During the first two centuries and a half of her existence, Rome was virtually an Etruscan city, wholly under Etruscan influence; and during that period we read of temples and palaces being built and of works of immense magnitude being undertaken for the embellishment of the city; and we have even now more remains of kingly than we have of consular Rome.
After expelling her kings and shaking off Etruscan influence, Rome existed as a republic for five centuries, and during this long age of barbarism she did nothing to advance science or art. Literature was almost wholly unknown within her walls, and not one monument has come down to our time, even by tradition, worthy of a city of a tenth part of her power and magnitude. There is probably no instance in the history of the world of a capital city existing so long, populous and peaceful at home, prosperous and powerful abroad, and at the same time so utterly devoid of any monuments or any magnificence to dignify her existence.
When, however, Carthage was conquered and destroyed, when Greece was overrun and plundered, and Egypt, with her long-treasured art, had become a dependent province, Rome was no longer the city of the Aryan Romans, but the sole capital of the civilised world. Into her lap were poured all the artistic riches of the universe; to Rome flocked all who sought a higher distinction or a more extended field for their ambition than their own provincial capitals could then afford. She thus became the centre of all the arts and of all the science then known; and, so far at least as quantity is concerned, she amply redeemed her previous neglect of them. It seems an almost indisputable fact that, during the three centuries of the Empire, more and larger buildings were erected in Rome and her dependent cities than ever were erected in a like period in any part of the world.
For centuries before the establishment of the Roman Empire, progressive development and increasing population, joined to comparative peace and security, had accumulated around the shores of the Mediterranean a mass of people enjoying material prosperity greater than had ever been known before. All this culminated in the first centuries of the Christian era. The greatness of the ancient world was then full, and a more overwhelming and gorgeous spectacle than the Roman Empire then displayed never dazzled the eyes of mankind. From the banks of the Euphrates to those of the Tagus, every city vied with its neighbour in the erection of temples, baths, theatres, and edifices for public use or private luxury. In all cases these display far more evidence of wealth and power than of taste and refinement, and all exhibit traces of that haste to enjoy, which seems incompatible with the correct elaboration of anything that is to be truly great. Notwithstanding all this, there is a greatness in the mass, a grandeur in the conception, and a certain expression of power in all these Roman remains which never fail to strike the beholder with awe and force admiration from him despite his better judgment. These qualities, coupled with the associations that attach themselves to every brick and every stone, render the study of them irresistibly attractive. It was with Imperial Rome that the ancient world perished; it was in her dominions that the new and Christian world was born. All that was great in Heathendom was gathered within her walls, tied, it is true, into an inextricable knot, which was cut by the sword of those barbarians who moulded for themselves out of the fragments that polity and those arts which will next occupy our attention. To Rome all previous history tends; from Rome all modern history springs: to her, therefore, and to her arts, we inevitably turn, if not to admire, at least to learn, and if not to imitate, at any rate to wonder at and to contemplate a phase of art as unknown to previous as to subsequent history, and, if properly understood, more replete with instruction than any other form hitherto known. Though the lesson we learn from it is far oftener what to avoid than what to follow, still there is such wisdom to be gathered from it as should guide us in the onward path, which may lead us to a far higher grade than it was given to Rome herself ever to attain.
CHAPTER III.
ROMAN ARCHITECTURE.
CONTENTS.
Origin of style—The arch—Orders: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite—Temples—The Pantheon—Roman temples at Athens—at Baalbec.
CHRONOLOGICAL MEMORANDA.
| DATES. | |
| Foundation of Rome | B.C. 753 |
| Tarquinius Priscus—Cloaca Maxima, foundation of Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. | 616 |
| Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus dedicated | 507 |
| Scipio—tomb at Literium | 184 |
| Augustus—temples at Rome | 31 |
| Marcellus—theatre at Rome—died | 23 |
| Agrippa—portico of Pantheon—died | 13 |
| Nero—burning and rebuilding of Rome—died | A.D. 68 |
| Vespasian—Flavian amphitheatre built | 70 |
| Titus—arch in Forum | 79 |
| Destruction of Pompeii | 79 |
| Trajan—Ulpian Basilica and Pillar of Victory | 98 |
| Hadrian builds temple at Rome, Temple of Jupiter Olympius at Athens, &c. | 117 |
| Septimius Severus—arch at Rome | 194 |
| Caracalla—baths | 211 |
| Diocletian—palace at Spalato | 284 |
| Maxentius—Basilica at Rome | 306 |
| Constantine—transfer of Empire to Constantinople | 328 |