37 Facts About Roman architecture

Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans, but was different from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style.

Roman architecture flourished in the Roman Republic and to even a greater extent under the Empire, when the great majority of surviving buildings were constructed.

Roman architecture covers the period from the establishment of the Roman Republic in 509 BC to about the 4th century AD, after which it becomes reclassified as Late Antique or Byzantine architecture.

Roman architecture perhaps reached its peak in the reign of Hadrian, whose many achievements include rebuilding the Pantheon in its current form and leaving his mark on the landscape of northern Britain with Hadrian's Wall.

Roman architecture builders employed Greeks in many capacities, especially in the great boom in construction in the early Empire.

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The use of arches that spring directly from the tops of columns was a Roman development, seen from the 1st century AD, that was very widely adopted in medieval Western, Byzantine and Islamic architecture.

Romans were the first builders in the history of architecture to realize the potential of domes for the creation of large and well-defined interior spaces.

Domes were introduced in a number of Roman architecture building types such as temples, thermae, palaces, mausolea and later churches.

Roman architecture supplied the basic vocabulary of Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque architecture, and spread across Christian Europe well beyond the old frontiers of the empire, to Ireland and Scandinavia for example.

Roman architecture brick was almost invariably of a lesser height than modern brick, but was made in a variety of different shapes and sizes.

Ancient Roman architecture concrete was a mixture of lime mortar, aggregate, pozzolana, water, and stones, and was stronger than previously-used concretes.

Roman architecture basilica was a large public building where business or legal matters could be transacted.

Roman architecture circus was a large open-air venue used for public events in the ancient Roman architecture Empire.

Performance space of the Roman architecture circus was normally, despite its name, an oblong rectangle of two linear sections of race track, separated by a median strip running along the length of about two thirds the track, joined at one end with a semicircular section and at the other end with an undivided section of track closed by a distinctive starting gate known as the carceres, thereby creating a circuit for the races.

Common Roman architecture apartments were mainly masses of smaller and larger structures, many with narrow balconies that present mysteries as to their use, having no doors to access them, and they lacked the excessive decoration and display of wealth that aristocrats' houses contained.

All Roman architecture cities had at least one thermae, a popular facility for public bathing, exercising and socializing.

Roman architecture bath-houses were provided for private villas, town houses and forts.

Roman architecture temples were among the most important and richest buildings in Roman architecture culture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state.

Some remains of many Roman architecture temples survive, above all in Rome itself, but the relatively few near-complete examples were nearly all converted to Christian churches, usually a considerable time after the initial triumph of Christianity under Constantine.

The decline of Roman architecture religion was relatively slow, and the temples themselves were not appropriated by the government until a decree of the Emperor Honorius in 415.

Form of the Roman architecture temple was mainly derived from the Etruscan model, but using Greek styles.

Roman architecture temples emphasised the front of the building, which followed Greek temple models and typically consisted of wide steps leading to a portico with columns, a pronaos, and usually a triangular pediment above, which was filled with statuary in the most grand examples; this was as often in terracotta as stone, and no examples have survived except as fragments.

Roman architecture theatres were built in all areas of the Empire, from Spain to the Middle East.

The Roman architecture theatre had a podium, which sometimes supported the columns of the scaenae frons.

Roman architecture villa was a country house built for the upper class, while a domus was a wealthy family's house in a town.

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In Roman architecture, a monolith is a structure which has been excavated as a unit from a surrounding matrix or outcropping of rock.

Roman architecture gardens were influenced by Egyptian, Persian, and Greek gardening techniques.

Roman architecture wrote that they were intended to "elevate above the ordinary world" an image of an honoured person usually depicted in the form of a statue with a quadriga.

Notable examples of aqueduct Roman architecture include the supporting piers of the Aqueduct of Segovia, and the aqueduct-fed cisterns of Constantinople.

Roman architecture bridges were built with stone and had the arch as the basic structure.

Generally, Roman architecture bridges featured wedge-shaped primary arch stones of the same in size and shape.

Roman architecture engineers were the first and until the Industrial Revolution the only ones to construct bridges with concrete, which they called opus caementicium.

Roman architecture canals were typically multi-purpose structures, intended for irrigation, drainage, land reclamation, flood control and navigation where feasible.

The impermeability of Roman architecture dams was increased by the introduction of waterproof hydraulic mortar and especially opus caementicium in the Concrete Revolution.

Roman architecture builders were the first to realize the stabilizing effect of arches and buttresses, which they integrated into their dam designs.

Many remains of Roman architecture hypocausts have survived throughout Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa.

Nine out of the ten largest rectangular spaces in Roman architecture were bridged this way, the only exception being the groin vaulted Basilica of Maxentius.