Roman architecture and culture
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The Romans adopted the external language of classical Greek
architecture for their own purposes, which were so different from
Greek buildings as to create a new architectural style. The two
styles are often considered one body of classical architecture.
Sometimes that approach is productive, and sometimes it hinders
understanding by causing us to judge Roman buildings by Greek
standards.
Roman architecture represents a fusion of traditional Greek and
Etruscan elements, notably the trabeated orders, with new structural
principles based on the development of the arch and of a new
building material, concrete. The Romans achieved originality in
building very late in their existence; for the whole of the
republican period, Roman architecture was a nearly exact copy of
that of Greece, aside from the Etruscan contribution of the arch,
and its later three-dimensional counterpart, the dome. |
The only two developments of any significance were the Tuscan and
Composite orders; the first being a shortened, simplified variant on
the Doric order and the Composite being a tall order with the floral
decoration of the Corinthian and the scrolls of the Ionic.
Innovation started in the first century BC, with the invention of
concrete, a stronger and readily available substitute for stone.
Tile-covered concrete quickly supplanted marble as the primary
building material and more daring buildings soon followed, with
great pillars supporting broad arches and domes rather than dense
lines of columns suspending flat architraves. The freedom of
concrete also inspired the colonnade screen, a row of purely
decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. In smaller-scale
architecture, concrete's strength freed the floor plan from
rectangular cells to a more free-flowing environment.
On return from campaigns in Greece, the general Sulla returned with
what is probably the most well-known element of the early imperial
period: the mosaic, a decoration of colorful chips of stone inset
into cement. This tiling method took the empire by storm in the late
first century and the second century and in the Roman home joined
the well known mural in decorating floors, walls, and grottoes in
geometric and pictorial designs.
Though most would consider concrete the Roman contribution most
relevant to the modern world, the Empire's style of architecture,
though no longer used with any great frequency, can still be seen
throughout Europe and North America in the arches and domes of many
governmental and religious buildings.
In initial stages, the ancient Roman architecture reflected elements
of architectural styles of the Etruscans and the Greeks. Over a
period of time, the style was modified in tune with their urban
requirements, and the civil engineering and building construction
technology became developed and refined. The Roman concrete has
remained a riddle, and even after more than 2000 years some of
ancient Roman structures still stand magnificently like the Pantheon
(with one of the largest single span domes in the world) located in
the business district of today’s Rome.
The architectural style of the capital city of ancient Rome was
emulated by other urban centers under Roman control and influence,
like the Amphitheatre, Verona, Italy; Arch of Hadrian, Athens,
Greece; Temple of Hadrian, Ephesos, Turkey; a Theatre at Orange,
France; and at several other locations, for example, Lepcis Magna,
located in Libya. Roman cities were well planned, efficiently
managed and neatly maintained. Palaces, private dwellings and
villas, were elaborately designed and town planning was
comprehensive with provisions for different activities by the urban
resident population, and for countless migratory population of
travelers, traders and visitors passing through their cities.
Marcus Vitruvius, a 1st century Roman architect’s treatise “De
architectura”, with various sections, dealing with urban planning,
building materials, temple construction, public and private
buildings, and hydraulics, remained a classic text till Renaissance. |
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