Famous buildings of ancient Rome. Ancient sights of Rome

One of the most ancient civilizations in the world - the Holy Roman Empire - gave humanity the greatest culture, which included not only the richest literary heritage, but also the stone chronicle. For a long time there has been no people who inhabited this power, but thanks to the preserved architectural monuments, it is possible to recreate the lifestyle of the pagan Romans. April 21, the day of the founding of the city on seven hills, I propose to look at 10 sights ancient rome.

Roman forum

The area, located in the valley between the Palatine and Velia on the south side, the Capitol on the west, the Esquiline and the slopes of the Quirinal and Viminal, was a wetland in the pre-Roman period. Until the middle of the 8th century BC. e. this area was used for burials, and the settlements were located on the nearby hills. The place was drained during the reign of Tsar Tarquikios the Ancient, who turned it into the center of the political, religious and cultural life of the townspeople. It was here that the famous truce between the Romans and the Sabines took place, elections to the Senate were held, judges sat and divine services were held.

From west to east, the sacred road of the empire, Via Appia, or the Appian Way, runs through the entire Roman Forum, along which there are many monuments of both ancient and medieval times. The Roman Forum houses the Temple of Saturn, the Temple of Vespasian and the Temple of Vesta.

The temple in honor of the god Saturn was erected around 489 BC, symbolizing the victory over the Etruscan kings from the Tarquinian family. Several times he died during fires, but was reborn. The inscription on the frieze confirms that "The Senate and the people of Rome restored what was destroyed by fire." It was a majestic building, which was decorated with a statue of Saturn, it included the premises of the state treasury, an aerary, where documents on state revenues and debts were kept. However, only a few columns of the Ionic order have survived to this day.

The construction of the Temple of Vespasian began by decision of the Senate in 79 AD. e. after the death of the emperor. This holy building was dedicated to the Flavius: Vespasian and his son Titus. It was 33 meters long and 22 meters wide. Three 15-meter columns of the Corinthian order have survived to this day.

The Temple of Vesta is dedicated to the goddess of the hearth and in ancient times connected with the House of Vestals. The sacred fire was constantly maintained in the inner room. Initially, it was guarded by the daughters of the king, then they were replaced by Vestal priestesses, who also held worship in honor of Vesta. In this temple there was a cache with symbols of the empire. The building was round in shape, the territory of which was bordered by 20 Corinthian columns. Despite the fact that there was an outlet for smoke in the roof, fires often broke out in the temple. It was saved several times, reconstructed, but in 394 Emperor Theodosius ordered it to be closed. Gradually, the building dilapidated and fell into disrepair.

Trajan's Column

A monument of ancient Roman architecture, erected in 113 AD. architect Apollodorus of Damascus in honor of the victories of Emperor Trajan over the Dacians. The marble column, hollow inside, rises 38 m above the ground. In the “body” of the structure there is a spiral staircase with 185 steps leading to the observation platform on the capital.

The trunk of the column spirals 23 times around a 190 m long ribbon with reliefs depicting episodes of the war between Rome and Dacia. Initially, the monument was crowned by an eagle, later by a statue of Trajan. And in the Middle Ages, the column began to be decorated with a statue of the Apostle Peter. At the base of the column is a door leading to the hall where the golden urns with the ashes of Trajan and his wife Pompeii Plotina were placed. The relief tells of two wars between Trajan and the Dacians, and the period 101-102. AD separated from the battles of 105-106 by the figure of winged Victoria, writing on a shield surrounded by trophies, the name of the winner. It also depicts the movement of the Romans, the construction of fortifications, river crossings, battles, the details of weapons and armor of both troops are drawn in great detail. In total, there are about 2,500 human figures on a 40-ton column. Trajan appears on it 59 times. In addition to Victory, there are other allegorical figures in the relief: the Danube in the form of a majestic old man, Night - a woman with a veiled face, etc.

Pantheon

The Temple of All Gods was built in 126 AD. e. under the emperor Hadrian on the site of the previous Pantheon, erected two centuries before by Mark Vipsanius Agrippa. The Latin inscription on the pediment reads: "M. AGRIPPA L F COS TERTIUM FECIT" - "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, elected consul for the third time, erected this." Located in Piazza della Rotonda. The Pantheon is notable for the classical clarity and integrity of the composition of the internal space, the majesty of the artistic image. Deprived of external decorations, the cylindrical building is crowned with a dome covered with inconspicuous carvings. The height from the floor to the opening in the vault corresponds exactly to the diameter of the base of the dome, presenting an amazing proportionality to the eye. The weight of the dome is distributed over eight sections, forming a monolithic wall, between which are niches, giving the massive building a sense of airiness. Thanks to the illusion of open space, it seems that the walls are not so thick, and the dome is much lighter than in reality. A round hole in the vault of the temple lets in light, illuminating the rich decoration of the interior space. Everything has come down to our days almost unchanged.

Coliseum

One of the most significant buildings of Ancient Rome. The huge amphitheater was built over eight years. It was an oval building with 80 large arches along the perimeter of the arena, with smaller arches on them. The arena is surrounded by a wall of 3 tiers, and the total number of large and small arches was 240. Each tier was decorated with columns made in different styles. The first is Doric, the second is Ionic, and the third is Corinthian. In addition, sculptures made by the best Roman craftsmen were installed on the first two tiers.

The building of the amphitheater included galleries intended for the relaxation of spectators, where noisy merchants sold various goods. Outside, the Colosseum was finished with marble, beautiful statues were located around its perimeter. 64 entrances led to the room, which were located on different sides of the amphitheater.

Below were privileged places for the noble nobles of Rome and the throne of the emperor. The floor of the arena, where not only gladiator fights took place, but also real sea battles, was wooden.

Today, the Colosseum has lost two-thirds of its original mass, but even today it is a majestic building, being a symbol of Rome. No wonder the saying goes: "While the Colosseum stands, Rome will stand, disappear the Colosseum - Rome will disappear and the whole world with it."

Triumphal Arch of Titus

The single-span marble arch, located on the Via Sacra road, was built after the death of Emperor Titus in honor of the capture of Jerusalem in 81 AD. Its height is 15.4 m, width - 13.5 m, span depth - 4.75 m, span width - 5.33 m. main shrine Jewish temple - menorah.

Baths of Caracalla

The baths were built at the beginning of the 3rd century AD. under Marcus Aurelius, nicknamed Caracalla. The luxurious building was intended not only for the washing process, but also for a variety of leisure activities, including both sports and intellectual. There were four entrances to the "bath building"; through two central ones they entered the covered halls. On both sides of it were rooms for meetings, recitations, etc. Among the many all kinds of rooms, located on the right and left intended for washing rooms, two large open symmetrical courtyards surrounded on three sides by a colonnade, the floor of which was decorated with the famous mosaic with the figures of athletes, should be noted. The emperors not only lined the walls with marble, covered the floors with mosaics and put up magnificent columns: they systematically collected works of art here. In the baths of Caracalla once stood the Farnese bull, the statues of Flora and Hercules, the torso of Apollo Belvedere.

The visitor found here a club, a stadium, a recreation garden, and a house of culture. Everyone could choose for himself what he liked: some, after washing up, sat down to chat with friends, went to look at wrestling and gymnastic exercises, could stretch themselves; others wandered around the park, admired the statues, sat in the library. People left with a reserve of new strength, rested and renewed not only physically, but also morally. Despite such a gift of fate, the terms were destined to collapse.

Temples of Portun and Hercules

These temples are located on the left bank of the Tiber in another ancient forum of the city - Bull. In early Republican times, ships moored here and there was a brisk trade in livestock, hence the name.

Temple Portun built in honor of the god of ports. The building has a rectangular shape, decorated with Ionic columns. The temple is well preserved, since around 872 AD. was converted into the Christian church of Santa Maria in Gradelis, in the 5th century it was consecrated into the church of Santa Maria Aegiziana.

The Temple of Hercules has a monoptera design - round building without internal partitions. The construction dates back to the 2nd century BC. The temple has a diameter of 14.8 m, decorated with twelve Corinthian columns 10.6 m high. The structure rests on a tuff foundation. Previously, the temple had an architrave and a roof, which have not survived to our times. In 1132 AD The temple became a place of Christian worship. The original name of the church was Santo Stefano al Carose. In the 17th century, the newly consecrated temple began to be called Santa Maria del Sol.

Field of Mars

"Field of Mars" - this was the name of the part of Rome, located on the left bank of the Tiber, originally intended for military and gymnastic exercises. In the center of the field was an altar in honor of the god of war. This part of the field remained and subsequently free, while the remaining parts were built up.

Mausoleum of Hadrian

The architectural monument was conceived as the tomb of the emperor and his family. The mausoleum was a square base (side length - 84 m), in which a cylinder (diameter - 64 m, height about 20 m) was installed, crowned with an artificial hill, the top of which was decorated with a sculptural composition: the emperor in the form of the sun god controlling the quadriga. Subsequently, this gigantic structure was used for military and strategic purposes. The centuries have changed its original appearance. The construction acquired the Angel's Courtyard, medieval halls, including the Hall of Justice, the Pope's apartments, a prison, a library, a Treasure Hall and a Secret Archive. From the terrace of the castle, above which the figure of an Angel rises, a magnificent view of the city opens up.

Catacombs

The catacombs of Rome are a network of ancient buildings used as burial places, for the most part during the period of early Christianity. In total, there are more than 60 different catacombs in Rome (150-170 km long, about 750,000 burials), most of which are located underground along the Appian Way. Labyrinths of underground passages, according to one version, arose on the site of ancient quarries, according to another, they were formed in private land plots. In the Middle Ages, the custom of burying in the catacombs disappeared, and they remained as evidence of the culture of Ancient Rome.

Architecture of the Roman Empire in the ruins of the Roman Forum.

The conquest of Greece brought Rome a new look at culture and art. However, Roman architecture not only copied Greek, but also made its own contribution to the development of architecture. In its development, ancient Roman architecture also absorbed the building culture of the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, Ancient Germany, Gaul and others conquered by the empire. Rome adopted much from the art of the Etruscans, the bearers of a highly developed culture, thanks to which some constructive approaches to construction and engineering structures appeared. The beginning of the development of Roman architecture dates back to the period of the 6th-1st centuries. BC. At the beginning of this period, Rome was a small city, and its architecture was influenced by the culture of the Etruscans - Italic tribes. Arches and vaults with domes were borrowed from them. In those days, powerful defensive structures were created, for example, the wall of Servius (4th century BC). Up to 3 c. BC. Roman architecture was dominated by wooden buildings with terracotta ornaments. Until the 2nd century BC. in Rome, local marble had not yet been developed, and temples were built from volcanic tufa. Arched vaults made of soft tuff replaced the strong beams used in Greek buildings and served as load-bearing structural elements. The walls were decorated with plaster reliefs. The development of technologies for producing fired bricks dates back to this period, a frame was erected from it, and cladding began to be made of tuff. On the Capitoline Hill in 509 BC a temple was erected with three cells of Jupiter, Juno, Minerva. The ridge of the pediment was decorated with a terracotta quadriga by the sculptor Vulka. Later, the temple was repeatedly rebuilt using columns from Greek temples.

Temple of Capitoline Jupiter in Rome and order elements in temples in different cities era of ancient Rome.

In the 2-1 centuries. BC. in Roman architecture, they begin to use a new plastic material - concrete. In construction, vaulted structures are used. At this time, they began to build court buildings, trade, amphitheaters, circuses, baths, libraries, markets. The creation of the first triumphal arches, warehouses (the portico of Aemilia - 2nd century BC) belongs to that period. Chancelleries and Archives appeared (Tabularium, 80s of the 1st century BC). Such rapid construction and the emergence of buildings for various purposes is caused by expanding expansion, the seizure of territories, an increase in the size of the state and the need for strict regulation of controlled territories.

Tabularium in Rome.

By the end of the 1st c. AD formed the Roman Empire with sole power. The reign of Emperor Augustus gave rise to "August classicism" in the architecture of the Roman Empire, which later became the basis for European architecture. At this time, they began to develop "lunar", then Carrara marble. Roman architecture of that period was guided by the creations of the time of Phidias in Ancient Greece. Instead of houses made of mud and wood, the first multi-storey houses, mansions of aristocrats appeared, which were built of baked brick and concrete and faced with marble. The city was decorated with Campagna villas, palaces decorated with porticos, columns, pediments, rich sculptural decor. The Roman Forum appeared, around which public buildings and temples are erected. The Corinthian columns of the temple of Castor and Polux, 12.5 m high, still stand in the Roman Forum.

Columns of the Temple of Castor and Polux in Rome.

The plundered wealth from the conquered countries caused the rise of Roman architecture, which was designed to emphasize the greatness of the empire. The buildings emphasized their scale, monumentality and power. The buildings were richly decorated. In the antique style, not only temples and palaces were built, but also baths, bridges, theaters, aqueducts. Greek orders were used as the basis, of which the Corinthian order was given priority, as well as a new composite one, created as a mixture of ancient Greek ones. However, in the architecture of the Roman Empire, the elements of the order were used mainly as decorative ones, in contrast to Ancient Greece, where all parts of the order system carried a certain load and were part of the structure. In the 1st century BC. not only in Rome, but also in provincial towns beautiful architectural complexes appeared, as, for example, in Pompeii. Emperor Nero gave Roman architecture a new look by destroying several quarters of the city, on the site of which the "Golden House" was built.

Ruins of the Golden House of Nero in Rome.

During the reign of the Flavians and Trajan (end of the 1st-beginning of the 2nd centuries AD), large architectural complexes were built. In conquered Athens, Hadrian erected a temple to Olympian Zeus in 135 AD. (reconstructed in 307). Under Hadrian (125), the Pantheon began to be erected - a striking building of the architecture of the Roman Empire, which has survived to this day. The Pantheon was created from volumes of a strict geometric shape: a cylindrical rotunda, a hemispherical dome, a portico with two rows of columns in the form of a parallelepiped. A hole was made on the dome through which the interior of the temple is illuminated. The proportions are clearly displayed in this work: the diameter of the rotunda is equal to the height of the structure. The height of the dome is equal to half of the conventional sphere, which could be inscribed in the temple structure. In the decoration of the Pantheon: marble slabs of the lower tier and plaster on the upper tiers. The roof was covered with bronze tiles. The Pantheon has become a model for many buildings of European architecture from different historical eras.

View of the Roman Pantheon from above.

At the end of the 3rd c. AD one of the most important buildings of the architecture of the Roman Empire was the defensive wall of Aurelian. Emperor Diocletian (3-4 centuries AD) made the city of Salona his residence and practically did not live in Rome. A well-fortified palace complex with access to the sea was built in the Salon. At this time, the architecture of the Roman Empire was characterized by austerity, clarity and less decoration. The late period (until the end of the 2nd century) of the development of Roman architecture began during the reign of Hadrian and under Antoninus Pius. These were the years of fierce wars, conspiracies, political assassinations, uprisings, as well as the invasion of the plague. In those days, triumphal arches were not erected, but many residential buildings and villas were built. The Roman architecture of the late Antonines was distinguished by a large amount of decoration. The temple of Hadrian, the temple of Antoninus and Faustina in the Roman Forum, the columns of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, richly decorated with bas-reliefs, belong to that period.

Temple of Antoninus and Faustina in the Roman Forum (141 BC).

With the coming to power of Emperor Constantine and after 313, with the official recognition of the Christian religion as the main one in the territory of the Roman Empire, ancient warrants were used to build temples. The capital was moved to the former Greek Byzantium, which was called Constantinople. Rome is losing its central importance, and ancient art, moving away from its center, gradually acquires a formal character, gradually developing into medieval styles.

Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople. Built under Emperor Constantine. 324-337

Roman architecture 3rd c. AD more and more exposed to Christianity, however, the order system was still used in the construction of temples and public buildings: large entrance stairs, multi-column porticos, podiums, high wall decor. In the era of the dominate (284-305 AD), the appearance of Roman architecture changed: the amount of decoration decreased, the clarity of volumes and proportions decreased. At this time, techniques appeared that later began to be used in Byzantine architecture: a combination of stone and brick, mosaic decoration. For example, the temple of Jupiter was built of white stone, brick, colored marble was used for facing, the surfaces were covered with plaster, mosaic, plaster moldings. At the same time, the art of stone carving faded away: stucco became coarser and less detailed. The developing Byzantine art used the traditions of the architecture of the Roman Empire and Ancient Greece, combining them with oriental motifs. During the 5th c. on the basis of these trends in Roman architecture, European architecture began to take shape, bringing great works to world architecture. Until now, many of the elements of Roman architecture are used in the construction of buildings in historical styles. And with the advent of artificial materials that imitate natural ones, such as, for example, polyurethane, such construction has become more democratic, reducing the cost and the need for large labor costs.

The facade of an apartment building appearance reminiscent of ancient Roman buildings.

This period includes the construction of a number of large engineering structures and among them - a large port in Ostia. In 102, to control Daccia, Trajan built a large stone bridge with concrete supports across the Danube. Of course, it was not he who built it, but his master builders, among whom Apollodorus from Damascus stood out. He was probably one of the most educated and talented engineers of the Roman Empire, since in addition to the bridge he built a number of large and structurally complex structures, such as Trajan's forum, the circus and the baths in Rome, named after the emperor. He is credited with the construction of one of the most beautiful and outstanding structures of world architecture - the concrete Pantheon in Rome.

Construction continues even more intensively during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117-138). Adrian took part in the construction not only as an organizer, but also as an architect and civil engineer. He spent most of his life traveling around the empire. Adrian visited all the Roman provinces, was a great admirer of Greek culture, admired the skill of Egyptian artists.

In his declining years, he ordered the construction of a suburban villa with concrete walls in the city of Tibur near Rome and reproduce there in miniature everything that so struck him during his travels. In 132, Adrian began to build for himself a grandiose mausoleum and a bridge to it, thrown across the Tiber. The construction of these structures was completed in 139. The construction activity of Hadrian's immediate successors was not so lively. Of the most significant structures, one can name a temple in honor of the wife of the emperor Antoninus Pius and a column bearing the name of Marcus Aurelius.

During the reign of Septimius Severus (193-211), there was some revival of construction activity. According to his contemporary Lempidarius, “... He restored the buildings of the former sovereigns and erected many himself, including the baths of his own name. He also carried out the water, which is called Alexandrova ...

He was the first to introduce the Alexander way of finishing with two types of marble. At the forum of Trajan, he erected statues of great people, moving them from everywhere ... He restored the bridges built by Trajan in almost all places, and in some he built again ... ”In 203, to commemorate the victories over the Parthians and Arabs, Rome was built on a powerful concrete foundation, the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, 23 meters high and 25 meters wide. The architecture of this period is distinguished by the richness of decorative decoration, which gives the buildings a grand appearance.

Under the emperor Caracalla (211-217), the most grandiose and beautiful baths in the history of the city were built in Rome, where concrete was used as the main building material. The entire complex of buildings occupied 16 hectares and was completed in a little over four years.

If earlier the large financial expenses caused by wars, road construction, public works, famine and plague epidemics were covered by war trophies, tribute from conquered peoples or money from the sale of captives and confiscated lands, now, at the beginning of the 3rd century, such opportunities are sharply reduced.

Rome at that time, like many cities of its provinces, still retained its external splendor, but the decline rooted in the very structure of the Roman Empire was already clearly visible. Maritime trade was again threatened by pirates, and overland roads became unsafe due to increased incidents of robbery. The period of extreme disintegration of the economy has come; the cities were depopulated, the fields were empty, as there were not enough workers, there was a deepening of typical forms of subsistence farming.

In the second half of the 3rd century, after the onslaught of the barbarians on the Roman borders intensified, the intensive construction of fortresses and walls began throughout the vast empire. So, from the first days of his reign, Aurelian began to strengthen Rome with powerful walls, the construction of which was completed in 282.

The measures and numerous decrees of Diocletian, and later of Constantine, aimed at normalizing the economic life of the country, were crowned with success. The external danger to the Roman state was temporarily eliminated, order was consolidated, and peace was assured. One of the main methods of state policy was the "militaryization" of the entire state, including the civilian part of the population. Taking the large eastern monarchies as a model, the emperors created a socio-economic system in which every citizen was considered in the service only of the state. No one had the right to leave the social category or craft organization in which he was. No one could avoid the activity to which he was destined from the day of his birth. Previously free colleges, which united people by profession, have now turned into compulsory corporations. Most artisans received from the state cash, and more often natural benefits, but for this they had to come to terms with the fact that their freedom was now severely limited.

In this situation, capital construction is growing and expanding. The amphitheater in Verona, built in 290, dates back to the reign of Diocletian - a building reminiscent of the type and size of the Colosseum in Rome. In 305, the huge concrete baths of Diocletian were built. They accommodated 3,200 people at the same time and were the largest structure of this type created in the entire history of Roman construction.

Under Constantine, who continued the traditions of Diocletian in the field of public administration, on May 11, 330, a solemn consecration took place new capital Roman Empire, which was called Constantinople. It quickly began to be built up, decorated with magnificent buildings and works of art transported from Rome and Greece.

By the 4th century The Roman Empire is entering the last and final stage of its development. A system of so-called naturally closed serf relations is gradually taking shape. Trade in the country is reduced, almost all types of state payments are naturalized. The face of cities is changing. They now take the form of fortresses, bounded by powerful walls and towers. Estates are transformed into independent political and economic units, and their owner is transformed into a sovereign, with an army of slaves and columns. The Roman Empire was disintegrating before our eyes. At the end of the IV century. a new social and political crisis arises. In parallel, the pressure of the barbarians on the borders of the state is increasing. Huge masses of Huns, Alans and Goths moved from the Caspian steppes to the West. 24 August 410 the eternal City fell.

Thus, as a result of the aggressive policy of Ancient Rome, its enrichment through wars, the construction of large engineering structures, luxurious mansions, palaces, temples, residential and public buildings is developing. In turn, this required a new strong, durable and relatively cheap material, which was concrete. However, for the implementation of large concrete construction projects, gold and slaves alone were not enough. It required a well-organized organization of labor, engineering knowledge and construction equipment.

The architecture of Ancient Rome, as an original art, was formed by the time of the 4th-1st centuries. BC e. The architectural monuments of Ancient Rome now, even in ruins, conquer with their majesty. The Romans initiated a new era of world architecture, in which the main place belonged to public buildings designed for huge numbers of people: basilicas, baths (public baths), theaters, amphitheaters, circuses, libraries, markets. The list of building structures of Rome should also include religious ones: temples, altars, tombs.

In everything ancient world The architecture of Rome has no equal in terms of the height of engineering art, the variety of types of structures, the richness of compositional forms, and the scale of construction. The Romans introduced engineering structures (aqueducts, bridges, roads, harbors, fortresses, canals) as architectural objects into the urban, rural ensemble and landscape, applied new building materials and structures. They reworked the principles of Greek architecture, and above all the order system: they combined the order with an arched structure.

Equally important in the development of Roman culture was the art of Hellenism, with its architecture gravitating towards grandiose scales and urban centers. But the humanistic principle, noble grandeur and harmony, which form the basis of Greek art, in Rome gave way to tendencies to exalt the power of emperors, the military power of the empire. Hence large-scale exaggerations, external effects, false pathos of huge structures.

The variety of buildings and the scale of construction in ancient Rome vary significantly compared to Greece: a colossal number of huge buildings are being erected. All this required a change in the technical foundations of construction. Performing the most complex tasks with the help of old technology has become impossible: in Rome, fundamentally new structures are being developed and widely used - brick-concrete, which make it possible to solve the problems of covering large spans, speed up construction many times over, and - which is especially important - limit the use of skilled craftsmen by shifting construction processes onto the shoulders of low-skilled and unskilled slave workers.

Approximately in the IV century. BC e. mortar is used as a binder (first in rubble masonry), and by the II century. to p. e. a new technology for the construction of monolithic walls and vaults based on mortars and fine aggregate stone has developed. An artificial monolith was obtained by mixing mortar and sand with crushed stone called "Roman concrete". Hydraulic additions of volcanic sand - pozzolana (after the name of the area where it was taken from) made it waterproof and very durable. This caused a revolution in construction. Such laying was carried out quickly and allowed experimenting with the form. The Romans knew all the advantages of baked clay, made bricks of various shapes, used metal instead of wood to ensure the fire safety of buildings, rationally used stone when laying the foundation. Some of the secrets of Roman builders have not yet been unraveled, for example, the "Roman malt" solution is a mystery to chemists even now.

The squares of Rome and other cities were decorated with triumphal arches in honor of military victories, statues of emperors and prominent public people of the state. Triumphal arches are a permanent or temporary monumental framing of the passage (usually arched), a solemn structure in honor of military victories and other significant events. The construction of triumphal arches and columns was primarily of political importance. The 30-meter column of Trajan was decorated with a spiral frieze 200 meters long depicting the military exploits of Trajan, crowned with a statue of the emperor, at the base of which an urn with his ashes was immured.

The largest domed structure ancient world is the Pantheon (from the Greek. Pentheion - a place dedicated to all the gods). This is a temple in the name of all the gods, personifying the idea of ​​unity of the numerous peoples of the empire. The main part of the Pantheon is a Greek round temple, completed by a dome with a diameter of 43.4 m, through the holes of which light penetrates into the interior of the temple, striking in its grandeur and simplicity of decoration.

The basilica served as an administrative building in which the Romans spent most of the day. The second part of the day was connected with rest and took place in the baths. Baths were a complex combination of buildings and facilities associated with recreation, sports and hygiene. They contained rooms for gymnastics and athletics, lounges for relaxation, conversations, performances, libraries, doctors' offices, baths, swimming pools, commercial premises, gardens and even a stadium. Baths accommodated about a thousand or more people.

The terms were associated with the consumption of a large amount of water, so a special branch of the water supply was connected to them - aqueducts (bridge-water supply). Heating was carried out by boiler installations in the cellars. Aqueducts brought water to Rome at a distance of several tens of kilometers. Thrown across the river beds, they presented an amazing picture of a continuous openwork arcade - one-tier, two- or even sometimes three-tier. Built of stone, with clear proportions and silhouette, these structures are wonderful examples of the unity of architectural forms and structures.

Among the public buildings of Ancient Rome large group make spectacular buildings. Of these, the most famous to this day is the Colosseum - an amphitheater, a giant oval building in the form of a bowl. In the center there was an arena, and under the stands there were rooms for speakers. The Colosseum was built in the 70s - 90s. n. e. and accommodated 56 thousand spectators.

A large group of buildings consisted of residential buildings of various types, including palaces and country villas. One-story mansions (domuses) are especially characteristic of Rome. Apartment buildings were also built - insuls. The interiors of both public and residential buildings were decorated with sculpture, murals, and mosaics. The murals visually expanded the space of the premises, being a wonderful and varied decor. The floors were decorated with mosaics. An important difference between Roman decor is the great complexity and richness of forms and materials. Using various ornamental motifs, they created the most bizarre combinations, changing the construction systems, weaving additional and diverse details into the compositions.

Sculpture of Ancient Rome

In the field of monumental sculpture, the ancient Romans were far behind the Greeks and did not create monuments as significant as the Greek ones. But they enriched the plastic with the disclosure of new aspects of life, developed a new everyday and historical relief, which constituted the most important part of the architectural decor.

The best heritage of Roman sculpture was the portrait. As an independent type of creativity, it has developed since the beginning of the 1st century. BC e. The Romans understood this genre in a new way: unlike the Greek sculptors, they closely and vigilantly studied the face of a particular person with his unique features. In the portrait genre, the original realism of Roman sculptors, observation and the ability to generalize observations in a certain artistic form were most clearly manifested. Roman portraits historically recorded changes in the appearance of people, their customs and ideals.

The Romans were the first to use monumental sculpture for propaganda purposes: they installed equestrian and foot statues in the forums (squares) - monuments to outstanding personalities. In honor of memorable events, triumphal structures were erected - arches and columns.

Composition of a characteristic Roman urban ensemble - the form bears traces of the influence of compositions Greek Agora and public housing.

The predominant type of developed residential building was atrium-peristyle. Usually it was located on an elongated area, fenced off from the streets with blank outer walls. The front part of the house was occupied by an atrium - a closed room, on the sides of which there were living rooms and utility rooms. In the center of the atrium there was a pool, above which an open part was left in the roof for lighting and water flow into the pool. Behind the atrium, through the tablinum, was a peristyle with a garden inside. The whole composition developed in depth along the axis with a consistent disclosure of the main spaces.

IN Roman forums the same idea of ​​a closed axial composition was reflected - an order peristyle, but enlarged to the size of a city square. In the initial period, the forums usually served as markets, and shops, and sometimes other public buildings, adjoined the galleries along their perimeter. Over time, they turned into parade squares for public meetings, solemn ceremonies, religious activities, etc.

The temple, located in the middle of the narrow side of a rectangular square on its main axis, became the ideological and compositional center. Rising on the podium, he dominated the composition. In plan, the temple had the shape of a rectangle, to which a portico was attached. Such a composition of the temple was traditional in Rome and had its origins in the most ancient types of temples of the Etruscan-Archaic period. In the composition of the forum, the frontal construction of the temple emphasized its deep-axial structure, and a rich portico (composite, Corinthian, less often Ionic order) accentuated the entrance to the temple. Since the republican period, several forums have been successively erected in Rome. Later emperors interpreted the forum as a monument to their own glory.

In its splendor, luxury, size and complexity of the composition stands out Forum of Emperor Trajan(architect Apollodorus of Damascus, 112-117). In addition to the main square and the temple, a five-span elongated hall was erected on it - basilica with an area of ​​55x159 m and two symmetrical library buildings, between which a memorial was erected on a small square. Trajan's column 38 m high. Its marble trunk is covered with a spiral ribbon of a bas-relief with 2500 figures depicting episodes of Trajan's victorious campaigns. The triumphal arch serves as the main entrance, the statue of the emperor is installed in the center of the square, the temple is in its depths. Colonnades and porticos made of marble, which had various and sometimes huge sizes, were the main motif of the ensemble.

Built in conjunction with the forums and on the main roads, triumphal arches are one of the most common types of memorial structures in Rome. Arched and vaulted forms initially became widespread in utilitarian structures - bridges and aqueducts.

Palace building was going on in Rome on a grand scale. Particularly stood out imperial palace on the Palatine, consisting of the actual palace for ceremonial receptions and the dwelling of the emperor. The front rooms were located around a vast peristyle courtyard. The main room - the throne room - was striking in its size.

The hall was covered with a cylindrical arch with a span of 29.3 m, which rose 43-44 m above the floor level. The main premises of the residential part were also grouped around the peristyles on the terraces of the hills, using the methods of building villas. The construction of villas also acquired a large scale in Rome. In addition to large palace complexes, the principles of garden and park architecture, which were intensively developed from the 1st century BC, were implemented in them with the greatest breadth. (, the first half of the II century, etc.).

The most grandiose public buildings of Rome, carried out in the imperial period, are associated with the development of arched-vaulted concrete structures.

Roman theaters were based on Greek traditions, but unlike Greek theatres, whose audience seats were located on the natural slopes of the mountains, they were free-standing buildings with a complex substructure that supported seats for spectators, with radial walls, pillars and stairs and passages inside the main semicircular in terms of volume ( Theater of Marcellus in Rome, II c. BC, which accommodated about 13 thousand spectators, etc.).

Colosseum (Colosseum)(75-80 AD) - the largest amphitheater in Rome, intended for gladiator fights and other competitions. Elliptical in plan (dimensions in the main axes are about 156x188 m) and grandiose in height (48.5 m), it could accommodate up to 50,000 spectators.

In plan, the building is divided by transverse and annular passages. Between the three outer rows of pillars, a system of main distribution galleries was arranged. A system of stairs connected the galleries with exits evenly spaced in the funnel of the amphitheater and external entrances to the building arranged along the entire perimeter.

The structural basis is made up of 80 radially directed walls and pillars that carry the vaults of the ceilings. The outer wall is made of travertine squares; in the upper part it consists of two layers: the inner one is made of concrete and the outer one is made of travertine. Marble and knock were widely used for facing and other decorative works.

With a great understanding of the properties and work of the material, the architects combined various types of stone and concrete compositions. In elements experiencing the greatest stress (in pillars, longitudinal arches, etc.), the most durable material - travertine - is used; radial tuff walls lined with brick and partly relieved by brick arches; the sloping concrete vault has light pumice as a filler in order to lighten the weight. Brick arches of various designs penetrate the thickness of concrete both in vaults and in radial walls. The "frame" structure of the Colosseum was functionally expedient, provided lighting for the internal galleries, passages and stairs, and was economical in terms of the cost of materials.

The Colosseum also provides the first known example in history of the bold solution of awning structures in the form of a periodically arranged cover. On the wall of the fourth tier, brackets were preserved that served as supports for the rods, to which a giant silk awning was attached with the help of ropes, protecting the audience from the scorching rays of the sun.

The external appearance of the Colosseum is monumental due to the huge size and the unity of the plastic development of the wall in the form of a multi-tiered order arcade. The system of orders gives the composition a scale and, along with this, a special character of the relationship between the sculpture and the wall. At the same time, the facades are somewhat dry, the proportions are heavy. The use of the order arcade introduced tectonic duality into the composition: the multi-tiered order system, complete in itself, serves exclusively decorative and plastic purposes here, creating only an illusory impression of the building's order frame, visually lightening its array.

Roman baths- complex complexes of numerous rooms and courtyards intended for ablution and various activities related to recreation and entertainment. In Rome, 11 large imperial baths and about 800 small private baths were built.

Pantheon in Rome(about 125) is the most perfect example of a grandiose rotunda temple, in which the diameter of the dome reached 43.2 m. In the Pantheon, the constructive and artistic tasks of creating the largest in Rome (unsurpassed until the 20th century) large-span domed space were brilliantly resolved.

The spherical vault is made with horizontal layers of concrete and rows of burnt bricks, representing a monolithic mass without a frame. To lighten the weight, the dome gradually decreases in thickness towards the top, and light aggregate - crushed pumice stone - is introduced into the concrete. The dome rests on a 6 m thick wall. The foundation is concrete with travertine filler. As the wall rises, travertine is replaced by lighter tuff, and in the upper part - brick rubble. Brick rubble also serves as a filler for the lower zone of the dome. Thus, in the design of the Pantheon, a system of lightening the weight of the concrete aggregate was consistently carried out.

The system of unloading brick arches in the thickness of the concrete evenly distributes the forces of the dome on the abutments and unloads the wall above the niches, reducing the load on the columns. A multi-tiered system of arches with a clearly defined subordination of the main and secondary parts made it possible to rationally distribute efforts in the structure, freeing it from inert mass. She contributed to the preservation of the building despite earthquakes.

The artistic structure of the building is determined by the constructive form: a powerful domed volume outside, a single and integral space inside. The centric volume of the rotunda is interpreted from the outside as an axial frontal composition. In front of the majestic eight-column portico of the Corinthian order (the height of the columns is 14 m), there used to be a rectangular courtyard with a solemn entrance and a triumphal arch like a forum. The developed space under the portico with four rows of intermediate columns, as it were, prepares the visitor for the perception of the vast space of the interior.

The dome, at the top of which there is a round light opening with a diameter of 9 m, dominates the interior. Five rows of caissons decreasing upwards create the impression of a domed "frame", visually lightening the array. At the same time, they give the dome plasticity and a scale commensurate with the divisions of the interior. The order of the lower tier, accentuating deep niches, effectively alternates with massive pillars lined with marble.

The attic strip, intermediate between the order and the dome, emphasizes in contrast the forms of the dome and the main order with a small division scale. The expressive tectonics of the composition is combined with the effect of diffuse lighting pouring from above and subtle color nuances created by the marble facing. The rich, festively majestic interior contrasts with the exterior of the Pantheon, where the simplicity of the monumental volume dominates.

An important place in the construction was occupied by covered halls - basilicas, which served for various kinds of meetings and meetings of the tribunal.

In the architectural traditions of Ancient Rome, the following architectural eras are distinguished:

• Epoch of the Antonines (138 - 192)
• The era of the Severs (193 - 217)

The era of kings (753-510 BC) and the period of the early Republic (V - IV centuries)

The oldest era of Roman architecture, which falls on the period of the kings (according to ancient tradition 753-510 BC) and during the early republic (V - IV centuries), is very little known to us. In any case, in those days, the Romans did not show any significant creative activity in the field of creating original architectural forms; during this period, Rome was in a cultural, and at first in a political, dependence on Etruria. The materials that we have not only about the Roman, but also about the Etruscan architecture of this time, are extremely scarce.

The oldest Etruscan temples known to us date back to the 6th century. BC e. They were rectangular, elongated in terms of construction, covered with a gable roof, with a very deep portico that occupied half of the entire building. Wooden columns were placed very far from one another; in form they most closely resemble Dorian, but had bases, a smooth stem, and a highly developed abacus.

The entablature was also made of wood and richly covered, like the roof of the temple, with painted terracotta relief decorations.

This type was temple of Juno near Falerii. Its deep portico was supported by three rows of columns, six in each. Each side of the cella was flanked by three columns arranged in a row. There were no rooms corresponding to the pronaos or opisphodom in the temple. The small cella was divided by longitudinal walls into three long and narrow chambers; the rear wall of the cella closed all the buildings, since its wings, protruding beyond the side walls, reached the line of colonnades on the sides of the temple.

Completely similar in plan to the temple of Juno was built in 509. Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, the lower parts of which have survived to the present day. The temple stood on a high podium. The temple's three-part cella was dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.

This early period includes the so-called Tullianum- a small building, round in plan, originally covered with a pseudo-vault of gradually shifting stones.

Subsequently, the upper part of the vault was dismantled, and an oblong building covered with a semicircular vault was built above Tullianum, which served as a prison in Rome.

ABOUT residential buildings of the described period, we can judge mainly from the Italian terracotta urns that reproduce the forms of huts. The oldest of these urns date back to the first centuries of the first millennium; judging by these monuments, the construction of dwellings was very simple: they were round huts with a high thatched roof, reinforced with poles and branches. Doors served as a source of light in these buildings. In this guise, in the next era, the Romans represented the dwelling of Romulus; Apparently, the round shape of the Temple of Vesta is also a relic of this tradition.

In the future, a rectangular house in plan, in the center of which there was a large room - an atrium, where the hearth was located, becomes widespread. Around the atrium were the rest of the rooms. Perhaps initially closed, the atrium then becomes open: light entered the room through a hole in the roof (compluvium), and water flowed through it during rain into a special cistern (impluvium) located under the compluvium.

A rather large Etruscan urn, made of limestone, located in Berlin, gives us an idea of ​​the external appearance of houses of this type.

One of the early houses of Pompeii, known by the name Casa del Chirurgo, in its oldest part, built of limestone and relating no later than the III century. BC e., is a building of exactly the described type. The atrium, located in the center of this house, had a beam ceiling, which rested exclusively on the walls and did not have supports in the form of pillars or columns.

As in the early period, and at a later time, the atrium is the front room. In it, the Roman nobles kept, according to the right granted to them, portraits of their ancestors.

The phenomenon that we can observe throughout Roman architecture, namely, the much more secular nature of the latter in comparison with Hellenic architecture, where religious buildings occupy a leading position, is also reflected in the era we are considering. As early as the end of the 4th c. censor Appius Claudius the famous high road is being built ( Via Appia) pipelines are being built Aqua Appia), bridges, etc.

Via Appia

It is extremely difficult to establish where the art of vaulting, which has long been known in the East, came to Rome: did it penetrate directly from the Hellenistic world or did it become known in Rome thanks to the Etruscans? The oldest vaults known to us in Etruria date back to the 4th century BC. BC e.

One of the examples of such an Etruscan structure is related to the III century. ornate gate of perugia (Porta Marzia, covered with a semicircular vault, laid out from a large number of wedge-shaped blocks.

Cloaca Maxima(an underground canal that served to drain water from the swampy forum area), built around 184 BC. e. (?), was covered with a vault of wedge-shaped stones.

A striking example of bridge building of the era of the republic is built in 110 - big bridge, which had several spans, the arches of which were laid out from wedge-shaped blocks.

Republican era. III - II century BC

From the 3rd century in the cultural life of Rome begins a turning point. Rome gradually begins to be included in the orbit of Hellenistic culture. In the second half of the III century. Livy Andronicus translates the Odyssey into Latin and lays the foundation for Latin tragedy and comedy, which he created according to Hellenic models. At the same time, the activities of Nevius and somewhat later - Ennius and Plautus, who created the Roman national literature, made the widest possible use of the artistic heritage of Hellas.

Similar phenomena occurred, apparently, in the architecture of this time. In any case, related to the III century. BC e. found in the tomb of the Scipios Via Appia a large sarcophagus made of gray cape, on which a long epitaph of L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus is written, is decorated with purely Hellenic architectural ornaments. Above the profiled base is a wide, smooth field, similar to a Dorian architrave; above, a Dorian triglyph frieze, in which the metopes are decorated with rosettes; the cornice rising under the frieze is decorated with an Ionian danticulum. We have already seen this kind of combination of elements of the Dorian and Ionian orders in the architecture of southern Italy of the Hellenistic period: in the entablature of the temple of the 3rd-2nd centuries. V Poseidonia (Paestum).

During the II century. in Rome, a number of structures appear, similar in type to the buildings of the Hellenistic cities. Around 159 censor Scipio Nasik surrounds Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus colonnades; special market premises were built that served for trade and legal proceedings, basilicas (about 185 - Basilica Porcia, in 179 - Basilica Aemilia).

With the beginning of the second half of the II century. BC e. related activity Hermogenes of Salamis, apparently the first to use marble in Rome in the construction of temples Jupiter Stator And Juno Regina.

From the same time, we have evidence from Polybius about the plan that the Roman troops always strictly and unswervingly adhered to when setting up camp. For lack of space, we can't give detailed description and we confine ourselves to indicating that the entire planning system was built along straight lines intersecting at right angles. Wide, straight streets, arranged in an even network, divided the camp into regular sections, each of which was occupied by a separate detachment. In general, the layout of the Roman camp is very similar to the layout of the Hellenistic city (cf. Priene or Alexandria). It should, however, be noted that we meet with the same "correct" layout of the city quite early in Etruria, for example, in the city of the 5th century, located under Marzabotto, near Bologna.

By the 2nd century and the very beginning of the 1st c. BC e. include monuments built of tuff from the next building period of Pompeii, on which the Hellenization of the Italic house can be clearly traced. An example of the latter is one of the large and complex houses, usually called Casa del Fauno. It has two entrances, one close to the other, each leading to a separate atrium. One of these atriums is of the old (Tuskulan) type with a beam ceiling resting on the walls, the other is of a new type (tetrastyle), in which the ceiling, in addition to the walls, rests on four more columns standing near the corners of the impluvium.

Both atria are surrounded on all sides by small rooms. Behind the atria, in the next part of the house, there was a large open rectangular peristyle framed by small rooms. The edges of the roof of this peristyle supported 28 (7 × 9) columns of the Ionian order, carrying a Dorian entablature; finally, behind this peristyle there was a second peristyle, large in size, framed by a two-tiered colonnade (13 × 11 columns). The lower columns were Dorian, the upper ones were Ionian. A garden was placed in the second peristyle.

The walls of the house were covered with plaster and decorated with paintings of the so-called first Pompeian style. This style is usually called inlaid because it imitates wall cladding with multi-colored marbles.

In the II century. Greece became a Roman province. This opened up the widest possibilities for the penetration of Hellenic culture into Rome. Countless art treasures were taken away by the winners as trophies. Many educated Greeks, usually as slaves, appeared in Rome.

Temples of the 2nd century clearly indicate a gradually increasing Hellenization. Built at the beginning of the II century. small temple in Gabiah, about 24 m long and about 18 m wide, still has a blank back wall characteristic of Italian temples; the elongated cella is framed on three sides by columns, the number of which from the facade is six, from the sides - seven each; but the depth of the front portico is already noticeably reduced. The columns of the temple have been preserved only in the lower parts, and, judging by the flutes of the trunks and the profiling of the bases, they could be of the Ionian or Corinthian order.

Much more Hellenized built in the II century. Temple of Apollo at Pompeii, which was a Corinthian peripter, on the short sides of which there were six, and on the long sides - ten columns. The small cella of the temple was greatly moved away from the front facade, but at the same time, some space was left between the back wall of the cella and the rear facade. The temple stood on a high podium; From the front side, a not very wide staircase led to it.

The era of Sulla (beginning of the 1st century BC)

From the era of Sulla(beginning of the 1st century BC) several temples have come down to us. IN Kore the front part of the temple of the Dorian order, which stood on a high podium, is well preserved. There were four columns on the front facade, three each on the sides; only the front wall and the beginning of the side walls have been preserved from the cella.

Placed far apart from one another, the Dorian columns are distinguished by exceptionally dry, strongly elongated proportions. The columns stand on large bases. The barrels are fluted only in the middle and upper parts, in the lower they only have edges corresponding to the flutes. The capitals are very small: the echinas are not noticeable, the abacuses are narrow.

Entablature Dorian order differs greatly from classical buildings with its exceptionally light proportions. The height of the architrave is much less than the height of the frieze. There are four metopes for each intercolumnia, with very narrow triglyphs between them. Due to the lightness of the architrave, the cornice seems heavy. The well-preserved pediment has rather steep slopes.

By the beginning of the 1st century BC e. relate two temples in Tibur (Tivoli): pseudoperipter and round. The first one, apparently dedicated to Sibylla, was built of travertine and tuff and covered with plaster. It stood on a low podium and was a small temple of the Ionian order, which had four columns on the front side. The deep portico of the temple, located behind these columns, was framed on both sides by cella antes, advanced one intercolumn from the walls, ending in incomplete columns. The rest of the temple was occupied by a large single-nave oblong cella, the walls of which were decorated with semi-columns from the outside: there were four of them on the rear facade, and five each on the sides (including antae).

In this pseudo-peripter, we can already observe one characteristic feature that will later become widespread in Roman architecture: the use of a column, which in Hellenic architecture performed purely constructive tasks, only as a decorative element that dismembers and enlivens the surface of the wall.

The second temple, apparently dedicated to Vesta, was also a small (diameter about 14 m) round building, standing on a podium and framed by eighteen columns of the Corinthian order. The light entablature consisted of a narrow architrave, decorated with a relief frieze ornament, and a simple and strict cornice. The round cella of the temple had a wide door on the southwestern side, on both sides of which there were two narrow windows. A narrow staircase led to the door leading up to the podium. By type, the building is very close to the round Greek buildings of the 4th century, but is distinguished by the greater lightness of the proportions of the Corinthian colonnade. At the same time, in the round plan of this building, one cannot fail to note the presence of a local tradition dating back to primitive round huts.

Travertine was used for facing the podium, columns, entablature, door and window frames; as for the remaining parts, i.e., the main mass of the podium and the walls of the cella, the latter were built from small irregular fragments of tuff and travertine in lime mortar. This technique of building walls on mortar later became widespread in Roman architecture.

1st century BC e. was the Romanization of Italy. The old local Italian cultures in this era were finally broken. But at the same time, the process of perception by Rome of Hellenistic culture, which had already begun earlier, was intensifying more and more, which penetrates wider and deeper than it was two centuries earlier. Lucretius and Cicero transfer Greek philosophy to Roman soil, Varion - sciences, Catullus - poetry.

During this period, a number of buildings are erected in Rome, many of them being built with exceptional luxury. In 78 BC. e. was built Tabularium(Senate archive), in which arched ceilings were combined with a colonnade - a technique that received the widest use in the future and became one of the most characteristic features of Roman architecture. In all likelihood, the combination of these two elements took place in the external appearance of the church begun in 54. Basilica Julia standing on Forum Romanum. The layout of the buildings at the Forum was comparatively free.

By the 1st century BC e. refers to a small Ionian pseudoperipter - temple Mater matuta (Fortuna Virilis) in Rome. This temple is similar in type to the pseudo-peripter at Tibur; it had a rather deep six-column portico, framed from the facade by four columns, there were no ants in the portico, and its sides were completely open. The rest of the temple was occupied by a cella, the walls of which were decorated on the outside with semi-columns: there were four of them on the back wall, and five each on the side walls.

The temple stood on a low podium. It was a curious combination of the structure of an old Italic temple with a deep portico and a cella moved back with Ionian order building forms. Its outlines were simple and austere, corresponding to the style of Roman sculpture of that time (Pacitel's school).

Age of Augustus (30 BC - 14 AD)

30 BC e. opens a new stage in Roman history: this is the time of the beginning of the principate. At the same time, in the same year, the last of the remaining independent Hellenistic states - Egypt - became part of the Roman state. In the era of Augustus (30 BC - 14 AD), intensive construction in Rome develops; dozens of luxurious buildings are being restored and built, in which marble, which was almost never used before, is widely used. Augustus is proud that he took Rome of clay, and left marble.

A number of monuments erected in this era are directly connected with the emperor and are intended to glorify his activities.

In 2 BC. e. construction was completed Temple of Mars Ultor (Temple of Mars Ultor). This rather large temple of the Corinthian order had eight columns along the front facade. The front portico of the temple was very deep. Pushed back, the cella was framed on the sides by colonnades. From the rear side, the temple was closed by a blank wall, which formed a rather large apse opposite the entrance to the cella.

Temple of Mars was the main building forum of august. On three sides it was framed by magnificent colonnades, and against the sides of the temple behind them were semicircular outbuildings. The Hellenistic method of organizing the internal space of the square by means of a colonnade is carried out here with exceptional symmetry, which, as we will see later, is a characteristic feature of the layout of the architectural ensembles of the Roman Empire.

An exceptionally clear idea of ​​​​the temple architecture of the Augustan era can be given by the one built in 4 AD. e. temple in Nimes, known by the name Maison Carree. This Corinthian pseudo-peripter, standing on a high podium, has a deep ten-column portico, with six columns standing along the front facade. The large cella of the temple is decorated with semi-columns from the outside. A light architrave crowns the colonnade, the frieze is covered with relief ornaments, the cornice is carefully decorated.

Equally splendid are the decorations on the cornice of the Temple of Concordia, built in 10 AD. e. in Rome and the frieze of the temple at Pyla.

In general, it can be noted that the temple in Nimes, apparently, like other buildings of the Augustan era, has a ceremonial decorated appearance, which sharply distinguishes it from the simple and strict temple of Mater Matuta. In exactly the same way, one can compare august statue (Prima Porta) with sculptures of the late Republic (for example, the Vatican statue of a Roman in a toga).

This desire to give an architectural monument a magnificent character was, apparently, the reason for the dominance in Roman architecture, starting from the era of Augustus, the Corinthian order. The frequent use of the column as a purely decorative element can also be connected with this.

Roman society of this time viewed art as an item of luxury and the most refined comfort; This understanding of art is fully consistent with the focus in architecture on the decoration of the building, the desire to make it as more ornate as possible, and the widest use of decorative, often hedonistic in content (statues of satyrs, Bacchus, Venus, etc.) sculpture in houses, villas, parks, etc.

This hedonism in art corresponds, just as it once took place in Greece, to hedonism in philosophy. Back in the 1st century BC e. Lucretius wrote his poem De rerum natura, in which he outlined the teachings of Epicurus, which received wide recognition among a significant part of the upper classes of Roman society.

At the same time, such structures as the temple in Nimes, despite their closeness to the Greek temple, are fundamentally different from it in the absence of a stepped pedestal characteristic of the Hellenic peripter, which gives the whole “heroic scale”, which we spoke about above. The mythological worldview, so characteristic of Hellenic culture, was alien to the Romans even after their perception of Hellenic mythology and the religion of the Olympian pantheon.
The usual staircase leading to the temple in Nimes, on the contrary, emphasizes the purely anthropic character of the building, which fully corresponds to the teachings of Epicurus.

Worthy of attention is also the fundamentally different character of the ornaments that adorned Hellenic and Roman buildings. The conditional geometrized plane ornament of the Greek temple, if it contains some motifs taken from flora, then gives them in such a highly processed form that they do not fundamentally differ from the linear elements of decorations (see Parthenon ornaments). In Roman ornament, however, plant motifs fully preserve living organic forms, which clearly indicates a more realistic character of Roman decorative art (see the frieze of the temple in Pola and the ornaments of the altar of the Peace of Augustus). This more realistic character, fully in keeping with the sober practicality of the Romans, was also expressed in statuary plasticity: the sculptural portrait occupies the same dominant position in Roman art as the typifying statue of an athlete in Greek; the nature of Roman religion also corresponds to this, where, in contrast to the transcendent animism characteristic of Greece, immanent animism persisted for a long time.

In 13-9 years. BC e. was built altar of the Peace of Augustus (Ara Paris Augustae), which was a small rectangular building (11.6 × 10.6 m), surrounded by a high wall, completely covered with rich decoration; on the walls at the bottom there were wide belts of relief ornament, and at the top there was a relief zophor (there were Corinthian pilasters in the corners). From the east and west, the wall was interrupted by a wide door, to which a small staircase led. The altar itself was placed in the center of the structure. The entire building was made of marble of the Moon.

The task of building the altar of the Peace of Augustus is close to that which the builders of the grandiose Pergamon altar solved; but the most cursory glance is enough to see how different the two monuments are. The external design of the Pergamon altar is based on the principle of the peripter, although the colonnade is placed on a high pedestal decorated with high reliefs. The Altar of Peace is bounded by a solid, richly decorated wall. This principle of emphasizing the wall, often combined not with a straight, but with a vaulted ceiling, is one of the most characteristic phenomena in Roman architecture. He found a vivid expression in the triumphal arches, a number of which were built in the era of Augustus.

The one built in 8 BC is distinguished by rather simple forms. e. single span arch in Sousse. The large passage (8.75 m high and 5 m wide) is framed by a semi-circular vault accentuated by a triple fillet and smooth walls, which are enlivened by incomplete Corinthian columns at the corners of the building and flat pilasters flanking the passage. The columns support a Corinthian entablature with a frieze decorated with reliefs. A small smooth attic rises above the cornice, continuing the main surface of the lower wall.

More richly decorated triumphal arch near St. Remy, the upper part of which has not been preserved. It has increased the number of incomplete attached columns and relief decorations.

In the triumphal arch, in addition to the aforementioned accentuation of the wall and vaulted ceiling, which is characteristic of Roman architecture, another no less typical phenomenon can be noted: the reduction of the column and the entablature supported by it, which played such an important constructive role in Hellenic architecture, to the level of purely decorative elements that should only dismember and enliven the surface of the wall.

Built in the era of August and galleries-colonnades, so characteristic of Hellenistic architecture. We have already mentioned one of them, which framed the temple of Mars Ultor. Particularly grandiose in size was set back in the 2nd century. BC e. and the “portico of Octavia” rebuilt under Augustus; it had up to three hundred columns of the Corinthian order and a large number of sculptures and paintings.
In 11 BC. e. was built, which has come down to us in a badly damaged form, made of travertine Theater of Marcellus. Unlike the Greek theaters, which, in essence, are only an adaptation for the auditorium of a hillside convenient for this purpose, in front of which the corresponding stage buildings were erected, the Roman theater is architectural monument of the usual type, inside of which there are stage structures and gradually rising places for spectators.

The theater of Marcellus, very monumental in form, had an external appearance characteristic of Roman civil buildings: rhythmically repeated, powerful pillars arranged in two tiers interspersed with high semicircular arches of the vaults. The pillars and the parts of the walls above them were decorated with purely decorative columns that supported the entablature: in the first tier - the Dorian order (with a cornice decorated with a dentil) and in the second - the Ionian.
Of undoubted interest are the tombstones of the Augustan era, which are distinguished by a wide variety of forms. Apparently, a kind of echo of the inclusion of Egypt in the Roman state and the associated inclusion of artistic values ​​​​(compare, for example, the third Pompeian style) is the tomb monument of Cestius, who died in 12 BC. e. It has the shape of a tetrahedral rather high pyramid. The monument was built of brick and lined with marble.

Erected in the same era, the tombstone of the supplier of bread M. Virgil Evrisak was a very peculiar structure: in the lower part of the building there were massive square and round pillars that supported the high walls of the building. The expanse of these walls was enlivened with special fillets, indicating the throats of the kvass or the crowns of pithoi for supplies; a narrow relief frieze and cornice passed above. In this, very original in form, monument, one cannot fail to note the peculiar manifestation of those aspirations for realism in Roman architecture, which we have already spoken about.

In the tomb Julius monument in St. Remy all the characteristic features of the architecture of the Augustan era are concentrated. A plinth lined with reliefs rises on a square ledge pedestal; on it stands a tetrapylon - a gate that opens in all four directions. Corinthian columns supporting the entablature are attached to the corners of the tetrapylon; finally, the whole building is crowned with a Corinthian order rotunda.

Located on Via Appia Mausoleum of Caecilia Metella (Mausoleo di Cecilia Metella) is a massive, tower-like, cylindrical structure. The undivided smooth walls of this monument gave the impression of irresistible power. In the mausoleum of Augustus and his family, we find a close motif of a large (88 m in diameter), massive, tower-like structure of marble, which here serves as the crepe of a tree-lined mound.
Along with the magnificent mausoleums that served as graves for the emperor and the social elites, more modest underground columbarium crypts, which were rectangular rooms, the walls of which were completely covered with small niches, where urns with the ashes of the dead were placed, have come down to us.

Of the residential buildings of this time, we will mention Libya's house on the Palatine, decorated with paintings corresponding to the second Pompeian style (architectural), used in the era of the late republic and the beginning of the principate. A characteristic feature of this style is the revitalization of the wall surface by applying architectural details (columns, pilasters, etc.). The main smooth surface of the wall imitates the cladding; in addition, separate pictures are assembled.

Along with the second style in the era of Augustus, the third Pompeian style is also used for painting houses. It is distinguished by the predominance of ornament, in the spirit of which the architectural elements of the painting are also processed; The abundance of Egyptian motifs is also characteristic in this style.

Finally, it should be noted that in the era of Augustus, a number of buildings for a purely utilitarian purpose were built. An example is the grandiose Aqueduct of Agrippa near Nimes(known as Pont du Gard), the length of which reaches 269 m.

Julio-Claudian dynasty (AD 15 - 68)

From the architecture of the time of the closest successors of Augustus (the Julio-Claudian dynasty), few monuments have come down to us. Let's dwell on the most important of them.

In 21 AD e. was dedicated Tiberius(possibly built earlier) triumphal arch in orange. Quite significant in size (its height is 18 m, width 19.5), it has three spans, of which the middle one is larger than the side ones. The arch is decorated with attached incomplete Corinthian columns, four on each side, a simple and strict entablature, complex profiling of architectural parts and numerous relief decorations.

Epoch Claudia(41-54) was marked mainly by grandiose structures of a utilitarian order, which were a large harbor at Ostia, unfinished drainage tunnel in 5540 m long, carried out to Lake Futsin, finally Aqua Claudia- the largest of the aqueducts of the city of Rome.

”Golden House” of Emperor Nero, preserved premises

The most famous building Nero(54-68) - built after a great fire in 64 by architects North And Celer « golden house» ( Domus_Aurea). This huge residence, covering an area of ​​about 50 hectares, included a large palace built with exceptional luxury, a park, an artificially dug pond; the ensemble included a colossal (35 m high) bronze statue of the emperor by Zenodora.

Domus_Aurea. Golden House of Emperor Nero. The surviving part available for visits / Nero's Column

We can judge the magnificent decoration of the Golden House only by the insignificant remains of the secondary parts of the residence of Nero, and also, to a certain extent, by the richest Pompeian houses of the same time. This is the era when the fourth style dominates Pompeii, characteristic features which is the abundance of architectural elements of a completely fantastic, bizarre nature and bright, brilliant color.

The Flavian era (69-96) The era of Trajan (98-117) - Hadrian (117-138)

In the era Trajan(98-117) the construction of purely utilitarian structures - roads, bridges, water pipes, harbors, etc. - was especially lively. At the same time, attention was paid to the residential quarters of the city. Frequent collapses of large houses caused an order prohibiting the construction of multi-storey buildings more than 20 meters in height.

In 107-113 years. in Rome being built by an architect Apollodorus from Damascus grandiose forum of Trajan, which in ancient times was considered one of the main attractions of the capital. It is slightly inferior in area to all the other Roman forums combined.

Trajan's forum, like the forums of other emperors, had a symmetrical layout of buildings. A large triumphal arch served as an entrance to a square courtyard (whose sides reached 126 m). In the center of the courtyard was an equestrian statue of Trajan; from the sides it was framed by colonnades, behind which were semicircular exedra. Along the far side of the courtyard from the entrance stood a large five-nave Basilica Ulpia with a gilded bronze roof. Behind the basilica was a small square, framed on the sides by two small library buildings. Trajan's tall column stood in the center of this square. Finally, the whole structure was closed by the temple of Trajan, framed by colonnades, erected by his successor Hadrian. From these numerous structures to the present, with the exception of Trajan's columns only pitiful remnants remain.

Placed in 113-114. Trajan's column was a very peculiar commemorative monument, which at the same time served as the burial crypt of the emperor. On a high square pedestal decorated with reliefs stood a grandiose column equipped with a massive base and a light Dorian capital; its trunk was covered with a spirally curved relief belt representing "Trajan's wars with the Dacians". Above the capital is a high round pedestal, on which the statue of Trajan once stood.

Inside the column there was a spiral staircase leading up to a small platform located above the capital and going around the pedestal of the statue.

Intensive construction went on in the era of Trajan and in the provinces. We confine ourselves to mentioning what arose at the beginning of the 2nd century. African city Timgad laid out according to a plan reminiscent of Roman camps. The city was richly decorated with large colonnades. One of the best preserved monuments is the three-bay triumphal arch; the question of dating it to the age of Trajan or a later time does not yet seem to be resolved.

Burned down in 110 Pantheon, lined up Agrippa in 27 BC e. Its restoration was entrusted Apollodorus of Damascus, which during the years 115-125. rebuilt the building. Built mainly of brick and mortar, the Pantheon has come down to us in very good condition, only slightly distorted by later alterations.

The temple was a grandiose, round building, covered with a dome and equipped with a large portico. The division of the interior of the temple is strictly symmetrical. The lower floor of the walls is divided into eight parts by four rectangular and three semicircular niches alternately located. Opposite the middle semicircular niche is a cut of the entrance arch close to it in shape.

Each of the niches was once separated from the central space by two large columns of the Corinthian order, supporting a rather simple entablature with a smooth frieze; only in the niche opposite the exit, these columns are strongly moved apart and frame it from the sides, and the entablature runs along the concave line of the wall.

Framed by Corinthian pilasters, the wide, smooth piers between the niches were enlivened by small aedicules placed in front of them. The second tier lying above the entablature was divided by mighty semicircular arches located above the niches; between them there was a wide smooth surface of the wall. Horizontal profiling separated the second tier from the grandiose hemispherical dome, the surface of which was enlivened in the lower and middle parts by five rows of large cassettes. The upper part of the dome, devoid of cassettes, framed a large round window (9 m in diameter), which boldly completed the building.

The diameter of the inner premises of the Pantheon was 43.5 m, and the height was 42.7 m. The complex articulation of the inner side of the walls and the dome of the Pantheon, enhanced by the richness and variety of interior decoration, is sharply opposed by the exceptional simplicity of the exterior design of the building.

It is a grandiose cylindrical vestibule, above which the dome of the temple rises. The surface of the walls of the vestibule is divided by horizontal bands into three tiers, the first and second strictly corresponding to the corresponding internal divisions of the building. The third floor is at the level of the two lower rows of dome cassettes. The purpose of the wall of this tier is to help counteract the enormous force of the expansion of the dome. Third floor closes lower part domes, due to which the latter gives the impression of being flat. The dome was covered with a gilded roof that has not been preserved to this day.

The entrance to the Pantheon leads through a large deep portico, which was rebuilt during the 2nd century BC. In its current form, it has eight columns of the Corinthian order along the facade crowned with a high pediment (the remains of the foundation indicate that there were once ten of them). The facade colonnade is followed by four rows of columns - two in each, dividing the portico into three longitudinal compartments. The entrance to the cella is flanked by two ledges of walls forming niches; these parts of the building are decorated with Corinthian pilasters.

The description of the Pantheon that we made clearly indicates that the architect's focus was not on the external design of the building, since the building is given on the outside in the simplest, if I may say so, laconic forms: it is a smooth wall, in the cutting of which the architect is limited to horizontal division, corresponding to the division of the internal parts of the building.

The main problem that was put forward and resolved in the Pantheon is the problem of organizing the internal space. This space was given strictly centric and, moreover, was limited for the viewer, located in the center of the building, not by straight walls stretching into the distance and a ceiling covered with beams, as was the case in a Greek temple, but by a soft curved line of the ring of walls and the hemisphere of the dome.

This special spatiality of the Pantheon, which is the result of a rounded frame, is fully consistent with the lighting of the building, which is not usual in ancient architecture from the side (through the door), but from the top - through the round window located at the zenith of the dome. Such lighting provided a soft diffused light that did not reveal, but smoothed out contrasts, thus contributing to the fact that the complex architectural decoration of walls and ceilings made a mostly purely decorative impression.

Hadrian's Villa in Tibur

In the building of the Pantheon, especially from the outside, there is a pronounced assertion of the wall as the main architectural element. This accentuation of the wall is one of the manifestations of the desire for realism in Roman architecture, which we have repeatedly spoken about. If in the altar of the Peace of Augustus the wall appeared in a disguised form, completely covered with relief decorations, then in the Pantheon it is given in all its purity and immediacy.

The smooth, impenetrable surface of the wall responds incomparably more to the practical and artistic task of isolating the building from the space surrounding it than the (albeit structurally necessary) colonnades of the Hellenic periptera, which makes the forms of Roman architecture incomparably more realistic than the forms of Hellenic architecture.

Worthy of attention is the purpose of the temple to serve as a place of worship not for one deity, but for the whole set of gods. This phenomenon is in connection with the gradual inclusion in the orbit of Roman religion of all the main cults that existed on the vast territory of the empire, and corresponds to the philosophy of this era. At this time, the teaching of the Stoics, who preached cosmopolitanism and put forward the position that all people constitute a single organism, was widely used.
In 123-126 years. Trajan's successor Adrian(117-138) a grandiose villa in Tibur (Tivoli), which was a complex complex of buildings. Separate parts of the villa were to perpetuate Hadrian's memories of his travels in Greece and the East, reproducing the Stoa poikile, the Academy, the Lyceum, Canopus, the Tempe Valley. This desire to repeat some of the famous buildings of ancient architecture fully meets the classicist trends that dominated the art of the period under review, which at the same time had a touch of romance.

During the era of Hadrian, extensive restoration work was carried out on Forum Romanum. In 135, a large Temple of Venus and Roma. Framed by porticoes, the temple stood on a platform 145 m long and 100 m wide. The podium common to Roman temples was absent; instead, the temple was surrounded on all sides by steps.

The temple was a peripter of the Corinthian order, which had ten columns on the front sides, and twenty columns on the long sides. The interior of the temple was divided by transverse walls into two cells. In front of each of them was a four-column portico (pronaos) in antae. The floor in the cellas was higher than in the porticoes. In the middle of the rear wall of each cella was a large semicircular niche; they were separated from one another by a common wall. In one of these niches was placed a statue of Roma, in the other - Venus. The long walls of the cella were decorated with colonnades and niches. Both cells, as well as the porticos in front of them, were covered with vaults, which was in a certain contradiction with the gable roof of the temple.

The walls of the temple were built of brick; marble was widely used for cladding; the decoration was very luxurious.

From what has been said, it is clear that the temple of Venus and Roma is a very pretentious monument of a kind of Greco-Roman eclecticism, which marks those classicist aspirations of the era, which we have already spoken about above. This temple was as far from the works of Hellenic architecture, the heyday of the latter, as the statues of Hadrian's favorite, the young Bithenian Antinous, from the sculptures of the classical period representing athletes.

Relatively well preserved was built in 132-139: Moles(mausoleum) Adriana, now known as Castello St. Angelo. This grandiose, once richly decorated monument was a square plinth on which stood a tower-like vestibule topped with a rotunda.

A number of outstanding architectural monuments are being built in the era of Hadrian and in the Roman provinces.

ends in Athens Temple of Olympian Zeus, not brought to the end by Antiochus Epiphanes and then subjected to destruction. Around this building, a number of new buildings are being built, forming " City of Hadrian”, which was connected with the “old” city by a large gate (18 m high and 13.5 m wide) made of Pentelikon marble.

In the lower tier, which was a solid wall framed on the sides by Corinthian pilasters, a large passage was cut. The passage was flanked by pilasters, also of the Corinthian order, but smaller, above which a profiled fillet ran along the arch. Between the large and small pilasters, Corinthian columns stood on special pedestals, supporting the ledges of the entablature that crowned the lower floor of the gate.

A very light through upper tier consisted of Corinthian columns and pillars that supported the entablature, the middle part of which was crowned with a pediment. In this monument we again find the attempt already noted by us to give a peculiar combination of Greek and Roman elements in subtly refined forms.

The surviving parts are much more monumental. Hadrian's Library in Athens. We have reached a row of round Corinthian columns stretching along a solid wall. A very peculiar entablature crowns the wall and forms small ledges above the columns, corresponding in shape to the capitals. We have already met this method of revitalizing the wall earlier on the Nerva forum.

Of the other buildings of Hadrian, we note the grandiose, very peculiar in plan Temple in Cyzicus. This temple was a peripter, which had six columns from the front and fifteen from the long sides. A small cella, which had two doors facing the front and rear facades, was the only interior of the temple. The large free space between the cella and both facades was filled with columns, the total number of rows of which was five on the front side, and three on the back.

Epoch of the Antonines (138 - 192)

Building activity under Hadrian's successors Antonina(138-192) is much paler than in the first decades of the 2nd century. This does not respond to buildings that have a purely utilitarian purpose, the construction of which is very intensive, but from this era almost no monuments have come down to us that would be of great importance in the development of the style of Roman architecture.

At Antonina Pie(138-161) on Roman Forum was built Temple of Faustina, decorated with a colonnade. The front part of this temple has been preserved. The portico was flanked by large Corinthian columns of pale green marble; there were six of them from the facade, three from the sides. The light entablature was decorated with a narrow relief frieze.

Erected in Rome column of Marcus Aurelius(161-180) did not represent anything new in terms of architecture, being basically a repetition of the Trajan's Column.

During the Antonine era, a number of buildings were built in Greece by the wealthy orator Herodes Atticus; note Odeon(indoor theater) in Athens and Exedru in Olympia; the latter was a semi-circular building framed on the sides by wings with a semi-dome ceiling. This structure was sharply out of harmony with the entire ensemble in Altis.

The grandiose complex of the acropolis of Heliopolis (Baalbek). It reached a length of almost 300 m and consisted of a colossal temple and a number of premises that preceded access to it, located strictly symmetrically.

A wide staircase led to a twelve-columned propylaea portico, very wide in front, but not deep; from there, three doors led into a hexagonal courtyard framed by colonnades, on the opposite side of which there were also three doors into the next large square courtyard, framed on three sides by colonnades. The back side of the courtyard was closed by a large temple.

It was a colossal peripter, which had ten columns from the front and nineteen from the long sides. Columns up to 19 m high stood on large bases; smooth trunks were crowned with magnificent Corinthian capitals. The light Corinthian entablature was richly ornamented with ornaments, distinguished, like the capitals of the columns, by a restless dynamic character.

South of the great temple was second peripter, much smaller; on the short sides of this temple there were eight and on the long sides fifteen columns. The height of the columns was 16 m. The temple stood on a high podium; on the east side, a staircase led into it, behind which there was a deep portico. Pronaos was framed by ants; a richly ornamented door led from it to the cella. At the back of the cella was a wide staircase leading up to the adyton.

The inner sides of the side walls of the cella were enlivened by Corinthian columns attached to them. The columns stood on special plinths and had small bases, fluted trunks and very magnificent capitals. Along the wall, above the columns, ran the same ledge entablature as in the forum of Nerva. In the gaps between the columns there were niches and tabernacles located in two tiers, which gave the walls a resemblance to the facade of the stage of Roman theaters.

Overloaded with heavy, luxurious decorations full of restless dynamics, the grandiose buildings of Heliopolis have a solemn, somewhat pompous character.

It is curious to compare these phenomena in architecture with the sculptural portrait of the Antonine era; the contrasting juxtaposition of the form gives it a restless character, which is enhanced by the play of chiaroscuro, sometimes creating purely decorative effects.

The era of the Severs (193 - 217)

At Septimius Severe(193-211) extensive restoration work was carried out in Rome. Of the newly built structures, the most prominent place was occupied by the palace, the entrance to which was decorated with a grandiose three-tiered backstage, called Septizodium(or Septizonium), built in 203. It was a complex combination of arrays of walls, arches and columns, and in addition was richly decorated with sculpture; fountains were also introduced into the composition.

A large (23 m high) three-span arch erected in honor Septimius Severa and his sons geth And Caracalla. The spans of the arch were framed by Corinthian fluted pilasters and Corinthian columns, which stood on special pedestals and supported the ledges of the entablature. The pedestals of the columns were decorated with reliefs; on the walls, between the columns, the reliefs that completely covered them were arranged in several rows. The smooth surface of the attic, covered with a long inscription, contrasted with this extreme congestion with decorations in the lower middle parts of the building.

Caracalla(211-217) completed the baths begun by his father. This grandiose, well-equipped, luxuriously decorated building was located in a large (350 m long) almost square park, framed on all sides by buildings. The Baths of Caracalla represented a complex complex of various premises, strictly symmetrically located and giving a combination of volumes and spaces organized in various ways.

Quite significant remains of walls, vaults and pillars have been preserved from the terms. As for the architectural decorations related to terms, the use of a Corinthian capital with a sculptural image of Hercules built into it is worthy of mention.

In the era of the North, there was intensive construction activity in North Africa, as a result of which a number of camp cities appeared. Among them, the most interesting Tebessa, where at the beginning of the III century. a small (9 m wide, 14.7 m long) temple of the Corinthian order was built.

The temple had a rather deep six-column portico, with four columns standing along the facade; the outside of the cella is decorated with pilasters. Lush capitals of columns and pilasters correspond to the abundance of relief decorations of the entablature, completely covering not only the frieze, but also the architrave; these decorations do not go in a continuous band and are separated according to the columns by special caesuras.

Of the other buildings in Tebesse, we will also point out triumphal arch, erected in 214 in honor of Caracalla. This arch is single-span, but it opens with gates not in two, but in four directions (tetrapiles).

Final stage (270 - 337)

The era that followed the Sever dynasty is extremely restless and full of military clashes. It is characteristic that at this time a number of defensive structures were being built. Emperor Aurelius(270-275) surrounds Rome with a fortress wall. Close to her in time Verona city gates(known as Porta dei Borsari) and Trier(Porta Nigra).

Ancient gates of Verona - Porta Borsari

In the III century. flourishes Palmyra, laid out according to a predetermined plan and richly decorated with grandiose colonnades; Decumanus (the main street) of this city formed a grandiose avenue 1135 m long, on both sides of which there were three hundred and seventy-five columns supporting a rather heavy entablature. The height of the columns was 17 m. On their smooth trunks, slightly above the middle, strongly protruding consoles were placed. Behind the colonnades were houses, warehouses, shops and other buildings. The colonnades ended in a three-span triumphal arch, framed by pilasters and richly decorated with ornaments.

Epoch Diocletian(284-305) and his closest successors is the final stage in the development of ancient art in general and architecture in particular.

Diocletian's main building in Rome was grandiose baths, built in 302-305. According to the plan, they were close to the baths of Caracalla, but they could accommodate twice large quantity visitors (over 3,000 people). Quite significant parts of the baths of Diocletian have survived to the present. Tepidarium(warm bath) of these terms, which currently serves as a church ( S. Maria degli Angeli), came to us in very good condition. This room is covered with very bold cross vaults.

Another architectural monument associated with the name of Diocletian is his palace at Salona (Spalato). It differs sharply from the residences of the Roman emperors of the 1st - 2nd centuries. and fully meets the new conditions of the Roman Empire, which is turning into an oriental despotism.

The palace occupies a vast rectangular space (more than 37,000 m2), fortified with walls and towers. The layout of the premises was carried out according to the principle of a military camp. Symmetry reigned everywhere. Two wide streets divided the camp-palace into four equal parts. In one of these rectangular parts there was a large building, octagonal in plan, near which there were colonnades, very characteristic of late antique architecture, supporting a series of arches.

Diocletian's successor Maxentius(206-212), builds a basilica in Rome, completed, perhaps after his death. This grandiose building was divided into three naves, and the middle nave was much wider and higher than the side ones (its width was 25 m, height 35 m). The middle nave was covered with three cross vaults, and each side nave was covered with three barrel vaults.

In this basilica we see a focus on the organization of vast, symmetrical interior spaces. Architectural forms are built by means of walls, pillars and vaults, the smooth surfaces of which everywhere play a dominant role. The use of a column, even though it is a structural part, still has a mainly decorative purpose.

In conclusion, we mention triumphal arch of Constantine(323-337), located in Rome. In terms of architectural forms, it is very close to the arch of Septimius Severus, but even more than the latter, it is loaded with sculptural decorations that not only fill the lower and middle parts of the arch, but also penetrate upward in the form of statues standing on the ledges of the entablature, under the columns, and reliefs between them. The creative impotence of the era is reflected in the fact that a significant part of the sculptures decorating the arch was taken from earlier monuments.