ROMAN ARCHITECTURE

INFLUENCE ,CHARACTERISTICS AND BACKGROUND

 Introduction
 
Ancient Rome, the period between the 8th and 1st centuries
BC in which Rome grew from a tiny settlement to an emerging
empire while developing from monarchy to a republican form
of government.
The political history of Rome is marked by three
periods. In the first period from 753-509 BC, the city
developed from a village to a city ruled by kings. Then,
the Romans expelled the kings and established the
Roman Republic during the period from 509-27 BC.
Following the collapse of the republic, Rome fell under
the domination of emperors and flourished for
another five centuries as the Roman Empire from 27
BC-AD 476.
Early Expansion of Rome:500-240 BC
  Rome began as a village in central Italy
and gradually grew into a small city ruled
by a series of foreign kings. After
509BC when the Romans drove out the
last of these monarchs and established
a republic, the government focused on
acquiring new lands. The Romans first
defeated neighbouring Italan people like
the Sabines and the Umbrians. New
military methods helped the Roman army
conquer land in the south and west. The
Romans eventually dominated the entire
peninsula after they defeated the
Samnites in a series of wars from 343
to 290 BC and then King Pyrrhus, who
fought on behalf of the Greek cities in
southern Italy. After Rome’s triumph in
the First Punic War (264-241 BC)
Carthage ceded the island of Sicily to
the Romans.
Republican Rome: 100 BC
In the Punic wars of the 3rd and the
2nd centuries, Rome defeated the
Carthaginians of North Africa. The
defeat brought many of Carthage's
former colonial possessions under
Roman control, including parts of Spain
and North Africa. Under the republic,
Rome also fought some of the most
powerful leaders of the eastern
Mediterranean. Roman armies
defeated Philif V of Macedonia, who
was the dominant power in greece, and
Antiochus III, who ceded most of
Asia Minor to Rome. By 100 BC the
Romans had also conquered parts of
Gaul and extended their control over
much of the perimeter of the
Mediterranean Sea.
Peak of Empire: AD 117
In 27 BC, Augustus became the
undisputed ruler of Rome and soon had
established the monarchy that became
known as the Roman Empire. Under
Augustus and his successors, Rome
continued to expand its boundaries. In
addition to Gaul, and parts of Egypt,
Judea and Syria, which the Romans had
controlled since the conquests of Gaius
Julius Caesar and Pompey in the 1st
century BC, the Romans added ancient
Britain, Arabia, and Dacia. The Romans
built an extensive network of roads
that allowed travel and trade among all
the provinces and helped to unite thier
far-flung
empire.
Barbaric Invasions: 3rd century AD
At the end of the 2nd century AD, the
Roman Empire entered a century of
turmoil. Rome was unable to defend its
territory as foreign invaders threatened
the borders of the empire. From the
north several different Germanic
people, including the Franks, Alamanni,
and Goths penetrated into Roman
territory and took over land. From the
east the Sassanid Persians invaded Syria
and Asia Minor and actually took the
emperor Valerian prisoner. The
extraordinary leadership of Diocletian
(AD 284-306) restored some stability
and postponed a total collapse. A
succession of weak emperors, economic
problems, and continuing pressure from
Germanic tribes eventually brought a
division of the empire and the sack of
Rome in 410.
 Legends about founding of Rome

Roman myth created a more glorious tale of

the city’s beginnings. These legends trace
Rome’s origins to Romulus, a son of the god
Mars and also a descendent of the Trojan
prince Aeneas, who brought his people to
Italy after the city of Troy burned.
Romulus and his twin brother Remus were
grandsons of King Numitor of the ancient
city of Alba Longa in Latium. Numitor was
deposed by his brother, who also tried to
kill the twins by having them thrown into
the Tiber. Instead, the infants washed
ashore and were suckled by a she-wolf who
became—and remains today—the symbol of
Rome. When the brothers grew up, they
restored Numitor to his throne and then
ROMULUS founded a new city on the Palatine Hill
above the river.
 Characteristics of  
Roman architecture
True Roman originality appears more often in engineering and
construction than in the decorative arts. By 300 bc Appius Claudius
Caecus had commissioned work on the paved military road south to
Capua, which became known as the Appian Way. He also initiated
construction of Rome’s first aqueduct to bring water to the city from
nearby hills. These projects later became the models for hundreds of
miles of aqueducts and thousands of miles of paved highway built
throughout Rome’s empire. In addition, the Romans took the arch from
the Etruscans and, on their own, pioneered the use of concrete covered
by brick as the basis for most monumental buildings, including baths,
amphitheaters, aqueducts, and markets.
The earliest Roman temples followed the Etruscan style and were built
with wood decorated with terra-cotta. Roman architects designed and
decorated these structures with the idea that they would be viewed
from a single perspective. In contrast, Greek temples were intended to
be observed from all sides. When the Romans turned to stone buildings
in the 3rd century bc, they preserved a similar structure.
 Roman Town Planning
The typical Roman city of the later Republic and empire had a rectangular plan
and resembled a Roman military camp with two main streets, the cardo (north-
south) and the decumanus (east-west) a grid of smaller streets dividing the
town into blocks, and a wall circuit with gates. Older cities, such as Rome
itself, founded before the adoption of regularized city planning, could,
however, consist of a maze of crooked streets. The focal point of the city was
its forum, usually situated at the center of the city at the intersection of the
cardo and the decumanus. The forum, an open area bordered by colonnades
with shops, functioned as the chief meeting place of the town. It was also the
site of the city's primary religious and civic buildings, among them the Senate
house, records office, and basilica. The basilica was a roofed hall with a wide
central area—the nave—flanked by side aisles, and it often had two or more
stories. In Roman times basilicas were the site of business transactions and
legal proceedings, but the building type was adapted in Christian times as the
standard form of Western church with an apse and altar at the end of the long
nave. The first basilicas were put up in the early 2nd century bc in Rome's own
Forum, but the earliest well-preserved example of the basilicas (circa 120 bc)
is found at Pompeii.
 A typical Roman city
Plan of the city of Rome during
the reign of Augustus
Influences on Roman Architecture

Greek Columns
The ancient Greeks developed three
distinctive, carefully proportioned styles of
columns—the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian
orders. The Doric column, first used in the 7th
century bc, has no base, and the heavy shaft is
tapered upward to the capital. The surface of
the shaft, which has a slight convex curve, is
indented with shallow, vertical channelings or
flutings, features also found in the Ionic and
Corinthian orders. The Doric capital consists
mainly of an undecorated, square slab resting
on a rounded disc of stone that tapers down to
the top of the shaft.
In the 6th century bc the Ionic order was
introduced into Greece from Asia. The Ionic
column, which is more tapered than the Doric,
rises from a richly molded circular base. The
capital is distinguished by projecting stone
spirals known as volutes.
In the 4th century bc the Corinthian order was introduced as a
variant of the Ionic. The Corinthian shaft is slender, and the capital is
carved in the shape of an inverted bell, ornately decorated with
volutes and acanthus leaves.

The Romans added two types of columns to the classical orders, the
Tuscan, an unfluted modification of the Doric, and the Composite,
which had the Ionic shaft and a more ornate Corinthian capital. A
single pillar, such as Trajan's Column, in Rome, was sometimes erected
to commemorate an event or to honor a person.
 Arches and Vaults
Romans learned the vaulting system from the Etruscans. They used
Barrel Vaults and Groined vaults for construction of different public and
imperial buildings. Circular barrel vaulting was used to cover the galleries in
Colosseum.

Barrel vault in Colosseum

They also learned arch building from the Etruscans and later on developed
this skill and started using Domes in their buildings.
 

Arcade and groined vaults in a Forum

Previously Romans used trabeate system for supporting the roof. With
this system, the intercolumniation distance was very less. To increase
this distance they had to use big monolithic stones which were very
difficult to find. The arcuate system taken from the Etruscans proved
helpful in increasing the intercolumniation spaces to a greater extent.
 Temple designing
Roman temples were quite similar to the Etruscan temples in
their design and had some resemblance
  to the Greek temples also.

Plan of a Typical Etruscan Temple Plan of a Typical Greek Temple

1. Podium (or base). 1. Stereobate (or substructure).

2. Entrance steps. 2. Stylobate.

3. Columns/colonnade. 3. Colonnade (or peristyle).

4. Porch (or pronaos).
4. Porch.
5. Cella (or naos).
5. Cella (three
6. Rear porch (or
part).
  opisthodomus).
80% of all Greek temples face east so the cult idol, with the doors
to the cella open, faces the rising sun. Most face the sunrise on the
day of the temple's foundation, presumably the god's festival day.

1. Podium (or base).

2. Engaged column.

3. Freestanding column.

4. Entrance steps.
 
5. Porch.
6. Cella.

Plan of a Typical Roman Temple

 

Literature

‘Writing’ was brought to the people of Rome by the Etruscans.

Archaic Latin inscriptions did not begin to appear until around 600
BCE, during the period of the Etruscan monarchy. These inscriptions
such as the Lapis Niger Stele are written in both directions (left to
right, then right to left). The letter C, developed by the Etruscans
from the Greeks to represent the unvoiced K sound was carried on
into Latin, even though the Latin language had a G sound. The letter G
itself evolved at a later stage. The letter Q is found in Archaic
Etruscan as well as Latin inscriptions, although this was dropped as a
redundant letter in the later Etruscan alphabet.

Apart from the linguistic evidence of Etruscan loan words in Latin,

we have the physical evidence of typically Etruscan Orientalization
period tombs being found throughout Latium, in Palestrina and even in
Rome itself.
 Conclusion

The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful

empires in world history. The Greek and the Etruscan
civilization influenced them in many ways but they just
learned the basics from them. They developed the skills
borrowed from different civilizations and used them in
better ways.