s, Shops; v, Vestibule; f, Family Rooms; k, Kitchen; l, Lavarium; P, P, P, Peristyles.
There are few remains in Rome of the domus or private house. Two, however, have left remarkably interesting ruins—the Atrium Vestæ, or House of the Vestal Virgins, east of the Forum, a well-planned and extensive house surrounding a cloister or court; and the House of Livia, so-called, on the Palatine Hill, the walls and decorations of which are excellently preserved. The typical Roman house in a provincial town is best illustrated by the ruins of Pompeii and Herculanum, which, buried by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., have been partially excavated since 1721. The Pompeiian house (Fig. 65) consisted of several courts or atria, some of which were surrounded by colonnades and called peristyles. The front portion was reserved for shops, or presented to the street a wall unbroken save by the entrance; all the rooms and chambers opened upon the interior courts, from which alone they borrowed their light. In the brilliant climate of southern Italy windows were little needed, as sufficient light was admitted by the door, closed only by portières for the most part; especially as the family life was passed mainly in the shaded courts, to which fountains, parterres of shrubbery, statues, and other adornments lent their inviting charm. The general plan of these houses seems to have been of Greek origin, as well as the system of decoration used on the walls. These, when not wainscoted with marble, were covered with fantastic, but often artistic, painted decorations, in which an imaginary architecture as of metal, a fantastic and arbitrary perspective, illusory pictures, and highly finished figures were the chief elements. These were executed in brilliant colors with excellent effect. The houses were lightly built, with wooden ceilings and roofs instead of vaulting, and usually with but one story on account of the danger from earthquakes. That the workmanship and decoration were in the capital often superior to what was to be found in a provincial town like Pompeii, is evidenced by beautiful wall-paintings and reliefs discovered in Rome in 1879 and now preserved in the Museo delle Terme. More or less fragmentary remains of Roman houses have been found in almost every corner of the Roman empire, but nowhere exhibiting as completely as in Pompeii the typical Roman arrangement.
WORKS OF UTILITY. A word should be said about Roman engineering works, which in many cases were designed with an artistic sense of proportion and form which raises them into the domain of genuine art. Such were especially the bridges, in which a remarkable effect of monumental grandeur was often produced by the form and proportions of the arches and piers, and an appropriate use of rough and dressed masonry, as in the Pons Ælius (Ponte S. Angelo), the great bridge at Alcantara (Spain), and the Pont du Gard, in southern France. The aqueducts are impressive rather by their length, scale, and simplicity, than by any special refinements of design, except where their arches are treated with some architectural decoration to form gates, as in the Porta Maggiore, at Rome.
MONUMENTS: (Those which have no important extant remains are given in italics.) Temples: Jupiter Capitolinus, 600 B.C.; Ceres, Liber, and Libera, 494 B.C. (ruins of later rebuilding in S. Maria in Cosmedin); first T. of Concord (rebuilt in Augustan age), 254 B.C.; first marble temple in portico of Metellus, by a Greek, Hermodorus, 143 B.C.; temples of Fortune at Præneste and at Rome, and of “Vesta” at Rome, 83–78 B.C.; of “Vesta” at Tivoli, and of Hercules at Cori, 72 B.C.; first Pantheon, 27 B.C. In Augustan Age temples of Apollo, Concord rebuilt, Dioscuri, Julius, Jupiter Stator, Jupiter Tonans, Mars Ultor, Minerva (at Rome and Assisi), Maison Carrée at Nîmes, Saturn; at Puteoli, Pola, etc. T. of Peace; T. Jupiter Capitolinus, rebuilt 70 A.D.; temple at Brescia. Temple of Vespasian, 96 A.D.; also of Minerva in Forum of Nerva; of Trajan, 117 A.D.; second Pantheon; T. of Venus and Rome at Rome, and of Jupiter Olympius at Athens, 135–138 A.D.; Faustina, 141 A.D.; many in Syria; temples of Sun at Rome, Baalbec, and Palmyra, cir. 273 A.D.; of Romulus, 305 A.D. (porch S. Cosmo and Damiano). Places of Assembly: Fora—Roman, Julian, 46 B.C.; Augustan, 40–42 B.C.; of Peace, 75 A.D.; Nerva, 97 A.D.; Trajan (by Apollodorus of Damascus, 117 A.D.) Basilicas: Sempronian, Æmilian, 1st century B.C.; Julian, 51 B.C.; Septa Julia, 26 B.C.; the Curia, later rebuilt by Diocletian, 300 A.D. (now Church of S. Adriano); at Fano, 20 A.D. (?); Forum and Basilica at Pompeii, 60 A.D.; of Trajan; of Constantine, 310–324 A.D. Theatres (th.) and Amphitheatres (amp.): th. Pompey, 55 B.C.; of Balbus and of Marcellus, 13 B.C.; th. and amp. at Pompeii and Herculanum; Colosseum at Rome, 78–82 A.D.; th. at Orange and in Asia Minor; amp. at Albano, Constantine, Nîmes, Petra, Pola, Reggio, Trevi, Tusculum, Verona, etc.; amp. Castrense at Rome, 96 A.D. Circuses and stadia at Rome. Thermæ: of Agrippa, 27 B.C.; of Nero; of Titus, 78 A.D. Domitian, 90 A.D.; Caracalla, 211 A.D.; Diocletian, 305 A.D.; Constantine, 320 A.D.; “Minerva Medica,” 3d or 4th century A.D. Arches: of Stertinius, 196 B.C.; Scipio, 190 B.C.; Augustus, 30 B.C.; Titus, 71–82 A.D.; Trajan, 117 A.D.; Severus, 203 A.D.; Constantine, 320 A.D.; of Drusus, Dolabella, Silversmiths, 204 A.D.; Janus Quadrifrons, 320 A.D. (?); all at Rome. Others at Benevento, Ancona, Rimini in Italy; also at Athens, and at Reims and St. Chamas in France. Columns of Trajan, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius at Rome, others at Constantinople, Alexandria, etc. Tombs: along Via Appia and Via Latina, at Rome; Via Sacra at Pompeii; tower-tombs at St. Rémy in France; rock-cut at Petra; at Rome, of Caius Cestius and Cecilia Metella, 1st century B.C.; of Augustus, 14 A.D.; Hadrian, 138 A.D. Palaces and Private Houses: On Palatine, of Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Domitian, Septimius Severus, Elagabalus; Villa of Hadrian at Tivoli; palaces of Diocletian at Spalato and of Constantine at Constantinople. House of Livia on Palatine (Augustan period); of Vestals, rebuilt by Hadrian, cir. 120 A.D. Houses at Pompeii and Herculanum, cir. 60–79 A.D.; Villas of Gordianus (“Tor’ de’ Schiavi,” 240 A.D.), and of Sallust at Rome and of Pliny at Laurentium.
[14.] Lanciani: Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries, p. 89.
[CHAPTER X.]
EARLY CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE.
Books Recommended: Bunsen, Die Basiliken christlichen Roms. Butler, Architecture and other Arts in Northern Central Syria. Corroyer, L’architecture romane. Cummings, A History of Architecture in Italy. Essenwein (Handbuch d. Architektur), Ausgänge der klassischen Baukunst. Gutensohn u. Knapp, Denkmäler
der christlichen Religion. Hübsch, Monuments de l’architecture chrétienne. Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome. Mothes, Die Basilikenform bei den Christen, etc. Okely, Development of Christian Architecture in Italy. Von Quast, Die altchristlichen Bauwerke zu Ravenna. De Rossi, Roma Sotterranea. De Vogüé, Syrie Centrale; Églises de la Terre Sainte.
INTRODUCTORY. The official recognition of Christianity in the year 328 by Constantine simply legalized an institution which had been for three centuries gathering momentum for its final conquest of the antique world. The new religion rapidly enlisted in its service for a common purpose and under a common impulse races as wide apart in blood and culture as those which had built up the art of imperial Rome. It was Christianity which reduced to civilization in the West the Germanic hordes that had overthrown Rome, bringing their fresh and hitherto untamed vigor to the task of recreating architecture out of the decaying fragments of classic art. So in the East its life-giving influence awoke the slumbering Greek art-instinct to new triumphs in the arts of building, less refined and perfect indeed, but not less sublime than those of the Periclean age. Long before the Constantinian edict, the Christians in the Eastern provinces had enjoyed substantial freedom of worship. Meeting often in the private basilicas of wealthy converts, and finding these, and still more the great public basilicas, suited to the requirements of their worship, they early began to build in imitation of these edifices. There are many remains of these early churches in northern Africa and central Syria.