Roman Architecture

Roman Architecture

The word architecture refers to the art and science of conceptualizing and erecting buildings. The ancient Romans were masters of architecture, design, and erecting buildings. The skill of the Romans in erecting and constructing buildings, including the invention of concrete, led to the creation of different types and styles of Roman architecture in building fortresses, villas, temples, even entire city quarters, baths, large walls, and roads. Roman construction and architecture permanently changed the face of Europe.

Architecture of the Romans

An overview of Roman architecture, and of the construction, planning, and building of Roman architecture in antiquity had clear characteristics. These are reflected even today in the basilica, in baths, amphitheaters like the Coliseum, the Arc de Triomphe, old villas, temples, streets, forts and palisades, cities, and aqueducts. The fact that the Romans discovered concrete is a true journey of discovery that leads one through the Roman world of the famous pillars and arches.

A Colossus of Roman Architecture

The symbol of the power and wealth of the Roman Empire was the Coliseum, built in the center of Rome. In less than 10 years, the Romans erected this ancient construction that demonstrated the perfection of Roman architectural expertise. It was conceptualized and built by outstanding and famous engineers. The remarkable accomplishment of Roman architecture is a monument for one of the most famous Roman inventions: concrete. The Roman arches stand prominently around the building, and the pillars demonstrate the various styles of architecture: Tuscan pillars on the underside of the Colosseum, Ionic, and, finally, on the third level, Corinthian pillars.

Historical Information on Roman Architecture

The Roman time marked the shift of the Western world from a region populated by barbaric clans to the civilization of the global conqueror: the Roman Empire. The time of Roman architecture starts with the founding of the Republic in 509 BC. It stretches to the transfer of the capital of the empire from Rome to the Eastern Empire in Constantinople in 330 A.D. The history of Roman architecture is separated into two periods. During the first period, the period of the Republic, the origins of Roman architecture can be traced back to the Etruscans who carried on the Greek and Phoenician traditions. An example of this is the erection of large temples to honor their gods.
The second period of architecture began in 27 BC and is considered the period of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire stretched over thousands of miles from Europe to North Africa and the Middle East. The large number of countries conquered by the Romans in the course of time brought with them a rich cultural diversity that was reflected in Roman architecture. The result was an eclectic architectural style, a Roman architecture, that melted together numerous elements from the diverse regional styles and architectural traditions and made something new.

Ancient Roman Architecture - Instructions from the Roman Era

The era of Roman architecture in the shift from the Republic to the imperial period was a time of development in Roman architecture and creation of completely new constructions. For example, the old Romans are responsible for the so-called forums. These were squares framed by temples, stores, and basilica. Basilica were also first created during this time. Baths were a special challenge of typical Roman architecture. Markets such as the Trajan Market in Rome were created. This is a five-story building complex with stores, bars, and restaurants.
The architects in Rome became famous for the amphitheaters like the famous Coliseum and the Circus Maximus as well as for theaters. Triumphal arches celebrated the Roman victories. Villas, temples, streets, forts and palisades, cities, and aqueducts are evidence of Roman architecture.

All Roads Lead to Rome – Social and Cultural Change in Roman Architecture

The Roman Empire was expanding and Roman architecture increasingly changed. The splendor of Roman architecture reflected the social changes of people in Rome. After all, the Romans were the conquerors of half of the civilized world. The great stone and marble constructions of the Romans presented their civilization and their wealth, their dominance and power to all who lived in slavery. In order to rule the Roman Empire and show its power, it was necessary to be able to quickly access all regions and provinces. Roads were needed to be able to more quickly travel from one Roman region to the next. Over 82,000 km of roads were built in a star form around the capital to all provinces and regions. It is therefore no wonder that even today people say: “All roads lead to Rome.”

Theater for the People

The massive antique amphitheaters were built for the people. The old Roman games were a form of entertainment while they also displayed power and dominance. Men’s brutal blood sacrifices, for example when fighting against exotic creatures like crocodiles, leopards, elephants, lions, and tigers, were designed to show the Roman Empire’s prominent position of power. However, the changing needs of the people also demanded innovations in ancient Roman architecture. The Roman emperors needed the support of the people to stay in power, and this meant that large public construction projects were taken on. Games were held in the massive amphitheaters like the Coliseum and the Circus Maximus. Spectacular triumphal parades through the broad Roman streets and through the triumphal arches of the forums were a way for the regents to enthuse the people.
These usually culminated in worship of the gods in the splendorous temples. Public baths became popular in ancient Rome, not only for the rich, but for all people - of course with differences in terms of Roman architecture. Well-to-do Roman patricians wanted to demonstrate their wealth and had magnificent villas built. Here there was a true competition and innovation in Roman architecture. Cities were built in this time, or conceptualized and constructed, and for everyone there was a public bath – the focal point of Roman society and social life.

Construction Materials and Work in Roman Architecture

Which materials were easy for the Roman architects to access? At first, many buildings created by Roman architects were made of wood. Stone and marble were often too expensive. Many skills had to be acquired through the course of time in order to achieve the high standards of ancient Roman architecture. In order to be able to build large structures and cities, thousands of workers were needed. For the Romans that was no problem! After all, they had millions of slaves from the conquered areas. They took the best ideas and concepts from the buildings in these regions as models and also had the Roman army, which was responsible for building the giant network of old Roman roads. The wonderful and exemplary buildings of ancient Roman architecture were only made possible when the Romans invented concrete. Without this, buildings like the Pantheon or the arches and the Coliseum wouldn’t have been architecturally possible.

A growing dictionary of Roman realia you will find here

The Roman goddesses and gods - an introduction

The Pantheon of Roman gods and the Greek gods with their description

 

Roman Name of the Roman goddesses and gods	Roman Name of the Greek goddesses and gods	Description
Apollo	Apollo	god of the Sun, poetry, music, Oracle
Bacchus	Dyonisos	god of wine
Ceres	Demeter	goddess of agriculture
Cupid	Eros	god of love
Artemis	Diana	goddess of the hunt
Fauna	Maia	goddess of animals
Flora	Chloris	goddess of flowers and spring
Fortuna	Tyche	goddess of happiness
Janus		god of the beginning and the end
Juno	Hera	the goddess of marriage
Jupiter	Zeus	god of heaven and king of the gods
Mars	Ares	god of war
Mercury	Hermes	Messenger of the gods and God of finances, poets and writers
Minerva	Pallas Athena	goddess of wisdom
Neptune	Poseidon	god of sea
Pluto	Hades	god of the underworld and death
Saturn	Kronos	god of time, harvest and agriculture
Venus	Aphrodite	goddess of love and beauty
Vesta	Hestia	goddess of the heart, the home and the Roman State
Vulcanus	Hephaestus	god of fire and the forge

 

Ever more new-Roman deities

The Roman goddess Vesta was borrowed from the Greek, and corresponded to Hestia, the goddess of the hearth fire. She was worshipped in the Temple of Vesta in the Forum. Their circular Temple corresponded to the ancient italic round hut. The eternal flame, which was guarded by six vestal virgins, burned in the temple with 20 columns. She lived in a neighboring House and their "service" took 30 years. The Roman virgins to guard the Temple had to live as virgins. If one of them fell, she was walled up alive. And if one did not pay attention and let the external fire extinguish, she was scourged to death by the Pontiff Maximus. However, when a criminal who had been sentenced to death, on his way to the execution met a vestal virgin, he was pardoned. Vestal virgins were so highly regarded that even Senators made place for them when they met in the street. The Roman rulers deposited their testaments in the Temple of Vesta.

Examples of how Romans paid homage to their gods

Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, was worshipped when a famine in Rome broke out in the year 496 BC. To her together with Liber (gr. Dionysos) and Libera (gr. Persephone) a temple was donated. Mars was the God of war and thus the God of the soldiers and the military. The month of March was dedicated to him, because he was originally the old Latin god of agriculture and of spring. On March 1, the Roman Mars priests who came from twelve noble families, held their celebrations in honor of Mars. The farmers went with a bull, a pig and a sheep goat across the fields and sacrificed the animals to the deity of Mars. Mercury was the God of traders, poets and writers. At the Circus Maximus, who was at the same time also the Corn Exchange of Rome, he had his temple. Here was also the seat of the panel of the Roman merchants (mercuriales).

Venus is the goddess of love and beauty. She is the mother of Aeneas and thus the ancestress of the family of the Iulier which they worshipped as Generix. She was also the Roman goddess of the garden for the farmers. Neptune as God of the water was the Greek Poseidon in the Roman pantheon. Apollo, initially considered as a healing god, later became the god of arts, divination, the exiles and the displaced persons. In the Roman Empire, he was also Sol, the Sun God of the Romans. His sister was Diane, who was the Greek god artemis, a goddess of the hunt.

Roman gods

In addition to the old and new gods, Romans worshipped further divine beings, the Lares, Penates and Manes. The Lares were the gods of the house and the spirits of the deceased who looked after the house. They even remained when a Roman family left their house. The Penates were the gods of the inhabitants of the houses. You were dependent on their health and prosperity. Her name is derived from the Latin word penus meaning supplies. The Penates accompanied the families, but alsoe the State had his Penates. The Manes were the souls of the dead, which were worshipped by the Romans. They were not only worshipped, even a Festival was celebrated to their honour on 21 February (feralia). Marriage was forbidden on that day, the temples were closed and Roman officials were not allowed to wear official clothing. The Manes are often mentioned under the symbol DM - dis manibus - on Roman gravestones manibus.

Roman ink and paint - was it a dangerous to health?

Ancient ink was often carbon-based, but was also made with metals like copper, which, sometimes, was concocted with little or no sulfur. During the Roman Empire and towards the medieval times, we notice a move towards the famous iron gall inks (made with iron sulfate) which became popular and remained so until modern times. A good example for the transition can be seen in the Coptic fragments of the famous, only recently re-discovered Gospel of Judas which links the ancient world to the modern, as the scribe used iron gall ink that also included black carbon soot bound with a gum binder.
This move is interesting also from a health perspective. Although iron sulfate in larger quantities are dangerous for the human body, smaller quantities are even used as general iron supplement in humans without any reports of adverse long term health effects. The added Oak gall apples' fluid (produced from cooking Oak gall apples for half an hour) were also a natural product. Oak gall apples grow on Oak trees, induced by wasps and their eggs.
For a long time, people have seen the beneficial benefits for women’s health and general health as well from Oak extracts. These have natural antiseptic properties that are effective in eliminating bacteria, yeast and fungal infection, the main cause of itching and unpleasant odor in the intimate area. Hence the gall apples did not only physically protect the wasp's egg, it did so also biologically.

As binding material, the Romans used Gum arabic, a natural gum made of hardened sap that is taken from two species of the acacia tree and links the Roman economy to central Africa and the Senegal or Somalia, although the species have also been historically cultivated in Arabia.
Now, Gum arabic is famous still today as source of the sugars arabinose and ribose and better known
in the food industry as an edible stabilizer (E number E414). As in antiquity, where it was (and in some countries still is) used to make a chilled, sweetened, and flavored gelato-like dessert. It is the basis for many soft drink syrups, "hard" gummy candies such as gumdrops, marshmallows, chocolate candies, and edible glitter, or for popular modern cake-decorating staple.

 

Parchment - writing an animal skins?

 

In the Roman times parchment was a common writing material, although quite expensive, as it was made of animal skin, also known as “membrana”. The actual name “parchment” was found later in late antique times in sources by Edict of Diocletian (VII38).

Parchment started competing with Papyrus from around 400 A.D. and eventually took over papyrus.
This happened especially because parchment was easier to produce since it was available nearly everywhere due to the simple raw materials needed. Papyrus was a lot more difficult to produce and production availability was limited to plants that only grew in a few regions such as North Africa and Syria.

This was the beginning of the use of parchment in the literary world also because writing errors can easily be erased and fixed in parchment, unlike with papyrus which was harder to fix.

The production of parchment happens in several steps. The animal skin is put in lime lye where the hair detaches. Adjacent is the skin stretched into a wooden frame and still in wet condition scraped with a knife.
When all hair residues are removed, the surface can be smoothened to become a writable surface. This costly process hasn’t changed for thousands of years and is still today traditionally exercised.

Writing on goat or sheep skin is not only a special writing experience, but one can produce something that is durable and eccentric – decorative, rustic and impressionable – but also suitable for the day to day use like to protect books. Hence, it is not only something that was used by Romans, but still very common for important documents in the Middle Ages, but also in modern times.

No more replica coins on ebay - where to go now?

As ebayers may have noticed, all (or almost all) replica coins (Greek, Roman, Medieval, Viking, Tudor ...) have gone. Only because some fraudulent ebay sellers have offered replica coins as originals (at a ridiculous price) or have offered cheap import products without clear markings of the products being replica, ebay claims that the Bank of England has urged its site to stop selling replica coins at all.
The move was already indicated by the creation, a few months ago, of a special area of "novelties" within the coins section of ebay. Yet, this does seem to have done the job. Hence, the move to totally ban replica coins from ebay.

This is, of course, a big blow against those customers who have enjoyed a reliable service of those who offered clearly signed and marked replica coins. It is a special blow to the educational sector where pupils in primary and secondary schools, but also students in universities and those attending workshops in museums where introduced into understanding, handling and reading coins of the Greek, Roman or later periods. It is always a wonderful experience to let students not only see or here about coins, but also let them touch and explore what such physical material can tell us about the past. Of course, it is hardly possible to use original material, but ebay offered a fantastic platform where to purchase for relatively little money objects that one could use even in bigger sized classes.
So, where to go now? Fortunately, amazon still sells replica, and we hope that the Bank of England is not going to stop this platform as well. But then, there are also other platforms that specialize in replica from arts and antiquity. And hopefully, they carry on to providing the educational sector, museums and collectors with high quality products at replica prices.

Replica Coins - Forbidden forgery art products?

Not long ago, ebay-sellers that offer replica coins were threatened by the possibility that they could no longer sell Roman (and other) coin replica. Too many black sheep sold replica without indicating clearly to the innocent buyers that what they sold were not originals, but coin reproductions, often so well executed that they could hardly be differentiated from their originals. So the question was raised:
"What are the differences between numismatic counterfeits and legal coin reproductions?"
In the meantime, ebay settled for a softened outcome and created a special section for replica on the grounds, as explained by one of the ebay Guides:
'Forgeries of genuine ancient and modern coins fabricated to trick and defraud collectors and investors are illegal. Secton 2101 of the Hobby Protection Act of 1973 describes the requirements for coin reproduction of numismatic items: "The manufacture in the United States, or the inportation into the United States, for introduction into or distribution in commerce any imitation numismatic item which is not plainly and permanently marked 'copy', is unawful and is an unfair or deceptive act or practice in commerce under the Federal Trade Commission Act. . ." [15 U.S.C.41 et al.]
In the UK, the legislation is less rigid, but good replica producers and sellers check that the replica are as close as possible to the originals, while at the same time there is a clear sign on each coin that what you see, sell or buy and collect is stamped as a replica.
Just last week, visiting Eichstätt in Germany, the Museum for the Roman past, I looked at the display of Roman coins, described as findings from the region - yet, the sole Gold solidus was stamped, hence was one of the coins which you can buy at www.the-romans.net

Again, there are very good reasons for the production and sale of reproduced replica coins:

Collectors and Museums use replica coins for educational purposes to either substitute rare or expensive pieces. Then, scholars, historians, schools and teachers would like to introduce students to Roman numismatics. It is less risky to do this with replica than with originals, and you can still get both the feeling and the right learning outcomes.
Not to forget theatrical productions in film, schools, or just at parties - it is a fantastic possibility to enjoy what people in the past have valued and worked for. And still, replica are not cheap products either. Yes, there are different qualities of replica, but some producers and certainly most of the sellers on ebay provide what people can be proud of, true replica.

Let's finish with the statement of the ebay Guide:

'legal coin reproductions have signifiant commercial uses for businesses, associations, non-profit organizations, and govermental agencies. Legal coin replicas are used in as customer gifts, direct marketing, and fund raising. Some projects require the production of large quantities of legal replicas. It is more economical for a private mint to manufacture these pieces in volume. Legal coin reproductions are often combined with other products. ... Legal coin replicas are often integrated into the designs of commercial tokens for business and governmental agencies. Several years ago, legal Viking replica coins were used in tokens at the the settlement Lief Ericsson established in Newfoundland. ... Today, legal coin reproductions are used as visual historic props in theatrical productions particularly in movies and televisions. Finally, legal coin copies have commercial uses in direct marketing, fund raising, an business promotions in the private and public sectors.'

Who was the first Roman Emperor? Cesar, Augustus, Claudius?

Thanks to a question to about the description of the Cesar bust - I had to reflect about the question who the first Roman Emperor was.
As always in history, answers are the more complicated the simpler a question is. Wikipedia is right with its statement, at least to some extent, on the title 'Cesar' that Augustus is called 'the first Roman Emperor Cesar Augustus' because Octavian/Augustus (63BCE - 14AD) called himself 'Imperator Caesar'). - while my own statement is not wrong either which derives from the imprecision of the English language (other European languages like German are even worth in this respect). We translate lat. 'imperator' as a technical term in the military sense with a commander-in-chief, general, = στρατηγός (cf.: dux, ductor) (Lewis&Short), in the Roman political and cultural sphere with 'a commander, leader, chief, director, ruler, master', and we know it as an epithet of Jupiter (Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 58, § 129: “signum Jovis Imperatoris”). At the same time, we translate 'Cesar' as 'Emperor' (so, for example, the Wikipedia entry see above).
Now, as an acclamation of victorious generals, the title 'Imperator' is already known since the 3rd century BCE and since Sulla (c. 138 BC – 78 BC), one began to count the number of times one received this title, a usage which was carried on beyond Cesar. Octavian/Augustus, for example, was acclamed 21 times 'Imperator', for the first time probably because of his victory in Brundisium he adopted the 'praenomen Imperatoris' (Inscr. Ital. XIII 1, see D. McFayden, The History of the Titel Imperator under the Roman Empire, Diss., [Chicago, 1920]), but only since Claudius (Emperor 41 to 54 AD), but already Julius Cesar was called imperator and for him this title was no longer simply a commemoration of a victory, but a title and expression of his absolute, dictatorial military power, was even used as part of his name: C. CAESARE IMP. (CIL 1².788). And when Cesar was murdered, Octavian not only was regarded as adopted by Cesar, but also chose as his name that of his 'father', became Gaius Julius Caesar, and later adopted his father's title Imperator Julius Caesar, as if imperator was a first name.This was made official by law in 29 BCE and could even be combined with the number of imperatorial acclamations, like CIL 5.526: IMP. CAESARI DIVI F. IMP. V). Two years later, Octavian settled for Imperator Caesar Augustus - three words that all became synonym of 'emperor' (see http://www.livius.org/).
Subsequently, Imperator became the second acclamation after the acclamation as Cesar - hence only from him onwards can we historically speak of a Roman 'Emperor'.
And yet, what do we mean by Roman Emperor? The main distinction is, of course, that he is no longer a representative of a Roman Republic, but the sole dictator in the Roman Empire. And in this respect, only Christian nomenclator stylised Augustus to being the 'romantic' Emperor known from the New Testament, not Cesar, although Cesar was not only the first dictator, but also passed on his name as a cognomen, a title and a political programme to his family and with Flavians beyond his family to all subsequent dictators of the Roman Empire and beyond.