ROME
BY FRANCESCA C. TRONCHIN
Th e remains of Roman architecture are enormously varied,
from the most humble one-room home in Pompeii to impres-
sive amphitheaters in Rome, France, and North Africa. Like
Greek buildings, the surviving Roman structures have had
considerable infl uence on architecture in the Western world
and beyond. Although a great many Roman structures sur-
vive, the record geographically favors the architecture of the
city of Rome itself. Th e eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the
year 79 c.e. not only destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Her-
culaneum but also preserved a great number of private hous-
es as well as public and religious buildings. Th ese sites off er a
very good picture of what Roman cities looked like, but only
for the earliest phases of the Roman Empire. Other regions
like North Africa, the Middle East, and central Europe are
helping to complete the picture of Roman architecture, both
in the heart of the empire and in its far-fl ung provinces.
In addition to the archaeological evidence, some an-
cient texts reveal a good deal about Roman buildings and
their design. One written resource in particular—the Te n
Books on Architecture by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio—is a very
useful tool in the study of Roman structures, engineering,
decoration, and even city planning. Vitruvius was an archi-
tect and an engineer living in the fi rst century b.c.e., and he
dedicated his comprehensive treatise to the emperor Augus-
tus. While Vitruvius’s writings are very helpful, he primar-
ily described the state of architecture in his own time and a
few centuries before. To learn about later periods in Roman
building, one must look again to the physical remains as
well as to a few surviving pieces of ancient texts by writers
in later periods.
Vitruvius was, like most Roman architects, more than
simply a designer of buildings; he was also an engineer and
was knowledgeable about landscape design and art. Although
Roman architects were skilled in a great many areas, few of
their names survive to our day. In antiquity it was more im-
portant that the name of the person who commissioned and
paid for a building be preserved, rather than the name of the
person who designed and constructed it. Vitruvius, among
other ancient writers on architecture, described the impor-
tance of symmetry, harmony of forms, durability, utility, and
beauty in buildings. Th ese are principles that can be observed
in many surviving Roman structures.
Although Roman designers borrowed heavily from
Greek architecture, they made considerable contributions in
construction and style. Th e arch and vault were perfected by
the Romans. Concrete was essentially discovered in the Ro-
man period and exploited by the architects of the time. Th e
Romans also introduced new building types like the amphi-
theater, bath, and apartment building (called an insula in
Latin). Th e Markets of Trajan in Rome, built between 110 and
112 c.e., could be regarded as the fi rst multistoried shopping
mall in the world.
DESIGN AND MATERIALS
Among the earliest building materials in Roman Italy were
mud brick and tufa, a local volcanic stone. Both eventually
fell out of use for the most part, but for diff erent reasons.
Tufa was a sturdy and readily available stone, but it was not
well suited to the kind of fi ne decorative carving favored by
Roman architects. Mud brick had been used for millennia
throughout the Mediterranean region, but it is only a semi-
permanent material. Th e kiln-fi red bricks that came into use
during the fi rst century b.c.e., in conjunction with concrete,
proved to be much more durable; many of the Roman build-
ings that survive are made of this combination of fi red bricks
and concrete. Eventually travertine (a type of marble from
quarries close to Rome) became an important material for
Roman buildings. With the discovery of beautiful and pure
white marble in northwestern Italy during the life of Julius
Caesar (100–44 b.c.e.), builders came to favor that type of
stone for luxurious buildings in Rome and elsewhere. In vari-
ous parts of the Roman Empire diff erent building materials
were exploited because of their availability as well as their
suitability to the local climate.
Th e earliest Roman buildings were frequently decorated
with terra-cotta statuary, evidence of a strong relationship to
the Etruscan civilization of central Italy. Vitruvius describes
the reliance of Roman architecture on Etruscan design. Not
only did the Etruscans use terra-cotta statues on their build-
ings, but they gave their temples a strong focus on the front
of the building as well. Th is design is very diff erent from that
favored by earlier Greek architects, and it came to be adopted
by Roman builders.
Like much of Roman art, Roman architecture was eclec-
tic. Designers borrowed styles from both the Etruscans and
the Greeks, and many architects working in Rome just before
the days of the empire (beginning in the fi rst century b.c.e.)
and shortly aft erward were Greek or of Greek descent. Th e
Romans used innovative materials such brick and concrete
throughout the empire, but they almost always used Greek
architectural forms to decorate building exteriors. For ex-
ample, the facade of the Colosseum—Rome’s monumental
amphitheater—is decorated with columns in the Greek Dor-
ic, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. (Th e “orders” made up an
organizational system of Greek architecture.) Beginning in
the second century c.e. materials and styles showed an East-
ern infl uence, such as with the importation of Proconnesian
marble from modern-day Turkey and in the use of various
architectural details native to other Eastern provinces.
Th e Roman architects combined Greek, Etruscan, and
other design elements in new and original ways, as in the
Temple of Portunus in Rome. Th e building has the Etruscan
features of a high supporting platform, a porch with columns,
and a focus on the front of the building. Th e freestanding col-
umns at the front and half-columns at the sides and back, how-
ever, show a reliance on Greek examples. Th e combination of
diff erent forms gave the temple its distinctly Roman fl avor.78 architecture: Rome