The Architecture Of Rome

A unique, eye-opening guide to Rome, one of the world s most magnificent cities"

The architects of ancient Rome developed a vibrant and enduring tradition, inspiring those who followed in their profession even to this day. This book explores how Roman architects went about the creative process.

Accompanied by the masterpieces and memories of illustrious figures, we follow the arc of a city and a civilization from its beginnings to its height and fall, leafing through pages of history from the various eras. Rome was the final act of antiquity, and a dramatic conception of a new world."--BOOK JACKET.

The Romans built lavishly across their empire, founding or refounding magnificent cities like Carthage and Petra. Discover the wonders of Roman architecture, from the city of Rome itself to Palmyra and Pompeii.

In this comprehensive, accessible and beautifully illustrated book, Frank Sear traces the evolution of Roman architecture during the four centuries from the late Republic to AD 330, when Constantine moved the empire's capital to Constantinople. With over 200 diagrams, maps and photos, this lucid and eminently readable account is a detailed overview of the development of architecture from Augustine to Constantine. Covering building techniques and materials as well as architecture and patronage, features include: * deployment of the most recent archaeological evidence * consideration of building materials and methods used by Roman engineers and architects * examination of stylistic innovations * analysis of the historical and cultural contexts of Roman architecture * detailed exploration of key Roman sites including Ostia and Pompeii. In high demand since its initial publication, this book will not disappoint in its purpose to educate and delight those in the field of Roman architecture.

This groundbreaking study traces the development of Roman architecture and its sculpture from the earliest days to the middle of the 5th century BCE. Existing narratives cast the Greeks as the progenitors of classical art and architecture or rely on historical sources dating centuries after the fact to establish the Roman context. Author John North Hopkins, however, allows the material and visual record to play the primary role in telling the story of Rome’s origins, synthesizing important new evidence from recent excavations. Hopkins’s detailed account of urban growth and artistic, political, and social exchange establishes strong parallels with communities across the Mediterranean. From the late 7th century, Romans looked to increasingly distant lands for shifts in artistic production. By the end of the archaic period they were building temples that would outstrip the monumentality of even those on the Greek mainland. The book’s extensive illustrations feature new reconstructions, allowing readers a rare visual exploration of this fragmentary evidence.

This book examines the development of Roman temple architecture from its earliest history in the sixth century BC to the reigns of Hadrian and the Antonines in the second century AD. John Stamper analyzes the temples' formal qualities, the public spaces in which they were located and, most importantly, the authority of precedent in their designs. He also traces Rome's temple architecture as it evolved over time and how it accommodated changing political and religious contexts, as well as the affects of new stylistic influences.

Architects and artists have always acknowledged over the centuries that Rome is rightly called the 'eternal city'. Rome is eternal above all because it was always young, always 'in its prime'. Here the buildings that defined the West appeared over more than 2000 years, here the history of European architecture was written. The foundations were laid even in ancient Roman times, when the first attempts were made to design interiors and thus make space open to experience as something physical. And at that time the Roman architects also started to develop building types that are still valid today, thus creating the cornerstone of later Western architecture. In it Rome's primacy remained unbroken -- whether it was with old St Peter's as the first medieval basilica or new St. Peter's as the building in which Bramante and Michelangelo developed the High Renaissance, or with works by Bernini and Borromini whose rich and lucid spatial forms were to shape Baroque as far as Vienna, Bohemia and Lower Franconia, and also with Modern buildings, of which there are many unexpected pearls to be found in Rome. All this is comprehensible only if it is presented historically, i. e. in chronological sequence, and so the guide has not been arranged topographically as usual but chronologically.This means that one is not led in random sequence from a Baroque building to an ancient or a modern one, but the historical development is followed successively. Every epoch is preceded by an introduction that identifies its key features. This produces a continuous, lavishly illustrated history of the architecture of Rome -- and thus at the same time of the whole of the West. Practical handling is guaranteed by an alphabetical index and detailed maps, whose information does not just immediately illustrate the historical picture, but also makes it possible to choose a personal route through history.

An authoritative account of political and military history, art, architecture and culture, sumptously illustrated throughout.

Focusing primarily on Rome and other cities of central Italy, James C. Anderson, jr., describes the training, career path, and social status of both architects and builders. He explains how the construction industry was organized—from marble and timber suppliers to bricklayers and carpenters. He examines the political, legal, and economic factors that determined what would be built, and where. And he shows how the various types of public and private Roman buildings relate to the urban space as a whole. Drawing on ancient literary sources as well as on contemporary scholarship, Roman Architecture and Society examines the origins of the architectural achievements, construction techniques, and discoveries that have had an incalculable influence on the postclassical Western world. This detailed and concise account will appeal not only to students and scholars of Roman history, but to all with an interest in ancient architecture and urban society.