Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

TEMPLE OF VESTA, TIVOLIThe Romans’ admiration for
the Greek temples they encountered in their conquests also led to
the importation into Republican Italy of a temple type unknown in
Etruscan architecture—the round, or tholos, temple. At Tivoli (an-
cient Tibur), on a dramatic site overlooking a deep gorge, a Republi-
can architect erected such a Greek-inspired temple (FIG. 10-4) early
in the first century BCE. The temple is circular in plan—standard
for shrines of Vesta—and has travertine Corinthian columns. The
frieze is carved with garlands held up by oxen heads, also in emula-
tion of Greek models. But the high podium can be reached only via
a narrow stairway leading to the cella door. This arrangement intro-
duced an axial alignment not found in Greek tholoi (FIG. 5-72),

where, as in Greek rectangular temples, steps continue all around

the structure. Also in contrast with the Greeks, the Roman builders

constructed the cella wall not with masonry blocks but with a new

material of recent invention: concrete (see “Roman Concrete Con-

struction,” page 241).

SANCTUARY OF FORTUNA, PALESTRINA The most

impressive and innovative use of concrete during the Republic was

in the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia (FIG. 10-5), the goddess of

good fortune, at Palestrina (ancient Praeneste, formerly an Etruscan

city). The great complex was constructed in the late second century

BCE. Spread out over several terraces leading up the hillside to a tho-

240 Chapter 10 THE ROMAN EMPIRE

10-3Temple of Portunus (Temple of “Fortuna Virilis”), Rome, Italy,

ca. 75 bce.

Republican temples combine Etruscan plans and Greek elevations.

This pseudoperipteral stone temple employs the Ionic order, but it has

a staircase and freestanding columns only at the front.

10-4Temple of Vesta(?), Tivoli, Italy, early first century bce.

The round, or tholos, temple type is unknown in Etruria. The models

for the Tivoli temple’s builders were in Greece (FIG. 5-72), but the

Roman building has a frontal orientation and a concrete cella.

10-5Restored view of the Sanctuary of

Fortuna Primigenia, Palestrina, Italy, late

second century bce(John Burge).

Fortuna’s hillside sanctuary at Palestrina

was made possible by the use of concrete

barrel vaults for terraces, ramps, shops,

and porticos spread out over several levels.

A tholos temple crowned the complex.