architectural composition of the age dispensed altogether with orthogonal patterns. The upper city of Pergamum (first half of the
second century) grew organically out of the landscape in a series of terraces climbing fan-like up a crescent-shaped hill in which the
auditorium of a steep theatre formed a kind of valve. At the foot of the theatre, providing a firm visual basis for the great ensemble,
ran a horizontal esplanade supported by a high retaining wall whose massive buttresses took root in the lower slopes. Throughout the
composition Doric stoas acted as a leitmotif, both defining and unifying the different spaces. They also masked changes of level,
being two-storeyed on one side and single-storeyed on the other.
Model Of The Acropolis At Pergamum, a tour de force in the adaptation of urban planning to the configuration of the land. At the
bottom, the Theatre Terrace leading (at the left) to the small temple of Dionysus; above this, the fan-like auditorium of the theatre;
round the theatre, from right to left, the court of the Great Altar (c.i66bc), the sanctuary of Athena (late third to early second century
B.C.); and the second-century A.D. temple of Trajan.
Among individual building types in Hellenistic architecture most had existed before, but many now assumed more monumental
form. Great altars with colonnaded enclosures approached by broad stairways were built at Magnesia, Pergamum, and Priene; in
each of them sculpture played an integral part in the overall effect, statues being set between the columns at Magnesia and Priene,
and high reliefs taking over the podium at Pergamum (below, pp. 509 f). The huge tholos of Arsinoe at Samothrace dispensed with
internal and external colonnades but incorporated an open gallery at the top of the wall. Stone theatres became a characteristic
feature of Hellenistic cities and were now endowed as a matter of course with architectural stage-houses, including a high
proscenium which encroached upon the circular space formerly allotted to the orchestra. In utilitarian building an important step was
the introduction of heated baths: simple hypocaust systems are attested at Piraeus, at Gela in Sicily, at Gortys in Arcadia, and about
100 B.C. in the small Greek bath-suite at Olympia. Residential buildings too began to acquire some architectural pretensions, as the
rise of officials in the new kingdoms and the emergence of wealthy merchant classes in the commercial cities created a demand for
better-quality housing. Focused upon a small court, the typical middle-class house in cities such as Priene and Delos boasted at least
one large reception room, frequently opening from the north side of a peristyle or a two-columned antechamber to catch the sun in