Roman Infrastructure: Architecture and Buildings The ancient Romans were known for revolutionizing architecture. They invented new and more efficient ways of building and also utilized many ideas to their full potential. The Romans have shown these with the Roman arch, the dome, and concrete. I will explain how they applied this to their architecture. The architectural technique of the arch is a trademark of Ancient Rome.
Indeed, this was compliment that humanists used for building patrons, in order to equate them with the most successful of them – namely, Emperor Augustus, who was said to have found Rome “a city of brick and left it built in marble.”[2] Raffaelo Mattei made an even clearer statement by using a simile when he wrote that Sixtus “made Rome from a city of brick into stone just as Augustus of old had turned the stone city into marble.”[3] Indeed, Emperor Augustus had “adorned [the city] as the dignity of the empire demanded” and had commissioned temples, a forum, paved roads and been a patron of the arts. [4] To what extent can Sixtus IV’s accomplishment be likened to those of the Roman’s emperor, over fourteen centuries later? When Pope Nicholas V was elected to the papacy in 1447, Rome was described as ruinae. [5] Indeed, following the move of the papacy to Avignon in the fourteenth century, and the Western Schism, Rome was weakened – her population had dwindled, her buildings were collapsing, her streets were unusable. The government of Rome was not maintaining the city’s infrastructure – churches needed restoration, streets were not paved or cleaned, and were blocked by porticos, stairways and garbage thrown there by inhabitants.
Themistocles, Aristides and Kimon successively vied with each other in rebuilding the city. But Pericles surpassed them all. Pericles put the prosperity that accrued to Athens in the middle of the 5th century B.C. to good use by beautifying the city with monuments that would do credit to its fame. He wanted to make Athens an artistic and cultural as well as a political pan-Hellenic centre.
Religion was an integral part of private and public life in Roman towns and consequently homes contained larariums or household shrines, while town administrators provided public places, temples, and supervised public sacrifices and festivals. Deities: The Romans worshipped a large number of deities both foreign and Roman. Gods and goddesses of the Greek culture were a strong presence in Roman towns often integrated into Roman practices. Apollo, Herakles, Dionysius and Hermes are among the principal Greek deities to be worshipped. Pompeii contained a temple to Apollo who was also associated with the cult of the Emperor following an edict from the Emperor Augustus attributing his win at Actium to this god.
it conferred on Augustus the office of commander –in-chief of the armed forces of the empire. He was given the tribunitial power for life, which meant that he had control over the popular assemblies and was appointed the permanent representative of the people. He was given the prerogative of introducing the first topic of discussion in the Senate and the right to call its meetings. Augustus also sought to improve the morale of the people. He revived the state religion and rebuilt many temples.
(docs 3, 4, 6, 8). The promotion of the pestle and mortar invention by the mythological emperor Fuxi showed the positive attitude the Han had towards new inventions (doc 3). As a new creation this invention was widely used and praised but as improvements were made to the pestle and mortar their benefits were significantly increased. The author, Huan Tan, felt that new inventions were beneficial to the Han society and clever improvements made the benefits made mythological emperor Fuxi’s creations even better. This is the POV because he is praising Fuxi’s invention and is explaining its widespread use in the society.
Pope Julius was a very ambitious man who realized that he could use the arts to increase his own prestige and power and also the prestige and power of the church. He is responsible for commissioning the following: 1. He commissioned Michelangelo to sculpt his tomb. Michelangelo completed several figures for this important and ambitious project, including Moses and the Slaves. 2.
(8) He also ordered the construction of a new capitol which was named Pi-Ramses A-nakhtu or “The Domain of Ramses Great victories.” It has almost disappeared today but they did find it. The israelites also helped build the city. They did a lot of the brick making, and Ramses boasted of the kindness he gave to them but the Bible notes that he was bitter. (8) He also changed Egypt by making peace with the Hittites who his father Seti was battling. He made peace with them by marrying one of his daughters.
The arches themselves were used to commemorate military triumphs and other events such as the accession of a new emperor (Cartwright 1). Roman’s were very proud of their successes and were not afraid to boast their accomplishments to others. Their arches actually served no literal purpose, other than decorative reasons of course. And decorative they were indeed. These arches were covered in intricate details all over, sometimes even sculptures.
That has to say something about the engineering quality of the Romans. The Romans became very famous for their finely made roads. The Romans inventing running water into a major city was another very impressive feat. They had constructed 11 aqueducts that carried water from the main source to the center of the city. Doing this made for a cleaner city, which gave them the sense of being mightier than other citizens because they were cleaner than the others (Casseel, C, 2005).