Roman Empire Works of Utility, Monuments

Home

A word should be said about Roman engineering works, which in many cases were designed with an artistic sense of proportion and form which raises them into the domain of genuine art. Such were especially the bridges, in which a remarkable effect of monumental grandeur was often produced by the form and proportions of the arches and piers, and an appropriate use of rough and dressed masonry, as in the Pons Ilius ( Ponte S. Angelo), the great bridge at Alcantara ( Spain), and the Pont du Gard, near Nîmes, in southern France. The aqueducts are impressive rather by their length, scale, and simplicity, than by any special refinements of design, except where their arches are treated with some architectural decoration to form gates, as in the Porta Maggiore, at Rome.

PROVINCIAL WORKS

Besides the temples, theatres, baths, palaces, tombs and bridges already enumerated, in Palmyra, Baalbec, Nîmes, Orange, Reims, St. Rémy, Alcantara, etc., mention must be made of the extensive works of Roman architecture in northern Africa, especially in Algiers, at Timgad, Orleansville, El-Djem, Sbeitla, Lambessa and Tebessa; in Syria at Gerasa and in the necropolis of Petra; of city gates at Autun ( France) and Treves ( Germany, the Porta Nigra); of villas throughout northern Europe, including many in England (e.g. at Silchester); and the great Egyptian temples built under the Roman dominion (Esneh, Philae, Kardassy, etc.). In Paris are still preserved the remains of the palace and baths of Julian. Asia Minor abounds in splendid Greco-Roman theatres, temples and other ruins.

MONUMENTS

(Those which have no important extant remains are given in italics).

TEMPLES:

Jupiter Capitolinus, 600 B.C.; Ceres, Liber, and Libera, 494 B.C. (ruins of later rebuilding in S. Maria in Cosmedin); first T. of Concord (rebuilt in Augustan age), 254 B.C.; first marble temple in portico of Metellus, by a Greek, Hermodorus, 143 B.C.; temples of Fortune at Præneste and at Rome, and of Vesta at Rome, 83-78 B.C.; of Vesta at Tivoli, and of Hercules at Cori, 72 B.C.; first Pantheon, 27 B.C. In Augustan Age temples of Apollo, Concord rebuilt, Dioscuri, Julius, Jupiter Stator, Jupiter Tonans, Mars Ultor, Minerva (at Rome and Assisi), Maison Carrée at Nîmes, Saturn; at Puteoli, Pola, etc. T. of Peace; T. Jupiter Capitolinus, rebuilt 70 A.D.; temple at Brescia. Temple of Vespasian, 96 A.D.; also of Minerva in Forum of Nerva; of Trajan, 117 A.D.; second Pantheon; T. of Venus and Rome at Rome, and of Jupiter Olympus at Athens, 135-138 A.D.; Faustina, 141 A.D.; many in Syria; temples of Sun at Rome, Baalbec, and Palmyra, cir. 273 A.D.; of Romulus, 305 A.D. (porch S. Cosmo and Damiano).

PLACES OF ASSEMBLY

FORA-Roman, Julian, 46 B.C.; Augustan, 4042 B.C.; of Peace, 75 A.D.; Nerva, 97 A.D.; Trajan (by Apollodorus of Damascus, 117 A.D.

BASILICAS

Sempronian, milian, 1st century B.C.; Julian, 51 B.C.; Septa Julia, 26 B.C.; the Curia, later rebuilt by Diocletian, 300 A.D. (now Church of S. Adriano); at Fano, 20 A.D.; Forum and Basilica at Pompeii, 60 A.D.; of Trajan; of Constantine, 310-324 A.D.

THEATRES (th.) and AMPHITHEATRES (amp.)

Th. Pompey, 55 B.C.; of Balbus and of Marcellus, 13 B.C.; th. and amp. at Pompeii and Herculanum; Colosseum at Rome, 7882 A.D.; th. at Orange and in Asia Minor; amp. at Albano, Constantine, Nimes, Petra, Pola, Reggio, Trevi, Tusculum, Verona, etc.; amp. Castrense at Rome, 96 A.D. Circuses and stadia at Rome.

THERMAE

Of Agrippa, 27 B.C.; of Nero; of Titus, 78 A.D.; Domitian, 90 A.D.; Caracalla, 211 A.D.; Diocletian, 305 A.D.; Constantine, 320 A.D.; Gallienus ("Minerva Medica"), 3d century A.D.; at Pompeii, Stabian Baths, Baths of Forum, etc. ARCHES: of Stertinius, 196 B.C.; Scipio, 190 B.C.: Augustus, 30 B.C.; Titus, 71-82 A.D.; Trajan, 117 A.D.; Severus, 203 A.D.; Constantine, 320 A.D.; of Drusus, Dolabella, Silversmiths, 204 A.D.; Janus Quadrifrons, 320 A.D. (?); all at Rome. Others at Benevento, Ancona, Rimini in Italy; also at Athens, and at Reims and St. Chamas in France. Columns of Trajan, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius at Rome; others at Constantinople, Alexandria, etc.

TOBMS

Along Via Appia and Via Latina, at Rome; Via Sacra at Pomp eii; tower-tombs at St. Rémy in France; rock-cut at Petra; at Rome, of Caius Cestius and Cecilia Metella, 1st century B.C.; of Augustus, 14 A.D.; Hadrian, 138 A.D.

PALACES and PRIVATE HOUSES

On Palatine, of Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Domitian, Septimius Severus, Elagabalus; Villa of Hadrian at Tivoli; palaces of Diocletian at Spalato and of Constantine at Constantinople. House of Livia on Palatine (Augustan period); of Vestals, rebuilt by Hadrian, cir. 120 A.D. Houses at Pompeii and Herculanum, cir. 60-79 A.D., e.g., of PAUSA, of Diomed, of Tragic Poet, of Musician, of M. Holconius, of the Vettii; rustic villa at Boscoreale (walls removed to Metropolitan Museum, New York); Villas of Gordianus ("Tot' de' Schiavi," 240 A.D.), and of Sallust at Rome, and of Pliny at Laurentium.