Roman Imperial Architecture

AUGUSTAN AGE

Even in the temples of Greek style Roman conceptions of plan and composition are dominant. The Greek architect was not free to reproduce textually Greek designs or details, however strongly he might impress with the Greek character whatever he touched. The demands of imperial splendor and the building of great edifices of varied form and complex structure, like the thermae and and amphitheatres, called for new adaptations and combinations of planning and engineering. The reign of Augustus ( 27 B.C. 14 A.D.) inaugurated the imperial epoch, but many works erected before and after his reign properly belong to the Augustan age by right of style. In general, we find in the works of this period the happiest combination of Greek refinement with Roman splendor. It was in this period that Rome first assumed the aspect of an opulent and splendid metropolis, though the way had been prepared for this by the regularization and adornment of the Roman Forum and the erection of many temples, basilicas, fora, arches, and theatres during the generation preceding the accession of Augustus. His reign saw the inception or completion of the portico of Octavia, the Augustan forum, the Septa Julia, the first Pantheon, the adjoining Thermae of Agrippa, the theatre of Marcellus, the first of the imperial palaces on the Palatine, and a long list of temples, including those of the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux), of Mars Ultor, of Jupiter Tonans on the Capitol, and others in the provinces; besides colonnades, statues, arches, and other embellishments almost without number.

LATER IMPERIAL WORKS

With the successors of Augustus splendor increased to almost fabulous limits, as, for instance, in the vast extent and the prodigality of ivory and gold in the famous Golden House of Nero. After the great fire in Rome, presumably kindled by the agents of this emperor, a more regular and monumental system of street-planning and building was introduced, and the first municipal building-law was decreed by him. To the reign of Vespasian ( 68-79 A.D.) we owe the rebuilding in Roman style and with the Corinthian order of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, the Baths of Titus, and the beginning of the Flavian amphitheatre or Colosseum. The two last-named edifices both stood on the site of Nero's Golden House, of which the greater part was demolished to make way for them. During the last years of the first century the Arch of Titus was erected, the Colosseum finished, amphitheatres built at Verona, Pola, Reggio, Tusculum, Nimes ( France), Constantine ( Algiers), Pompeii and Herculanum (these last two cities and Stabiae rebuilt after the earthquake of 63 A.D.), and arches, bridges, and temples erected all over the Roman world.

The first part of the second century was distinguished by the splendid architectural achievements of the reigns of Trajan ( 98117) and Hadrian ( 117-138 A.D.). The works of this great age were marked by great dignity of conception as well as beauty of detail; they include the Forum and Basilica of Trajan and the Pantheon, besides many splendid works in the provinces. During the latter part of the century a very interesting series of buildings were erected in the Hauran ( Syria), in which Greek and Syrian workmen under Roman direction produced examples of vigorous stone architecture of a mingled Roman and Syrian character.

The most remarkable thermæ of Rome belong to the third century--those of Caracalla ( 211-217 A.D.) and of Diocletian ( 284305 A.D.)-their ruins to-day ranking among the most imposing remains of antiquity. In Syria the temples of the Sun at Baalbec and Palmyra ( 273 A.D., under Aurelian), and the great palace of Diocletian at Spalato, in Dalmatia ( 300 A.D.), are still the wonder of the few travellers who reach those distant spots.

While during the third and fourth centuries there was a marked decline in purity and refinement of detail, many of the later works of the period display a remarkable freedom and originality in conception. But these works are really not Roman, they are foreign, that is, provincial products; and the transfer of the capital to Byzantium revealed the increasing degree in which Rome was coming to look to the East for her strength and her art.

TEMPLES

The Romans built both rectangular and circular temples, and there was much variety in their treatment. In the rectangular temples a high podium, or basement, was substituted for the Greek stepped stylobate, and the prostyle plan was more common than the peripteral. The cella was relatively short and wide, the front porch inordinately deep, and sometimes divided by longitudinal rows of columns into three aisles. In most cases the exterior of the cella in prostyle temples was decorated by engaged columns. A barrel vault gave the interior an aspect of spaciousness impossible withness impossible with the Greek system of a wooden ceiling supported on double ranges of columns. In the place of these, free or engaged columns along the side-walls received the ribs of the vaulting. Between these ribs the ceiling was richly panelled, or coffered and sumptuously gilded. The temples of Fortuna Virilis and of Faustina at Rome (the latter built 141 A.D., and its ruins incorporated into the modern church of S. Lorenzo in Miranda), and the beautiful and admirably preserved Maison Carrée, at Nimes ( France; 4 A.D.), are examples of this type. In the temples of Concord, Julius, and Vespasian, all in the Forum, the porch was on the long side of the cella. Some of the larger temples were peripteral. The temple of the Dioscuri ( Castor and Pollux) in the Forum, was one of the most magnificent of these, certainly the richest in detail. Very remarkable was the double temple of Venus and Rome, east of the Forum, built by the Emperor Hadrian about 130 A.D., a vast pseudodipteral edifice with two cellas meeting back to back in the center. The temple stood in the midst of an imposing columnar peribolus entered by magnificent gateways. Other important temples have already been mentioned.

Besides the two circular temples already described, the temple of Vesta, adjoining the House of the Vestals, at the east end of the Forum, should be mentioned. At Baalbec is a circular temple whose entablature curves inward between the widely-spaced columns until it touches the cella in the middle of each inter-columniation. It illustrates the caprices of design which sometimes resulted from the disregard of tradition and the striving after originality ( 273 A.D.).