., due to Greek influence, another patio was opened at the back, but surrounded by columns, called peristyle, in Latin peristylum (literally, "surrounded by columns").[14]

A Roman villa was a country house built for the upper class, while a domus was the home of a rich or wealthy family in a city. The Empire contained many types of villas, not all of them lavishly decorated with mosaic floors and frescoes. In the provinces, any country house with some decorative features in the Roman style may be called a "villa" by modern scholars. Some were pleasure mansions, such as Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, which was situated in the hills a short distance from Rome, or like the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, in picturesque locations overlooking the Bay of Naples.

Suburban villas were also known on the outskirts of cities, such as the Republican villas that invaded the Campus Martius, at that time on the borders of Rome, and which can also be seen outside the city walls of Pompeii, including the Villa of the Mysteries, famous for its frescoes. It is possible that these early suburban villages were in fact the seats of power of regional strongmen or heads of important families.

A third type of villa provided the organizational center of the large agricultural properties called latifundios; such villas might lack luxuries. For the 19th century, a town could simply mean an agricultural or exploitative property.

With the colossal Diocletian's Palace, initially planned as a country mansion but later converted into a fortified city, a form of residential castle emerges that anticipates the Middle Ages.

Multi-story apartment blocks called insulae (singular, insula) were adapted to a wide variety of residential needs. The cheapest rooms were at the top due to the inability to escape in case of fire and the lack of running water. The windows were mostly small, facing the street, with iron bars. The insulae were often unhealthy and prone to fires due to overcrowding and improvised kitchen adaptations. There are examples in the Roman port city of Ostia, dating back to the rule of Trajan. The external walls were usually in bare brick, and the interiors were only rarely plastered and sometimes painted.

triumphal arches

A triumphal arch is a monumental arch-shaped structure with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a street or thoroughfare. The origins of the Roman triumphal arch are unclear. There were precursors to the triumphal arch in the Roman world; In Italy, the Etruscans used elaborately decorated arches as gates or portals for their cities. Surviving examples of Etruscan arches can still be seen in Perugia and Volterra. The two key elements of the triumphal arch, a rounded arch and a square entablature, had long been used as separate architectural elements in ancient Greece.

The innovation of the Romans was to use these elements in a single independent structure. The columns became purely decorative elements on the exterior face of the arch, while the entablature, freed from its role as a building support, became the framework for the civic and religious messages that the arch's builders wished to convey in inscriptions. Little is known about how the Romans viewed triumphal arches. Pliny the Elder, writing in the century AD. C., was the only ancient author who wrote about it. He wrote that they intended to "elevate above the ordinary world" the image of an honest person, usually represented in the form of a statue with a chariot on the arch.

The first recorded Roman triumphal arches were established in the time of the Roman Republic. The generals who obtained a triumph were called victors and fornices or honorific arches with statues were raised to commemorate their victories. Roman triumphal practices changed significantly at the beginning of the imperial period, when the first Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that only emperors would obtain triumphs. The triumphal arch went from being a personal monument to being essentially propaganda, serving to announce and promote the presence of the ruler and the laws of the state. The arches were not necessarily built as entrances, but, unlike many modern triumphal arches, they were often erected across streets and intended for people to pass under them.

Most Roman triumphal arches were built during the imperial period. In the 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 in other parts of the Roman Empire. The single arch was the most common, but many triple arches were also built, of which the Triumphal Arch of Orange (circa AD 21) is the oldest surviving example. Since the century AD. C., many of the so-called arcus quadrifrons were built, which were square arches erected over a crossing, with arched openings on all four sides; This form of construction was very popular in North Africa. Arch building in Rome and Italy declined after the time of Trajan (AD 98-117), but remained widespread in the provinces during the second and third centuries. They were often erected to commemorate imperial visits.

The ornamentation of an arch was intended to serve as a constant visual reminder of a triumph or imperial visit. The façade was ornamented with marble columns and the piers and attics with decorative cornices. The sculpted panels depicted victories and achievements, the exploits of the victor, the weapons captured from the enemy, or the triumphal procession itself. The spandrels usually depicted winged Victories, while the attic was often inscribed with a dedicatory inscription naming and praising the victor. The piers and internal corridors were also decorated with free-standing reliefs and sculptures. The vault was adorned with chests. Some triumphal arches were crowned by a statue or a currus triumphalis, a group of statues representing the emperor or general on a chariot.

The inscriptions on Roman triumphal arches were works of art in themselves, with very finely cut letters, sometimes gilded. The shape of each letter and the space between them were carefully designed for maximum clarity and simplicity, without any decorative flourishes, emphasizing the Roman taste for moderation and order. This conception of what later became the art of typography remains of fundamental importance to this day.

Obelisks

An obelisk is a narrow, four-sided monument that ends in a pyramid shape at the top. These were originally called tekhenu by the ancient Egyptians. The Greeks who first saw them used the Greek word obeliskos to describe them, and this word passed into Latin. The Romans moved several obelisks from Egypt to Rome and other cities, and sometimes commissioned obelisks built in an ancient Egyptian style.

Roman roads

Roman roads were vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from approximately 500 BC. C. through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. They provided efficient means for the land movement of armies, officials and civilians, and the land transportation of official communications and commercial goods. At the peak of Rome's development, no fewer than 29 major military roads radiated from the capital, and the 113 provinces of the late Empire were interconnected by 372 major road links. Regular roadway widths have been measured between 3.6 feet (1.1 m) and more than 23 feet (7.0 m). Today, the concrete has worn away into the spaces around the stones, giving the impression of a bumpy road, but the original practice was to produce a surface that was undoubtedly much closer to being flat.

Aqueducts

The Romans built numerous aqueducts to bring water from distant sources to their cities and towns, supplying public baths, latrines, fountains and private swimming pools. Wastewater was removed by complex sewage systems and released into nearby bodies of water, keeping cities clean and free of effluent. Aqueducts also provided water for mining operations, mills, farms, and gardens.

Aqueducts moved water by gravity alone, being built along a slight downward gradient within conduits of stone, brick or concrete. Most were buried underground and followed its contours; obstruction peaks were bypassed or, less frequently, tunnelled. Where valleys or lowlands intervened, the conduit was transported on bridges, or its contents were fed into high-pressure lead, ceramic or stone pipes, and siphoned. Most aqueduct systems included settling tanks, locks, and distribution tanks to regulate the supply needed.

Rome's first aqueduct supplied a water source located in the city's cattle market. In the century AD. C. the city had eleven aqueducts, which supported a population of more than one million inhabitants; most of the water supplied the city's many public baths. Cities and municipalities throughout the Roman Empire emulated this model and financed aqueducts as objects of public interest and civic pride.

Most Roman aqueducts proved reliable and durable; some remained operational into the early modern era, and even a few are still partially functional. Vitruvius points out the methods of surveying and constructing aqueducts in his work De Architectura (century BC). Notable examples of aqueduct architecture include the support piers of the Segovia Aqueduct and the aqueduct-fed cisterns of Constantinople.

Roman architecture provided the basic influence for the development of pre-Romanesque and Romanesque architecture, and spread across Christian Europe beyond the former borders of the Empire, to Ireland and Scandinavia, for example. In the East, Byzantine architecture developed new styles of churches, but most other buildings remained very close to late Roman forms. The same can be said in turn of Islamic architecture, where Roman forms continued for a long time, especially in private buildings, such as houses and baths, and in civil engineering, such as fortifications and bridges.

In Europe, the Italian Renaissance saw a conscious revival of correct classical styles, initially purely based on Roman examples. The Roman architect and treatise writer Vitruvius was respectfully reinterpreted by a number of theorists, and the Tuscan and Composite orders were formalized for the first time, to create five orders instead of three. After the extravagance of Baroque architecture, the neoclassical architecture of the century revived the purest versions of the classical style and, for the first time, added a direct influence from the Greek world.

Numerous local classical styles were developed, such as Palladian architecture, Georgian architecture and the Regency Style ("Regency Style (United Kingdom)"), federal architecture in the United States, and Republican architecture in Latin America.

Origins

Roman architecture has its first origins in Etruscan architecture, to which the influence of Greek architecture was later added, especially after the Punic Wars, and therefore presents features of both. Today Roman architecture is dated to the date when the first road and the first aqueduct were built. Around this time, and during Rome's conquests in Sicily and Greece itself, Roman generals used to take a large number of artistic objects as prizes for their victories. On the other hand, Greek and Etruscan artists, attracted by the economic power of the lady of the Mediterranean, brought to Rome the taste and even the passion for fine arts and Roman artists were trained in their schools. But it will not be until the end of the Hellenistic period when Roman architecture presents its own truly differentiated features[1]. The ancient Roman buildings resembled the Etruscan buildings in every way, and were made up of solid blocks of huge blocks of carved or rough stone laid dry.[2]​.

At first, Roman architecture was very austere, limited to the construction of buildings of practical use. Sculptural and pictorial ornaments were very limited and almost absent from all buildings, especially during the monarchy. It was not until the Siege of Syracuse, in 214 BC. C.-212 BC C., when the taste for fine arts began to exert a great influence on Roman society[3].

In 144 BC C., Greece became a Roman province, and many Greek artists, reduced to slavery, went to work in Rome. The triumph of Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus in the Battle of Pydna also contributed to the advancement of artistic taste in Rome, from which he extracted many artistic treasures, in addition to the looting of Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix of the temples of Delphi, Olympia and Epidaurus, the treasures extracted by Octavian of Alexandria and the assault of Publius Cornelius Dolabella on many temples in Asia. All these treasures ended up in Rome, giving rise to a refinement of artistic taste such as had not been known before. The first marble temple to be built in Rome was built by order of the consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, with the Lacedaemonian architects Sauro and Batraco[4].

Technical innovations

Thanks to the technical developments of the Romans for the construction of arches and vaults, the basic Greek conception could be overcome, in which the columns "Column (architecture)") and architraves were necessary to support heavy beams and ceilings, becoming, in most cases, mere decorative elements. The Romans did not feel restricted by Greek aesthetic concerns and made use of the classical orders with considerable freedom. At their maximum splendor, they demonstrated great fertility of invention, a monumental conception of space and a clear sense of large volumes[5]​.

Innovation began in the 10th century BC. C. with the development of Roman concrete as an available complement or substitute for stone and brick. The buildings began to integrate large pillars that supported wide arches and domes. The freedom given by concrete also inspired the development of the arcade and the colonnade, a row of purely decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. In smaller scale architecture, the strength of Roman concrete freed the floor plan from rectangular cells to a free-flowing environment.

The Romans used the arch "Arco (construction)") and the vault profusely. This is not formed with paired stone voussoirs (except in some Asian constructions), as was available in the Etruscan vault, but rather with a mass made of pozzolana and gravel. The vaults used to have thick brick arches, either parallel or diagonal but embedded in the vault itself, which served as temporary support and as internal reinforcement of the vault. A superb example is the dome of Agrippa's Pantheon in Rome.

The Romans not only built barrel vaults and domes, but also rudimentary groin and ribbed vaults. But the latter must have been used infrequently outside the Eastern Empire since only those of the Baths of Caracalla and those of the Basilica of Maxentius are known, in which a system of internal counters applied to the vault can be seen. The historiated capitals that were so popular in the Middle Ages also began to appear in Roman architecture, as some examples of them have been discovered in Pompeii and other sites.

Roman buildings, depending on their use, could be very sober or very sumptuous. Bridges and aqueducts are austere and functional, while temples and palaces are luxurious and monumental, with a clear representative purpose. The noblest buildings were covered in stone forming orders, which did not reflect the real interior structure. The walls of sumptuous buildings were decorated with paintings and the pavements with mosaics.

Augustus' urban renewal

Factors such as wealth and high population density in cities forced the ancient Romans to discover new architectural solutions of their own. The use of vaults and arches "Arch (architecture)"), together with a solid knowledge of building materials, allowed them to achieve unprecedented successes in the construction of an imposing infrastructure for public use. The conquest of Greece brought hundreds of Greek artists to Italy, and the pax Romana sponsored by Augustus led to an unprecedented economic boom, which allowed the development of the arts, including architecture.[6]​.

After defeating Mark Antony in the Battle of Actium, and thus establishing peace in the territory dominated by the Romans, Augustus undertook a major urban reform in Rome that changed the face of the city. Augustus, who not only promoted construction but also all the arts, would have undertaken this reform to condition the city to its new status as imperial capital, but also to fulfill the wish that his adoptive father, Julius Caesar, had had to improve the appearance of Rome. By that time, the city had already reached one million inhabitants, many of whom were immigrants, which led to the formation of popular neighborhoods such as Suburra, Argileto and Velabro. Given such demographic growth, an urban planning program was necessary that included storage warehouses and a port to guarantee the supply of the population.

Under the government of Augustus, the channel of the Tiber River was expanded to avoid flooding and new aqueducts were built, in addition to the first public baths, two theaters, an amphitheater and a public library; A new forum was also built, the Forum Augusti (Forum of Augustus), the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace), temples such as the Pantheon of Agrippa or that of Mars Ultor (Avenging Mars), gardens, porticos and other public buildings. Another of the most important works of Augustus's urban beautification program was the renovation of the Campus Martius (Campus Martius "Field of Mars (Rome)"), which was transformed into an impressive monumental complex. The Mausoleum of Augustus was intended to store his remains and those of his family, and the House of Augustus (Domus Augusti) on the Palatine Hill would be the first building in the complex that would constitute the palatium, the imperial palace.[7]​.

Thanks to the beautification program of the city led by Augustus, architecture had a great boost, as the historian Suetonius reports:

Architectural boom

The architectural peak of the Empire approximately includes the time between the reigns of Nero and Constantine I (that is, between the years 54 to 337), with the works built during the governments of Titus, Trajan and Hadrian being especially notable[9]. Prominent examples include the aqueducts of Rome, the Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Caracalla, the basilicas and the Colosseum. These constructions were reproduced on a smaller scale in the cities and villages of all the provinces of the Empire. Some surviving structures are almost complete, such as the city walls of Lugo in Hispania Tarraconensis (now northern Spain). The administrative structure and wealth of the Empire made very large projects possible, even in places far from the main centers, as did the use of slave labor, both skilled and unskilled.

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 construction. This political function of architecture allowed the State to be exalted and give credibility to the image that was wanted to be given of the Empire. To achieve this, no means was wasted to enhance the impression of majesty in the architectural creations[10]​. Roman architecture perhaps reached its peak in the reign of Hadrian, whose many achievements include rebuilding the Pantheon in its present form and leaving his mark on the landscape of northern Britain with Hadrian's Wall.

Decay

The period of splendor of Roman art covers the first two centuries of the Empire, but already at the beginning of the century of our era a slow decline in good taste begins, which is accentuated with the crisis of the century and is confirmed over the centuries and by the effect of a certain baroque style or irregularity and heaviness in the styles, although the splendor and magnitude of the works increases. However, architecture, as the art of building, continued to develop until the invasion of the barbarians, at least in the main centers of culture. Proof of this are the great basilicas of Rome built in the 19th century, not only those intended for Christian worship, but also civil ones. The remains of the colossal civil basilica of Constantine (also called Maxentius), which still stands in Rome, served as a source of inspiration for Renaissance architects in the 19th century.

It is considered that with Emperor Constantine the decline of Roman architecture began, since under this emperor much old material began to be recycled for the construction of new works, as was done in Constantinople, a city that was built largely with fragments, sculptures, columns and remains taken from all corners of the Empire. In Rome, the Arch of Constantine was built by recycling materials from buildings erected in the times of Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, especially the high reliefs, since at that time it was increasingly difficult to find sculptors qualified to sculpt similar works. However, although in the case of sculpture the decline was evident in a very short time, architecture maintained its consistency for longer because it was easier for architects than for sculptors to imitate the works that still surrounded them.[11]​.

At the end of the Hellenistic period, the first manuals and treatises that summarized and systematized architectural knowledge began to be published. The only treatises that survive are the ten books that make up De architectura, by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, an architect who lived in the time of Augustus. The work of Vitruvius was of fundamental importance during the Italian Renaissance to rescue knowledge of classical architecture. The three great principles of Vitruvian architecture (principles that must be balanced) are the following:[5]​.

According to Vitruvius, the alteration of the balance between the three principles of architecture causes serious errors, both by defect and excess. Likewise, the omission or hypertrophy of just one of the principles will make the work in question anything but architecture. These elementary rules, instead of limiting creativity, allow a whole array of architectural typologies and unlimited variations of the basic types.

stone and marble

Marble is not found particularly close to Rome, and was barely used there before Augustus, who boasted that he had left Rome made of marble after finding it made of brick, although in reality marble was mainly used as a facing for brick or concrete. The Temple of Hercules Victor, from the end of the century BC. C., is the oldest exception preserved in Rome. From the reign of Augustus, the Carrara quarries were developed extensively for the capital and other sources were exploited throughout the Empire, especially the prestigious Greek marbles such as Paros. Travertine limestone was found much closer, around Tivoli, and was used from the end of the Republic; The Colosseum is built mainly of this stone, which has good load-bearing capacity, with a brick core. Other more or less local stones were used throughout the Empire.

The Romans were extremely fond of fancy imported colored marbles with elegant veining, and the interiors of the most important buildings were often tiled with slabs of these marbles, which have generally been removed even where the building survives. Imports from Greece for this purpose began in the century BC. c.

Roman brick

The Romans made baked clay bricks from around the beginning of the Empire, replacing sun-dried mud bricks. Roman brick was almost invariably of a lower height than modern brick, but was made in a variety of different shapes and sizes. Shapes could be square, rectangular, triangular and rounded, and the largest bricks found were more than three feet long. Ancient Roman bricks had a general size of 1½ Roman feet by 1 Roman foot, but common variations of up to 15 inches existed. The ancient Roman bricks found in France measured 8" x 8" ceramic construction.

The Romans perfected brickmaking during the first century of the Empire and used it ubiquitously in both public and private construction. The Romans brought their brick-making skills to conquered territories, introducing the technique to local populations. The Roman legions, operating their own kilns, introduced bricks to many parts of the Empire; The bricks were often stamped with the mark of the legion that oversaw their production. The use of bricks in southern and western Roman Germany, for example, dates back to traditions already described by the Roman architect Vitruvius. In Britain, the introduction of Roman brick was followed by a 600-700 year gap in brick production.

Roman concrete

opus caementicium, or Roman concrete, was used in constructions in which large pillars support wide arches "Arch (architecture)") and domes instead of dense lines of columns supporting flat architraves. The freedom provided by concrete also inspired the colonnade, a row of purely decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. In smaller scale architecture, the strength of concrete freed the floor plan from rectangular cells to a free-flowing environment. Most of these developments are described by Vitruvius, who wrote in the century AD. C. his work De Architectura.

Although concrete had been used on a smaller scale in Mesopotamia, Roman architects perfected Roman concrete and used it in buildings where it could stand on its own and support a large amount of weight. Ancient Roman concrete was a mixture of lime mortar, aggregate, pozzolana, water and stones, and was stronger than the concretes previously used. Ancient builders placed these ingredients in wooden frames or molds where they hardened and joined a facing of stones or, more frequently, bricks. The aggregates used were often much larger than in modern concrete, equivalent to rubble.

When the frame was removed, the new wall was very strong, with a rough surface of bricks or stones. This surface could be smoothed and faced with attractive stucco or with thin panels of marble or other colored stones called veneer. Concrete construction proved to be more flexible and less expensive than solid stone building construction. The materials were available and not difficult to transport. Wooden frames could be used more than once, allowing builders to work quickly and efficiently. Concrete is possibly the most relevant Roman contribution to modern architecture.

Stucco

Roman stucco was mainly used to cover the ceilings and interior walls of the rooms. It was usually an inch thick. Many fragments have been preserved, especially in the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The mixture for making Roman stucco, called marmoratum opus, was composed of three layers of mortar mixed with pulverized marble. A similar mixture, composed of quicklime powder moistened with wine and ground with butter and figs, was used to coat the inside of the cisterns and aqueducts, which were previously rubbed with oil[9].

Roman architecture adapted the three Greek orders and the so-called Etruscan order, modifying them and adding another form of capital that was defined by Renaissance architects with the name of compound order. In this way, five orders are counted, namely:

Roman architecture frequently adopted the superposition of one architectural order to a different one in the same building, with the simplest and most robust being placed beneath the most elegant and delicate, as can be noted in the grandiose Roman Colosseum.

They were models of these orders in Rome:

In the Roman colonies the same orders were also used but, generally, with less perfection and with more alterations than in the metropolis. They are highly celebrated among other buildings:.

The ancient Romans used regular orthogonal structures on which they built colonial cities. They were probably inspired by Greek and Hellenic examples, as well as regularly planned cities that were built by the Etruscans in Italy. However, Rome, the imperial capital, grew disorderly, so there was a marked contrast between the orderly grids of the design of the provincial cities and the chaotic and irregular layout of the capital[12].

The Romans used a consolidated urban planning scheme, developed for civil convenience. The basic plan consisted of a central forum around which the main services of the city were grouped, surrounded by a compact, rectilinear grid of streets. To reduce travel times, two diagonal streets crossed the grid, passing through the central square. Typically, a river flowed through the city, providing water, transportation, and sewage disposal. Hundreds of towns and cities were built by the Romans throughout the Empire. Many European cities, such as Turin, preserve the remains of these schemes, showing the very logical way in which the Romans designed their cities. They would have the streets at right angles, in the form of a grid. All the roads were the same width and length, except for two, which were slightly wider than the others. One of them ran from east to west, the other from north to south, and they crossed in the middle to form the center of the grid. All paths were made of carefully installed flagstones and filled with smaller, more compact stones and pebbles. Bridges were built where necessary. Each square marked 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 intersected with roads and alleys. Most insulae were given to the first settlers of a Roman city, but each person had to pay to build their own house.

During the Late Empire, cities began to be surrounded by walls to protect them from invaders and to mark the city limits. Areas outside the city limits were left open as farmland. At the end of each main road there was a large entrance with watchtowers. As urban decline and decay advanced, portcullises were placed at the gates of the walls to protect the cities in case they fell under enemy siege, and additional watchtowers were built along the city walls.

The development of Greek and Roman urbanization is relatively well known, as there are many written sources and much attention has been paid to the subject, as the Romans and Greeks are generally considered to have given rise to the modern Western city.

Contenido

Los romanos recibieron diferentes tipologías que modificaron o adaptaron a sus gustos o necesidades, desarrollando algunas gracias a nuevas técnicas. Entre estas podemos señalar la domus, el templo, el teatro y los monumentos funerarios.

Forum

The Roman forum was the main public open space of a Roman municipium, or any civitas, mainly used as a market, along with buildings used for shops and stoas used for open stalls. Other large public buildings were often located at the edges or near the forum. The magistrate responsible for the roads would build several forums in remote locations along a main road, in which case the forum was the only settlement on the site and had its own name, such as Forum Popilii or Forum Livii.

Augustus stated that "he found the city in brick and left it in marble." Although there is every possibility that this is an exaggeration, there is something to be said for the influx of marble use in the Roman Forum from 63 BC. C. onwards. During the reign of Augustus, the Forum was described as having been a larger and freer space than the Forum of imperial times. The Forum began to undergo changes with the arrival of Julius Caesar, who drew up extensive plans for the center of the market. While Caesar's death came prematurely, the ideas themselves, as well as those of Augustus regarding the Forum, proved to be the most influential in the years to come. The diversion of public business to the larger and more splendid imperial forums erected nearby resulted in the abandonment of the overall design of the Roman Forum.

Each city had at least one forum of varying size. In addition to its standard function as a market, a forum was a meeting place of great social importance and often the scene of various activities, including political discussions and debates, meetings, meetings, speeches, etc.

In the new Roman cities, the forum was usually located at the intersection of the main north-south and east-west streets (the cardo and the decumanus). Typically, all forums would have a Temple of Jupiter at the northern end, and would also contain other temples, as well as the basilica; Exposed to the public, a table of public weights and measures was displayed, so that customers in the market could ensure that they were charged fairly, and would often have the baths or hot springs nearby.

Basilica

The Roman basilica was a large public building where commercial or legal matters could be transacted, and which was also used for official ceremonies, having many of the functions of current town halls. Its structure was rectangular with a pronaos or portico, naves (central and lateral) for the public, transeptum or chalcidicum for lawyers, apse or exedra for the court, main and lateral entrances and galleries or galleries, on the lateral naves, with views of the central one. Although their shape was variable, basilicas often contained interior colonnades that divided the space, giving corridors 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 side aisles, so that light could penetrate through the clerestory windows.

The oldest known basilica, the Porcia Basilica, was built in Rome in 184 BC. C. by Cato the Elder during the time he was Censor. Other early examples include the Basilica of Pompeii (late century BC). After Christianity became the official religion, the basilica form was considered appropriate for the first large public churches, with the appeal of avoiding reminiscences of the Greco-Roman temple form.

Hot Springs

Every Roman city had at least a thermae, a popular facility for public bathing, exercise, and socializing. The Roman baths included specialized rooms for wrestling, weight lifting, swimming, and even reading rooms and libraries. Bathing was a very important part of the life of the ancient Romans, so several hours a day could be spent in the baths, at a very low cost subsidized by the government. The wealthiest Romans were often accompanied by one or more slaves, who performed any required task, such as bringing refreshments, storing valuables, providing towels, and at the end of the session, applying olive oil to their masters' bodies, which they then scraped with a strigilum, a scraper made of wood or bone.

There were also therapeutic hot springs, located mainly in Roman spas, whose purpose was mainly to cure certain diseases using medicinal thermal water. Depending on the type of ailment, Roman doctors recommended certain hydrotherapy treatments to their patients in pools with water of different temperatures, or in ponds intended for different parts of the body[13].

Roman baths were also provided for private villas, houses and military forts. They were normally supplied with water from an adjacent river or stream, or by aqueduct. The design of the baths is analyzed by Vitruvius in his work De Architectura.

Theater

Roman theaters were built in all areas of the Empire, from Spain to the Middle East. Due to the Romans' ability to influence local architecture, we see numerous theaters around the world with uniquely Roman attributes.

These buildings were semicircular and had certain inherent architectural structures, with minor differences depending on the region in which they were built. The scaenae frons was a high back wall of the stage floor, supported by columns. The proscaenium was a wall supporting the front edge of the stage with ornate niches on the sides. The Hellenistic influence is seen through the use of proscaenium. The Roman theater also had a podium, which sometimes supported the columns of the scaenae frons. The scaenae was originally not part of the building itself, built only to provide sufficient background for the actors. Eventually, it became a part of the building itself, made of concrete. The theater was divided into the stage (orchestra) and the seating section (auditorium). The vomitorium, or entrances and exits, were made available to the audience.

Amphitheater

The amphitheater was, with the triumphal arch and the basilica, the only important new type of building developed by the Romans. Some of the most impressive secular buildings are amphitheatres; More than 200 are known and many of them are well preserved, such as the one in Arles, as well as the Colosseum in Rome. They were used for gladiator fighting, exhibitions, public meetings and bullfights, the tradition of which still survives in Spain and much of Latin America. Their form and functions distinguish them from Roman theaters, which have a more or less semicircular shape; of circuses (similar to hippodromes) whose much longer circuits were designed primarily for horse or chariot racing; and from the smaller stadiums, which were designed primarily for athletics races. When amphitheaters were flooded in order to represent naval battles, they were called naumachias, although sometimes the naumachias were built as independent buildings.

The first Roman amphitheaters date from the mid-century BC. C., but most were built under imperial rule, from the period of Augustus (27 BC-14 AD) onwards. Imperial amphitheaters were built throughout the Roman Empire; the largest could accommodate 40,000 to 60,000 spectators, and the larger, multi-story arcaded facades were elaborately decorated with marble, stucco, and statues. After the banning of gladiatorial games in the 19th century and animal slaughter in the 19th century, most amphitheaters fell into disrepair and their materials were extracted or recycled. Some were razed and others converted into fortifications. Others continued to be convenient places for open meetings; In some of these renovations were carried out to convert them into churches.

Architecturally, they are typically an example of the Roman use of classical orders to decorate large concrete walls pierced at intervals, where the columns have nothing to support. Aesthetically, however, the formula is successful.

Roman circus

The Roman circus was a large outdoor venue used for public events in the ancient Roman Empire. Circuses were similar to ancient Greek hippodromes, although circuses had different uses and differed in design and construction. Along with theaters and amphitheatres, circuses were one of the main entertainment venues of the time. Circuses were venues for chariot races, horse races, and performances commemorating important events of the Empire.

The performance space of the Roman circus was normally, despite its name, an oblong rectangle of two linear sections of race track, separated by a median strip running approximately two-thirds of the track, linked at one end with a semicircular section and at the other end with a section of undivided track closed (in most cases) by a distinctive starting gate known as the carceres, thus creating a circuit for the races.

Roman temple

The Romans initially arranged the temples in a similar way to those of the Greeks (although the rotunda "Rotunda (architecture)") was adopted much more than among them) until they were modified by reducing the number of exterior columns "Column (architecture)") or replacing them with pilasters (columns attached to the wall), vaulting the naves but without pointing out the vault or the arch in the temples rectangular. There were two basic types of plans for temples: the rectangular plan, which was the most common, and the circular plan.

Roman temples were among the most important and richest buildings in Roman culture, although only a few survive in any type of complete state. Its construction and maintenance was an important part of ancient Roman religion, and all cities of importance had at least one main temple, as well as smaller sanctuaries. The main hall (cella "Cella (architecture)")) housed the cult image of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated, and often a small altar for incense or libations. Behind the cella was a room or rooms used by the temple attendants to store utensils and offerings.

Some remains of many Roman temples survive, especially in Rome itself; many survived because they became Catholic churches. The decline of Roman religion was relatively slow, and the temples themselves were not appropriated by the government until a decree by Emperor Honorius "Honorius (Emperor)") in 415. Some of the oldest surviving temples include the Temple of Hercules Victor (mid-century BC) and the Temple of Portunus (120-80 BC), both standing within the Forum Boarius.

The form of the Roman temple was derived mainly from the Etruscan model, but using Greek styles. Roman temples emphasized the front of the building, which was modeled after Greek temples and typically consisted of wide steps leading to a colonnaded portico, a pronaos, and usually a triangular pediment above, which was filled with statues; this was as often in terracotta as in stone, and no examples have survived except as fragments. However, unlike Greek models, which generally gave equal treatment to all sides of the temple, which could be viewed and approached from all directions, the sides and rear of Roman temples could be undecorated (as at Agrippa's Pantheon in Rome), inaccessible by steps (as at the Maison Carrée), and even back to other buildings. As in the Maison Carrée, the columns on the sides may be half columns emerging from the wall. The platform on which the temple sat was usually raised higher in Roman examples than in Greek ones, with ten, twelve or more steps instead of the three typical of Greek temples; The Temple of Claudius was built on twenty steps. These steps were usually only at the front and did not span the entire width of the structure.

The classical Greek orders in all their details were closely followed on the facades of the temples, as in other buildings. However, the idealized proportions between the different elements established by Vitruvius and the theorists of the Italian Renaissance do not reflect actual Roman practice, which could be highly variable, although always aiming for balance and harmony. Following a Hellenistic trend, the Corinthian order and its variant, the composite order, were more common in surviving Roman temples, but for small temples such as that of Alcántara, a simple Tuscan order could suffice.

Dwelling

The domus was the urban Roman house, with a more or less rectangular plan; It used to have between one and two floors; It almost never had windows facing the street, and on some occasions it could have commercial premises. It had a central patio called atrium (atrium) with an overhead skylight. In the atrium there used to be an altar (lararium) for the family gods (lares and penates); the smoke of the burning incense came out of the skylight. The main rooms were the tablinum (reception room and dining room) and the bedroom with the conjugal bedchamber. In the century BC. C., due to Greek influence, another patio was opened at the back, but surrounded by columns, called peristyle, in Latin peristylum (literally, "surrounded by columns").[14]

A Roman villa was a country house built for the upper class, while a domus was the home of a rich or wealthy family in a city. The Empire contained many types of villas, not all of them lavishly decorated with mosaic floors and frescoes. In the provinces, any country house with some decorative features in the Roman style may be called a "villa" by modern scholars. Some were pleasure mansions, such as Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, which was situated in the hills a short distance from Rome, or like the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, in picturesque locations overlooking the Bay of Naples.

Suburban villas were also known on the outskirts of cities, such as the Republican villas that invaded the Campus Martius, at that time on the borders of Rome, and which can also be seen outside the city walls of Pompeii, including the Villa of the Mysteries, famous for its frescoes. It is possible that these early suburban villages were in fact the seats of power of regional strongmen or heads of important families.

A third type of villa provided the organizational center of the large agricultural properties called latifundios; such villas might lack luxuries. For the 19th century, a town could simply mean an agricultural or exploitative property.

With the colossal Diocletian's Palace, initially planned as a country mansion but later converted into a fortified city, a form of residential castle emerges that anticipates the Middle Ages.

Multi-story apartment blocks called insulae (singular, insula) were adapted to a wide variety of residential needs. The cheapest rooms were at the top due to the inability to escape in case of fire and the lack of running water. The windows were mostly small, facing the street, with iron bars. The insulae were often unhealthy and prone to fires due to overcrowding and improvised kitchen adaptations. There are examples in the Roman port city of Ostia, dating back to the rule of Trajan. The external walls were usually in bare brick, and the interiors were only rarely plastered and sometimes painted.

triumphal arches

A triumphal arch is a monumental arch-shaped structure with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a street or thoroughfare. The origins of the Roman triumphal arch are unclear. There were precursors to the triumphal arch in the Roman world; In Italy, the Etruscans used elaborately decorated arches as gates or portals for their cities. Surviving examples of Etruscan arches can still be seen in Perugia and Volterra. The two key elements of the triumphal arch, a rounded arch and a square entablature, had long been used as separate architectural elements in ancient Greece.

The innovation of the Romans was to use these elements in a single independent structure. The columns became purely decorative elements on the exterior face of the arch, while the entablature, freed from its role as a building support, became the framework for the civic and religious messages that the arch's builders wished to convey in inscriptions. Little is known about how the Romans viewed triumphal arches. Pliny the Elder, writing in the century AD. C., was the only ancient author who wrote about it. He wrote that they intended to "elevate above the ordinary world" the image of an honest person, usually represented in the form of a statue with a chariot on the arch.

The first recorded Roman triumphal arches were established in the time of the Roman Republic. The generals who obtained a triumph were called victors and fornices or honorific arches with statues were raised to commemorate their victories. Roman triumphal practices changed significantly at the beginning of the imperial period, when the first Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that only emperors would obtain triumphs. The triumphal arch went from being a personal monument to being essentially propaganda, serving to announce and promote the presence of the ruler and the laws of the state. The arches were not necessarily built as entrances, but, unlike many modern triumphal arches, they were often erected across streets and intended for people to pass under them.

Most Roman triumphal arches were built during the imperial period. In the 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 in other parts of the Roman Empire. The single arch was the most common, but many triple arches were also built, of which the Triumphal Arch of Orange (circa AD 21) is the oldest surviving example. Since the century AD. C., many of the so-called arcus quadrifrons were built, which were square arches erected over a crossing, with arched openings on all four sides; This form of construction was very popular in North Africa. Arch building in Rome and Italy declined after the time of Trajan (AD 98-117), but remained widespread in the provinces during the second and third centuries. They were often erected to commemorate imperial visits.

The ornamentation of an arch was intended to serve as a constant visual reminder of a triumph or imperial visit. The façade was ornamented with marble columns and the piers and attics with decorative cornices. The sculpted panels depicted victories and achievements, the exploits of the victor, the weapons captured from the enemy, or the triumphal procession itself. The spandrels usually depicted winged Victories, while the attic was often inscribed with a dedicatory inscription naming and praising the victor. The piers and internal corridors were also decorated with free-standing reliefs and sculptures. The vault was adorned with chests. Some triumphal arches were crowned by a statue or a currus triumphalis, a group of statues representing the emperor or general on a chariot.

The inscriptions on Roman triumphal arches were works of art in themselves, with very finely cut letters, sometimes gilded. The shape of each letter and the space between them were carefully designed for maximum clarity and simplicity, without any decorative flourishes, emphasizing the Roman taste for moderation and order. This conception of what later became the art of typography remains of fundamental importance to this day.

Obelisks

An obelisk is a narrow, four-sided monument that ends in a pyramid shape at the top. These were originally called tekhenu by the ancient Egyptians. The Greeks who first saw them used the Greek word obeliskos to describe them, and this word passed into Latin. The Romans moved several obelisks from Egypt to Rome and other cities, and sometimes commissioned obelisks built in an ancient Egyptian style.

Roman roads

Roman roads were vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from approximately 500 BC. C. through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. They provided efficient means for the land movement of armies, officials and civilians, and the land transportation of official communications and commercial goods. At the peak of Rome's development, no fewer than 29 major military roads radiated from the capital, and the 113 provinces of the late Empire were interconnected by 372 major road links. Regular roadway widths have been measured between 3.6 feet (1.1 m) and more than 23 feet (7.0 m). Today, the concrete has worn away into the spaces around the stones, giving the impression of a bumpy road, but the original practice was to produce a surface that was undoubtedly much closer to being flat.

Aqueducts

The Romans built numerous aqueducts to bring water from distant sources to their cities and towns, supplying public baths, latrines, fountains and private swimming pools. Wastewater was removed by complex sewage systems and released into nearby bodies of water, keeping cities clean and free of effluent. Aqueducts also provided water for mining operations, mills, farms, and gardens.

Aqueducts moved water by gravity alone, being built along a slight downward gradient within conduits of stone, brick or concrete. Most were buried underground and followed its contours; obstruction peaks were bypassed or, less frequently, tunnelled. Where valleys or lowlands intervened, the conduit was transported on bridges, or its contents were fed into high-pressure lead, ceramic or stone pipes, and siphoned. Most aqueduct systems included settling tanks, locks, and distribution tanks to regulate the supply needed.

Rome's first aqueduct supplied a water source located in the city's cattle market. In the century AD. C. the city had eleven aqueducts, which supported a population of more than one million inhabitants; most of the water supplied the city's many public baths. Cities and municipalities throughout the Roman Empire emulated this model and financed aqueducts as objects of public interest and civic pride.

Most Roman aqueducts proved reliable and durable; some remained operational into the early modern era, and even a few are still partially functional. Vitruvius points out the methods of surveying and constructing aqueducts in his work De Architectura (century BC). Notable examples of aqueduct architecture include the support piers of the Segovia Aqueduct and the aqueduct-fed cisterns of Constantinople.

Roman architecture provided the basic influence for the development of pre-Romanesque and Romanesque architecture, and spread across Christian Europe beyond the former borders of the Empire, to Ireland and Scandinavia, for example. In the East, Byzantine architecture developed new styles of churches, but most other buildings remained very close to late Roman forms. The same can be said in turn of Islamic architecture, where Roman forms continued for a long time, especially in private buildings, such as houses and baths, and in civil engineering, such as fortifications and bridges.

In Europe, the Italian Renaissance saw a conscious revival of correct classical styles, initially purely based on Roman examples. The Roman architect and treatise writer Vitruvius was respectfully reinterpreted by a number of theorists, and the Tuscan and Composite orders were formalized for the first time, to create five orders instead of three. After the extravagance of Baroque architecture, the neoclassical architecture of the century revived the purest versions of the classical style and, for the first time, added a direct influence from the Greek world.

Numerous local classical styles were developed, such as Palladian architecture, Georgian architecture and the Regency Style ("Regency Style (United Kingdom)"), federal architecture in the United States, and Republican architecture in Latin America.