1. Tuesday Nov. 29 Bell Ringer: As I check flashcards… What are these??
Agenda:
Roman Architecture Lecture
Homework: None
Nov. 29
Tuesday

2. Consider: Political reasons Social reasons Economic reasons
Why is the Colosseum the most representative building of the Roman Empire?
Consider:
Political reasons
Social reasons
Economic reasons
Architectural Design reasons

3. NOVA documentary Colosseum: Roman Death Trap
ing-wonders.html#colosseum-death-trap

4. Thursday Nov. 30 Bell Ringer: What are these?? Agenda:
Roman Architecture Lecture
Homework: Arch. Term Quiz tomorrow
Nov. 30
Thursday

5. Colosseum (aka Flavian Amphitheatre) 72-80 AD
Cut stone (marble, travertine (limestone), tuff (volcanic ash), etc – you need specialized workers to do it right.
Concrete is much easier to make and more cost effective, as you don’t need to drag specific huge stones everywhere
Roman Concrete, Travertine, Tuff
Colosseum (aka Flavian Amphitheatre) AD

6. Where did name come from?
Emperor Nero build Golden House
After death, successors tore down and rebuilt
Colosseum over his private lake (could be flooded)
Colossus -> sun god Sol
Emperor Nero (54-68 AD) was viewed differently by Senators and upper class people and by the lower classes. He taxed the middle and wealthy citizens of Rome to pay for various public and private works. He also appeared in public as an actor, poet, musician, and chariot riders, which some saw as undignified. Seemed to be controlled by his mother, who he turned on a few years into his reign and had killed, which hurt his mental state and affected his later reign. Supposedly started the fire of Rome to make way for a cool palace he wanted to build (Golden House, or Domus Aurea)
Golden House included statue of himself – 98 ft high (a tad smaller than Statue of Liberty). Could be Nero as Sol, or maybe it was just Nero and Romans saw it as Sol later, when everyone hated Nero. Colosseum so named after Emperor Hadrian moved Colossus next to it (using 24 elephants!) in 127 AD

7. The Design Oval = 2 amphitheaters (adapted from Greek Theater)
Greeks relied on landscapes to fit what they wanted to do - Romans made landscapes work for them
50,000 spectators – efficient (10 minutes) (76 entrances/exits)

8. 4 tiers – exterior (Doric or “Tuscanic”/Ionic/Corinthian)
Corinthian pilasters – like columns, but rectangular)

9. Barrel Vaults and Groin Vaults

10. Valerium
canopy of canvas to cover seating area

11. Hypogeum: rooms/tunnels under Colosseum floor
Hypogeum: rooms/tunnels for
Gladiators; criminals; animals; equipment
Emperor Vespasian (after Nero) began Colosseum, son Emperor Titus finished. His younger brother and successor, Domitian, was known for staging particularly cruel battles and built the hypogeum to house criminals who would fight or be executed, as well as cages for wild animals from across the land and elevators so slaves could use pulley systems to bring up a surprise lion seemingly out of nowhere.

12. 4 Tiers Tier #l: Podium Emperor (center – north side)
Vestal Virgins (priestesses)
Roman Senators
Tier #2: Maenianum primum (marble seats)
Noble class (non-Senators)
Tier #3: Ordinary citizens
Tier #4: Wooden seats and standing room (women, slaves, the poor)

13. Tier #1 – Emperor

14. Schedule of events
Start: Chariot procession. Ave, imperator, morituri te salutant! (Hail, Emperor, those who are about to die salute you!)
Morning – comic fights; sea battles; animal fights and slaughter
Noon – execution of criminals (often Christians) -- thrown to lions, shot down with arrows, roasted alive, etc.
Afternoon – gladiator battles (generally slaves, condemned criminals, or prisoners of war)
93 games per year under Claudius

15. Thumbs Up or Down?
When a gladiator went down, cries of Habet, Hoc habet! (He's had it!), and shouts of Mitte! (Let him go!) or Iugula! (Kill him!) could be heard. If able, the wounded gladiator would lay down his shield and raise his left hand to plea for mercy, which the crowd signified either by extending their thumbs up or down.

16. Propaganda Rome the center of a vast empire Showcase the power of Rome
Foster military/violent mindset
Reinforcing social order
The emperor is in charge
Opportunity to see the emperor in person
Wealth and generosity of the emperor
“Two things only the people anxiously desire — bread and circuses.”
-- Juvenal

17. Seneca on Gladiator Games
"There is nothing so ruinous to good character as to idle away one's time at some spectacle. Vices have a way of creeping in because of the feeling of pleasure that it brings. Why do you think that I say that I personally return from shows greedier, more ambitious and more given to luxury, and I might add, with thoughts of greater cruelty and less humanity, simply because I have been among humans?”
“The other day, I chanced to drop in at the midday games, expecting sport and wit and some relaxation to rest men's eyes from the sight of human blood. Just the opposite was the case. Any fighting before that was as nothing; all trifles were now put aside - it was plain butchery.”

18. Then and Now

19. Influence/Legacy

20. The Pantheon 114 - 127 AD Roman Concrete
27 AD – General Marcus Agrippa
Son-in-law of Emperor Augustus
Rectangular structure in center of the city
80 AD – damaged by fire
80 AD – rebuilt under Emperor Domitian
110 AD – struck by lightning and burned down
118 – 128 AD – rebuilt under Emperor Hadrian
Rotunda walls, dome each took 4-5 years
“Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, in his third consulate, made it.”
609 AD – Given to Popes by Emperor Phocas

21. Sketch: Interior
Concrete, dome shape allow vast, open space (impossible with post and lintel), showing off Roman architectural expertise.
Oculus connects heavens and gods to earth and emperors (statues of both inside rotunda). Light moves across the interior as sun moves across the Earth, bringing heavens into the space

22. FORM Corinthian columns 60 tons each Monolith
Granite, with marble bases and capitals
Dragged, floated, and rolled all the way from Egypt – Nile River  Mediterranean Sea  Tiber River
Demonstrated might and power of Emperor Hadrian and Rome that they could do this (logistically and economically)

23. FORM Rotunda (round room with dome)
Still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome
Perfect sphere
Sources of light – oculus and entry door
Reduced weight
Lighter concrete on upper levels
Hidden chambers within the rotunda
Coffers and oculus
Floor is still the Roman original
Still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome (no steel rods)
Perfect sphere (the height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 meters)
Sources of light – oculus and entry door
Lighter concrete on upper levels reduces weight
Hidden chambers within the rotunda form a honeycomb structure – also reduces weight
Coffers and oculus also reduce weight
Floor is still the Roman original
Interior is deliberately made to outshine the exterior

24. FORM
Pantheon has motif of geometric perfection – squares and circles decorate the rotunda
Columns and frieze don’t line up with coffers of dome – remind us that dome is held up independently – by concrete; columns not needed
Decorative marble came from around the Roman empire – again, showing off power and wealth.

25. FUNCTION PAN – all, THEON – of the gods
Religious temple
PAN – all, THEON – of the gods
7 Roman gods: Sun, Moon, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars
7 niches in wall where the statues were placed
A place where the emperor could make public appearances in a setting which reminded onlookers of his divine status, equal with the other gods of the Roman pantheon and his deified emperor predecessors

26. FUNCTION Converted to Catholic Church in 609 AD
One of the best-preserved of all Ancient Roman buildings
Renaissance
Tomb for people in the arts
Raphael is buried there
Today
Used as a Catholic Church
Holds mass daily
Tourist attraction

27. 360 degree view

28. ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE
Similar to Greeks:
Portico (rectangular porch with columns)
Pantheon
Parthenon

29. ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE
Temple of Olympian Zeus (Athens)
Similar to Greeks:
Corinthian Columns
Pantheon

30. ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE
Similar to Greeks:
Decorated frieze and pediment
Parthenon
Pantheon
Temple of Hephaestus (Athens)

31. ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE
Similar to Greeks:
Symmetric balance on both sides
Parthenon
Pantheon

32. ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE
New Innovations:
Based on perfect sphere, giving it the dome shape

33. ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE
New Innovations:
Varying weight of concrete allowed vaulted domed roof

34. ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE
New Innovations:
Focus on interior space
Greek (and Roman) temples usually held ceremonies outdoors – not as much reason to decorate interior space.

35. ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE
New Innovations:
Oculus in the ceiling
Coffers

36. Legacy
Highly influential building, particularly the dome/rotunda

37. Monticello, Virginia

38. St. Peter’s, The Vatican (Rome)

39. Il Duomo, Florence

40. U.S. Capitol

41. San Jose City Hall

42. Tacoma Dome!

43. Khan Academy video

44. Jumping forward a few hundred years and the Roman Empire accepts Christianity, under Emperor Constantine in 313 CE – by 323, it’s the official religion for the empire. Christians had been on the wrong side of Rome (refusal to see emperor as deity, worship Roman gods, burn incense to emperor, etc). Lots of diff. cults and religions in emperor, but some tolerated more than others and Christians easy scapegoats (monotheistic, disrespectful). Naturally, faith popular among downtrodden (which could hurt it even more – not respectable). Constantine’s acceptance of Christianity seems miraculous, but honestly, he probably just didn’t understand it super well and saw it as favoring a particular cult (cult of Jesus) just like emperors before him favored a cult of Jove or Hercules. And paganism didn’t go away – even as Rome was sacked, some blamed Christians for disrespecting the old gods.
Also, focus here on the Eastern part of the Roman Empire, the Western part (in modern Italy) and Rome itself having already fallen when Justinian I (Emperor who commissioned Hagia Sophia) ruled
Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”) Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles CE Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey Ashlar (cut decorative stone) and Brick

46. Sketch: Interior

47. Khan Video

48. Hagia Sophia by the #s 270’ long by 240’ wide Dome = 108 ft diameter
Crown rises 180’ off pavement
40 windows at base of dome
4 Towering Turkish minarets (added later)

49. Pendentives Needed to place round dome on square space
Give illusion of dome floating on very slender piers
Actual piers and thick walls hidden from view
Actually didn’t fully work – dome created in earthquakes and collapsed in 558 CE. Rebuilt with lighter materials, but also steeper and taller (adjusted the force and thrust – more down, less out)

50. Design to show actual support of central dome
Thick piers on either side of dome from this flat view – look like part of the walls of building from inside, but doing important heavy work here

51. Light! 40 windows around base of dome – “suspended from heaven”
Light and use of windows critical to atmosphere of power, beauty, and mystery of religion
Focus on building impressive interior space (worship moved indoors)

52. Highly decorated interior
Used marble and stone from around the empire
Expertly cut, designed into patterns
Like light, celebrated majesty of Christian religion

53. The Lodge of the Empress
Here is where the Empress and her ladies would sit to watch the proceedings of the church.
Marble columns from around the empire (these are from Thessaly, in Greece)

54. Mosaics Mosaics from different times in Hagia Sophia’s history
Geometric shapes during the Byzantine Iconoclasm (no figures of religious people)
Figures of Christianity from after the Iconoclasm
Muslim decoration from time as mosque

55. Architectural Influence: Mosques
1453 the Ottomans invaded Constantinople and the church was turned into a mosque (minarets added – used for Muslim call to prayer)