Roman Architecture

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/roman-architecture

Introduction

### Course Review: Roman Architecture on Coursera If you have ever wandered the ruins of ancient cities or marveled at the grandeur of historical structures, Coursera's "Roman Architecture" course is a gateway to understanding how architecture reflects the politics, society, and culture of ancient Rome. This engaging course, designed for history enthusiasts and travel lovers alike, immerses learners in the fascinating world of Roman urbanism and architectural innovation. #### Overview of the Course The "Roman Architecture" course is expertly structured to take students through the evolution of Roman architecture from its early beginnings to its complex manifestations during the Empire. With a focus on how architecture served not only practical purposes but also political and social agendas, this course is a must for anyone eager to explore the rich tapestry of Roman history through its built environment. #### Detailed Syllabus Breakdown The syllabus is extensive and thoughtfully organized into modules that guide learners through various aspects of Roman architecture: 1. **Introduction to Roman Architecture**: The course begins with an overview of Roman urbanism and the complexity of Roman structures that will be explored in more depth later. 2. **Founding of Rome and Early Urbanism**: Dive into the development of city planning, wall building, and temple architecture during the Iron Age and Late Republic. 3. **Technology Revolution**: Learn about the groundbreaking adoption of concrete (opus caementicium) that transformed Roman construction techniques. 4. **Civic Life in Pompeii**: Explore the daily life of Pompeii through its architecture, particularly how the city's buildings provided insight into social structures before the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 5. **Pompeian Villas**: A detailed look at domestic architecture, focusing on influential houses like the House of the Faun and Villa of the Mysteries. 6. **Gilding the Lily**: Examine the evolution of Roman wall paintings and their impact on interior decoration in elite residences. 7. **From Brick to Marble**: Discover how Augustus transformed Rome with marble and monumental structures that symbolized his reign. 8. **Tombs and Sepulchral Architecture**: The course explores various forms of Roman tombs, highlighting the diversity in burial architecture. 9. **Colosseum and Imperial Architecture**: A focus on the Flavian dynasty, including the Colosseum's construction and its cultural implications. 10. **Civic Architecture under Trajan**: Learn about Trajan's monumental projects, including the celebrated Baths of Trajan and the Column of Trajan. 11. **Hadrian's Pantheon and Tivoli Retreat**: An exploration of Hadrian's reign and his architectural legacy, including the Pantheon’s innovative design. 12. **Baroque Architecture**: Understand the baroque phenomenon in Roman architecture, especially in its eastern provinces. 13. **Renewal of Athens**: Contrast Roman architectural influence with that of ancient Greek styles during the reigns of Augustus and Hadrian. 14. **The Tetrarchic Renaissance**: Focuses on architectural restorations and innovations that marked a period of renewed stability in the Empire. 15. **Constantine and the New Rome**: Explore how Constantine’s reign transformed Rome architecturally, bridging pagan and Christian influences. #### Key Takeaways The Roman Architecture course on Coursera stands out for its in-depth analysis and engaging teaching methods. Each module consists of rich visual resources, including photographs, drawings, and video lectures that make it easy to visualize the intricate designs of Roman architecture. Moreover, the course effectively connects historical narratives to the physical structures that shaped ancient Rome. #### Recommendation Whether you're a history buff, an architecture enthusiast, or someone planning to travel through Italy's historic cities, this course is highly recommended. It not only enhances your knowledge of Roman architecture but also provides practical insights for appreciating the cultural significances of the buildings you may encounter. Furthermore, the course allows you to learn at your own pace, making it accessible for anyone with a passion for history and architecture. In conclusion, "Roman Architecture" on Coursera is an enriching experience that beautifully blends education with the excitement of historical discovery. Enroll today and embark on a journey that will deepen your understanding of how architecture influenced one of the greatest civilizations in history.

Syllabus

Introduction to Roman Architecture

Roman urbanism and introduction to the wide variety of Roman buildings covered in the course.

Evolution of Roman architecture from the Iron Age through the Late Republic with emphasis on city planning, wall building, and early Roman temple architecture.

The Revolution in Roman Architecture through the widespread adoption of opus caementicium (concrete) used for expressive as well as practical purposes.

Civic, commercial, and religious buildings of Pompeii buried by the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 and later rediscovered. Daily life in Pompeii is illustrated through its bakeries and fast food stands and a moving account dramatizes what happened when disaster struck.

Domestic architecture at Pompeii from its beginnings to the eruption of Vesuvius with emphasis on the development of the domus italica and the Hellenized domus and featuring the House of the Faun and Villa of the Mysteries.

What befell the city of Herculaneum’s inhabitants when they tried to escape Vesuvius. The development of the city’s domestic architecture, especially the Houses of the Mosaic Atrium and the Stags, is traced as is the evolution of First and Second Style Roman wall painting, the latter transforming the flat wall into a panoramic window.

Third Style Roman wall painting in villas belonging to elite patrons. Third Style painting is characterized by departure from perspectival vistas and return to a flat wall decorated with panel pictures and attenuated architectural elements. The Fourth Style is a compendium of all previous styles. Both coexist in Nero’s Domus Aurea.

Painted renditions of special subjects inserted into Second through Fourth Style Roman wall paintings. These include mythological, landscape, genre, still life, and history painting, as well as painted portraiture. Highlights include the Dionysiac Mysteries paintings and the Riot in the Amphitheater, both from residences in Pompeii.

Transformation of Rome by Augustus. Claiming to have found Rome a city of brick and leaving it a city of marble, Augustus exploited marble quarries at Luna (modern Carrara) to build his Forum, decorating it with replicas of Greek caryatids associating his era with Periclean Athens. The contemporary Ara Pacis served as the Luna marble embodiment of Augustus’ new hegemonic empire.

Sepulchral architecture in Rome under Augustus. Roman tombs were built in a variety of personalized forms among them the pyramidal Tomb of the aristocrat Gaius Cestius, and the trapezoidal Tomb of Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces, probably a former slave who made his fortune overseeing the baking and public distribution of bread for the Roman army.

Architecture under the Julio-Claudian emperors: Tiberius' Villa Jovis on Capri, and, in Rome and at Portus, the eccentric architecture of Claudius with its unique combination of finished and rusticated masonry. The culminating masterwork is Nero’s Domus Aurea with its octagonal room, one of the most important rooms in the history of Roman architecture.

The Flavian dynasty of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. Vespasian linked himself to Divus Claudius by completing the Claudianum, distanced himself from Nero by destroying part of the Domus Aurea, filling in the artificial lake and replacing it with the Colosseum. Titus commissioned Rome's first preserved example of the "imperial bath type," characterized by grand scale, axiality, and symmetry.

The Domitianic Arch (and Tomb) of Titus celebrating the Flavian victory in the Jewish Wars; the Stadium of Domitian, its shape now preserved in Rome's Piazza Navona, the Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill, designed by Rabirius and featuring Domitian as dominus et deus, and the Forum Transitorium, a narrow space with undulating columnar bays announcing the beginning of a "baroque" phase in Roman architecture. First Quiz is located here!

Trajan’s monumental architecture in Rome references his expansion of the Roman Empire to its furthest reaches. Highlights include the Baths of Trajan and the Forum and Markets of Trajan, built on land that engineer/architect Apollodorus of Damascus created by cutting away part of the Quirinal Hill. The complex also includes the celebrated 125-foot Column of Trajan with a spiral frieze commemorating the emperor's military victories in Dacia.

Architecture in and around Rome during Hadrian’s reign: the Temple of Venus and Roma possibly designed by Hadrian; the Pantheon, combining the marble porch and pediment of a traditional Greco-Roman temple with a vast concrete cylindrical drum, hemispherical dome, central oculus, and theatrical light effects; the Villa of Hadrian at Tivoli, where the emperor recreated buildings and works of art observed during his empire-wide travels; and the Mausoleum of Hadrian (Castel Sant'Angelo).

Tour of Ostia, characterized by multi-storied residential buildings and widespread use of brick-faced concrete. The city's public face features the Forum, Capitolium, Theater, and Piazzale delle Corporazioni with its black-and-white mosaic shipping company advertisements. The Insula of Diana, a four-floor brick apartment building, and warehouses like the Horrea Epagathiana highlight the Ostian appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of exposed brick facing.

Exploration of a "bigger is better" philosophy; exposed brick tombs with painted stucco and architectural elements; the Temple of Divine Antoninus Pius and Faustina and its post-antique afterlife as the Church of S. Lorenzo in Miranda; the earliest surviving triple-bayed Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum; the Septizodium, a lively baroque-style façade for Domitian's Palace on the Palatine Hill; and the colossal Baths of Caracalla

Timgad, Trajan’s colony for Roman army veterans, was designed as a castrum; Leptis Magna, with Carthaginian roots, was developed first under Augustus. Leptis-born Septimius Severus renovated his hometown featuring a forum, basilica, and arch. Entrepreneurs, providing animals to Rome's amphitheaters, commissioned Hunting Baths with intimate vaulted spaces revealed on the outside and silhouetted against the sea, suggesting that they knew how to innovate and enjoy life.

The baroque phenomenon in ancient Roman architecture where the traditional vocabulary of architecture (columns, pediments, et al) is manipulated to enliven building façades and inject them with dynamic motion. Appearing in Rome in the late first century A.D., baroque architecture was foremost in the Greek East where high-quality marble and expert marble carvers made it the architectural mode of choice. It foreshadowed Borromini’s showpieces of seventeenth-century Rome.

The rebirth of Athens under Rome’s foremost philhellenic emperors, Augustus and Hadrian. High quality Greek marble and expert Greek stone carvers produced notable edifices in Roman Greece dependent on a mutual exchange of architectural ideas and motifs between Rome and Athens. These include the Monument of Philopappos, the Library and Arch of Hadrian, and architectural additions or transformations made to the Acropolis and the Greek and Roman Agoras.

Romanization was meant to provide amenities to Rome’s new colonies while, at the same time, transforming them into miniature versions of Rome. The focus here is on western frontier sites in what are now North Italy, France, Spain, and Croatia. Highlights include: the Theater at Orange, the Maison Carrée and the Pont-du-Gard at Nîmes, and the Trophy of Augustus at La Turbie.

Except for the Aurelian Walls, Rome’s third century was an "architectural wasteland.” Diocletian created a new form of government called the Tetrarchy (four-man rule) with leaders in East and West. Public and private building campaigns in Rome and the provinces reflected the Empire's renewed stability and centered on enhancing or restoring buildings in the Roman Forum and constructing the Baths of Diocletian in Rome and Diocletian’s Palace at Split.

Constantine commissioned buildings linked to the pagan past (Baths of Constantine) and others (Aula Palatina,Trier) looking to the Christian future. New architectural ideas abound. The "Temple of Minerva Medica" is decagonal and the Basilica Nova modeled on the frigidaria of Roman imperial baths. The Arch of Constantine commemorates Constantine's victory at the Milvian Bridge and serves as a compendium of Constantine's accomplishments matching those of “good” second-century Roman emperors.