Chapter 8 Rome

Urban Life and Imperial MajestyChapter 3

Rome

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Origins of Roman Culture:Greek and Etruscan

As early as the 8th century BCE the Greeks had colonized the southern coastal regions of the Italian peninsula

The Etruscans occupied the part of the Italian peninsula that today is known as Tuscany

Scholars continue to debate whether the Etruscans were indigenous to Italy or whether they migrated from the Near East

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Etruscan Roots

Most of what we know of the Etruscans comes from their art --no literature survives --scholars unable to translate their epigrammatic texts

Richly decorated burial tombs

Foundations of mud-brick and wooden temples

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Etruscan SarcophagusTerra cotta, 6' 7" length, ca. 520 BCE

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She-WolfBronze, 33", ca. 500-480 BCEEtruscan founding mythtwins Romulus and Remus found on the banks of the Tiber by a she-wolf

The two brothers decided to build a city on the Palatine Hill and argued over who would name the city. Romulus won by killing Remus, and the city was named after him

The date, legend has it, was 753 BCE

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Republican Rome

In 510 BCE the Romans expelled the last of the Etruscan kings and decided to rule themselves without a monarch

Unlike Greece, not every free citizen enjoyed equal privileges. In the Etruscan manner, the Roman free males were patricians (land-owning aristocrats) and plebians (the poorer class)

The Senate was exclusively patrician

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Pietas and Portrait Busts

Under Romes patrician system, the upper classes owed dutiful respect, or pietas, toward othersthe gods, country, and family, in that order

Propagandistic in nature, the portrait busts that proliferated in the second and first centuries BCE depict the subjects at or near the end of life, celebrating pietas through the wisdom and experience of age

The high level of realism, revealing the subjects every wrinkle and wart, is known as verism (Latin veritas, truth

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A Roman ManMarble, life-size, ca. 80 BCE

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Imperial Rome

In 27 BCE, Octavian, grandnephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, reluctantly accepted the Senates appointment of imperium and the title Augustus, the revered one, in gratitude for his defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BCE and the reunification of a Rome divided by civil war

Augustus ruled Rome from 27 BCE to 14 CE. His new title gave him semidivine status

In art he is always depicted as young and vigorous

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Augustus of PrimaportaThis idealized and propagandistic sculpture was displayed at the home of Augustuss wife, Livia, at Primaporta, on the outskirts of Rome

The military garb announces his role as commander-in-chief

Cupid riding a dolphin at his feet recalls the Julian familys claim to be descended from Venus and Aeneas

Augustuss extended arm points toward an unknown, but presumably greater, future

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Augustus of PrimaportaMarble, 6' 8", ca. 20 BCE

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Compare Pose and Proportion to Polyclituss Doryphorus

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Ara Pacis Augustae

One of Augustuss first acts was to address the deterioration of morals and family life in Rome and the declining numbers of the aristocrats

He criminalized adultery, required men between the ages of 20 and 60 and women between the ages of 20 and 50 to marry, and punished childless couples with high taxes or inheritance deprivation

His Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace) celebrates family with its exterior-wall decorations picturing three generations of Augustuss family

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Ara Pacis AugustaeMarble, 13-9 BCE

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Ara Pacis AugustaeDetail of Imperial ProcessionSouth Frieze Spatial depth is created by depicting figures farther away from the viewer in low relief and those closest in high relief.

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I found a city of brick, and left it a city of marble.Augustus

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Urban Housing: The InsulaIn response to overcrowding, the Romans created a new type of living space, the insula, a multistoried apartment block

The insulae essentially were tenements in which 90 percent of the population of Rome lived

A typical apartment consisted of two private roomsa bedroom and a living room

Noise was a constant problem, and hygiene an even worse issue

Add to this slide the video clip Early Life in Roman Civilization from My Playlist on FMG17

Reconstruction of a Roman Insulaca. 150 CE

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Public Works and MonumentsAugustus inaugurated what amounted to an ongoing competition among the emperors to outdo their predecessors in the construction of public works and monuments

Rome had developed haphazardly, without any central plan, in contrast to the empires provincial capitals that were conceived on a strict grid plan

Water was scarce, and hygiene was poor, so Augustus had aqueducts built to provide more clean water to the city

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Pont du Gard, near Nimes, France180'late 1st century BCE, early 1st century CE

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The ColosseumThe Colosseum was built by the emperor Vespasian (r. 69-79 CE) between 72-80 CE

He named it after the Colossus, a 120-foot high statue of Nero that stood in front of it

A giant oval, 615 feet long, 510 feet wide, and 159 feet high, it could accommodate audiences estimated at 50,000 who could enter and exit its 76 vaulted arcades in a matter of a few minutes

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Aerial View of the Colosseum

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Detail of the Colosseums Outer Wall

Each level employed a different architectural order: Tuscan on the ground floor, Ionic on the second, and Corinthian on the third

All of the columns are engaged and purely decorative, serving no structural purpose

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Triumphal Arches and Columns

While the arch was known to cultures such as the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians, and the Greeks, it was the Romans who perfected it, evidently learning its principles from the Etruscans but developing those principles further

Hundreds of triumphal arches were built throughout the Roman Empire

Like all Roman monumental architecture, they were intended to symbolize Romes political power and military might

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Arch of TitusRome, ca. 81 CE

In 70 CE Tituss army sacked the Second Temple of Jerusalem. In this interior detail from the arch, Tituss soldiers carry the Ark of the Covenant and a menorah from the temple.

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Trajans ColumnTrajan was one of the Five Good Emperors who ruled Rome after the Flavian dynasty (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius)

His column narrates in a spiral of 150 separate scenes his defeat of the Dacians (what is now Hungary and Romania)

Laid out end to end, the complete narrative would be 625 feet long

This ceremonial column has symbolic meaning; it is suggestive not only of power but also of male virility

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Trajans ColumnMarble, 125' (including base), 106-113 CE

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The Forum Romanum and Imperial ForumsThe Forum Romanum, or Roman Forum, was the chief public square of Rome, the center of Roman religious, ceremonial, public, and commercial life

Originally comparable to the Greek agora, it became a symbol of the imperial power that testified to the prosperityand peacethat the emperor bestowed upon Romes citizenry

Julius Caesar was the first to build a forum of his own in 46 BCE; Trajan (ca. 117 CE) was the last

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Model of the Roman Forum and the Imperial ForumsRome, ca. 46 BCE-117 CE

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Forum of Trajan110-112 CE, Restored View

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The PantheonHadrians Pantheon ranks with the Forum of Trajan as one of the most ambitious building projects undertaken by the Good Emperors

The Pantheon is a temple to all the gods (Greek pan, all, and theos, gods)

Its interior consists of a cylindrical space topped by a dome, the largest built in Europe before the twentieth century

The whole is a perfect hemispherediameter of the rotunda is 144 feet, as is the height from floor to ceiling. The 30-foot circular opening at the top, the buildings sole light source, is the oculus, or eye

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The Pantheon118-125 CE

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Interior of the Pantheon

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Domestic Architecture: The Domus

The Roman domus was the townhouse of the wealthier class of citizen. It served as a measure of social status, as the vast majority of the population lived in the insulae

It was oriented to the street along a central axis that extended from the front entrance to the rear of the house

At the center of the Roman domus was the garden of the peristyle courtyard, with a fountain or pond in the middle

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DomusHouse of the Silver Wedding, Pompeii1st century BCE

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Peristyle GardenHouse of the Golden Cupids, Pompeii, 62-79 CE

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