February 18, 2011-

Vol. I No. I

Some of the

greatest

buildings made!

Which materials

were used.

Coliseums,

roads, & more!

Pantheon 1

2

3

4

Page 8 – See the types of

Roman columns & more!

5

Go to page

11 to learn

more about

coliseums!

Page 6 Roman Architecture

Page 8 Columns & Arches

Page 9 Domes & Bridges

Page 11 Roman Colosseum

Page 13 Roman Houses

Page 15 The Roads of the Romans

Page 17 Aqueducts

Roman Architecture

The art and science

of designing and making

buildings and other structures

is known as architecture. The

architecture known today is

more inclined to a modern

style, but architecture can date

back to thousands of years

before Christ, like the New

Stone Age. During this period,

based on data, is when

architecture began. Although it

arose during the New Stone

Age, architecture advanced

during one of the greatest, if

not the best, empires of all

time, the Roman Empire. It is

during this empire, where

architecture took

a big leap from post and

lintel, structure consisting of

vertical beams supporting a

horizontal beam, to arch and

columns. Also, Romans

invented other great

architectural structures like

aqueducts, bridges,

amphitheaters, etc, that benefit

people around the world up

until today.

A fascinating legacy from one of the greatest empires

known in history

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The Romans were thefirst people to treatarchitecture as aminister to thenumberless needs of agreat nation.

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The columns and arches

are two of the many

great architectural

inventions from the

Romans. The difference

is that these two

structures were able to

construct bigger temples

and buildings than ever

before.

Three types of columns

arose: the Doric, the

Ionic, and the Cornithian.

The Doric style is the

most simple one. It has

plain features that did not

attract attention, but did

serve to hold up

enormous and heavy

buildings. The Ionic style

where more ornamented,

having decorations in the

base and the top, and

increased the awe power

of the building that it was

used with. Lastly, the

Cornithian style was the

best columns. It had fine

and specific details and

its size attracted more

than the other two.

The roman arches were

used to glorify and

support buildings; they

were made from cement;

and they allowed

Romans to expand

buildings. Thanks to this

great invention, another

roman structure was

born, the dome and it

was used to decorate

other inventions likeaqueducts and bridges.

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A dome is a structuralelement that shows theupper half of a sphere. TheRomans used this toshape large interior spacesof public buildings andtemples. The Pantheon isan example of a building inRome with a dome.

Bridges were alsoarchitectural methods thatthe Romans advanced.Roman bridges were thefirst large and lastingbridges built. They weremade by stone and hadarches as a basicstructure.

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Inner view of the dome in the

Pantheon.

Pons Aemilius- oldest Roman

stone bridge.

Flavian Amphitheatre in Rome10

When Emperor Vespasian took power

in Rome, he used his share of gold

gained after the First Jewish Revolt to

pay for the construction of a new

amphitheater. Since there was a new

way of building in concrete, the

amphitheatre was able to be built

quickly and cheaply. It was named as

the Flavian Amphitheater, now known

as the Colosseum, and this new

building, made Vespasian very

popular in Rome.

This coliseum was found in the heart

of Rome and was a place where a lot

of people could sit and watch for

entertainment. The entertainment was

mostly people killing animals, or

people killing each other. It was built

of concrete, marble, and limestone.

There were no less than 76 numbered

entrances and 4 additional entrances

reserved for the Emperor, guests and

the gladiators.

The Colosseum was designed for

easy crowd dispersal; the entire

audience could exit the building in five

minutes. The interior was divided into

three parts: the arena, the podium,

and the cavea. A wooden floor

covered subterranean chambers

where the gladiators and animals

were kept waiting to perform.

The audience, upon entering, climbed

sloping ramps to their seats,

according to gender and social class.

Obviously, the higher one's social

status, the better their seating

arrangement would be.

A lot of the seats were made of

marble and people have stolen them

away over the years and burned them

in limekilns to make mortar

and cement. The floor has also been

taken away, so one can see the

rooms in the basement where the

Romans kept the animals and the

equipment.

The games played

in the Colosseum are believedto have taken the lives ofabout 500,000 people and overa million wild animals.

The Ostium of a Roman house.

Roman house and courtyard.12

The Roman houses wererelatively modest andsimple buildings beforethe conquest of the East,when the city becamewealthier. Many housesof immense size werethen built, adorned withcolumns, paintings,statues, and expensiveworks of art.

The houses had sevenprincipal parts. Thevestibulum was a courtsurrounded by the houseon three sides, and openon the fourth to thestreet. The ostium wasthe modern front hallway.From it a door openedinto the atrium, whichwas a large room with anopening in the center ofits roof, through whichthe rain-water wascarried into a cisternplaced in the floor underthe opening. To the rightand left of the atriumwere side rooms calledthe alae, and thetablinum was a balconyattached to it. Thepassages from the atriumto the interior of thehouse were calledfauces. The peristylium,towards which these

passages ran, was anopen court surroundedby columns, decoratedwith flowers and shrubs.

The floors were coveredwith stone, marble, ormosaics. The walls werelined with marble slabs,or frescoed, while theceilings were either bare,exposing the beams, or,in the finer houses,covered with ivory, gold,and frescoes.

The main rooms werelighted from above; theside rooms received theirlight from these, and notthrough windows lookinginto the street. Thewindows of rooms inupper floors were notsupplied with glass untilthe time of the Empire.They were merelyopenings in the wall,covered with lattice-work.To heat a room, portablestoves were generallyused, in which charcoalwas burned. There wereno chimneys, and thesmoke passed outthrough the windows orthe openings in the roofs.The wealthiest Romansused heated water

supplies from naturalsprings or through thesewer system.

The rooms of the wealthywere furnished with greatsplendor. The walls weredecorated with scenesfrom Greek mythology,landscapes, etc.

In the vestibules werefine sculptures, costlymarble walls, and doorsornamented with gold,silver, and rare shells.There were expensiverugs from the East, andeverything that could beobtained likely to add tothe attractiveness of theroom. Candles wereused in early times, butlater the wealthy usedlamps, which were madeof terra-cotta or bronze.

The common classeslived in apartment likebuildings called theinsula. These buildingscovered an entire cityblock, with residentialhomes in the interior andcommercial shops,restaurants, markets orvarious organized clubsaround the street sides.

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The road system of the AncientRomans was one of the greatestengineering accomplishments ofits time. It has over 50,000 milesof roads covered with flat stonesor bricks, also known as pavedroads. It was originally built tofacilitate the movement of troopsthroughout the empire. The roadswere used for trade, as were thewaterways surrounding andconnecting parts of the RomanEmpire to itself and the rest of theknown world.

Romans built over 53,000 miles(85,000 kilometers) of roads toconnect every part of theirempire.

The roads were mostly built bythe army and were all done byhand. The system of roadsconnected together everyprovince in the empire. TheRomans had a saying "All roadslead to Rome."

The roads were first examined tokeep them straight, were dugthree feet down and twenty-threefeet across. It was then filled witha large mixture of small stonesand sand for the foundation. Alayer of smaller gravel wasplaced down and leveled. Thesides were lined with blocks andhand-carved stones. Stones wereoften pentagonal in shape (fivesided) and fitted together to makethe top layer of the road. Theroads were higher level from thecenter, so rainwater would drainoff into at the sides of the roads.Stone mile markers would beplaced along the roads to lettravelers know how far is to thenext city or inn.

Rome was famous for its system of roads

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One of the greatest achievements in theancient world is the great advancedRoman waterway system known as theAqueducts. The running water, indoorplumbing and sewer system carryingaway disease from the population withinthe Empire wasn't great or better incapability until very modern times. TheAqueducts, stand as a testament toRomans while being the most visible andglorious piece of the ancient watersystem. Some of these ancientstructures are still used today.

The aqueducts were built from acombination of stone, brick and thespecial volcanic cement pozzuolana.Even though now a day the aqueductsremains can be seen, during those daysthey were hidden underground.Channels were dug below the surface,and carried water where it was possibleand convenient.

The aqueducts were built only to carrythe flow of waters in areas wheredigging, burrowing, or surface gradeshad problems, such as valleys. Acontinuous flow was maintained by theentire system that depended on somegradients and the use of gravity. Theengineering at this time was remarkable.It would have been impossible tomaintain the flow of water at propergrades, without the aqueducts.

When water reached Rome it flowed intoenormous cisterns maintained on thehighest ground. These large cisternsheld water for the entire city and wereconnected to a vast network of leadpipes.

Maintenance of the water system was acontinuous task, and the Romansassigned a Curator Aquarum to takecare of it. Eleven separate aqueductssupplied the city of Rome and were builtover a span of 500 years. The first, theAqua Appia, was built in conjunction withthe great southern road the Via Appia in312 BC. In the waning days of thewestern empire, invading Germanictribes cut the supply of water into Romeand only the Aqua Virgo, which rancompletely underground, continued todeliver water. During the middle ages, acouple of the lines were restored, but fullaccess to running water wasn't re-established until the Renaissance. At theheight of the ancient city's population,the water system was capable ofdelivering up to 1 cubic meter of waterper person in the city, more than what iscommonly available in most cities today.

Roman aqueduct18

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