Urban Architecture


With the increase of wealth and population, the ancient Romans had to find architectural solutions to deal with these increases. The Ancient Romans took influences from the Greeks in their architectural works.
  • Architects began to use vaults and arches more in their works.
  • Concrete, marble and bricks were mainly used to construct the arches.
  • Notable places with these features include the aqueducts of Rome, the Baths of Caracalla, and the Colosseum.
The Colosseum and Amphitheatres
  • used to entertain the masses
  • pronounced power and exemplified dominance through sacrifices of men through battles with crocodiles, leopards, elephants, lions and tigers. 
Temples and Basilicas, the bridges and aqueducts within played important roles in the empire unification. Roads and bridges eased communication around the large empire. The temples and Basilicas were located in the center of the city.
  • Basilicas
o   served administrative functions
o   had a projection which served the magistrate in dispensing law
o   idea of Roman authority
  • Temples
o   important to emperors
o   Religion and politics allied the Roman world.
  • Aqueducts
o   served to provide people with more fresh water.
o   built as cities grew within the empire. 

Over the course of the period, the Ancient Romans believed that public buildings should be made to impress and used as a public function. A prime example of one of these type buildings is the Pantheon.
  • Pantheon
o   Emperor Hadrian, reigned from 117-138 AD
o   been deemed an architectural revolution
o   vaulted architecture, concrete, as well as traditional building materials.
o   embodied Greek idea of cosmos

Insulae, or multi-story apartment blocks, during the time period accommodated many  people. They often were several floors in height. Each of these apartments had their own terrace and private entrance. 


Planning Factors


  • Modern Rome has been shaped by its past dating back centuries.  Planning factors were decided long ago, beginning with Rome’s establishment near the Tiber River and Alban Hills around 753 BC.  This site offered many benefits as the river was a natural border, it flowed through the city offering water, transport, and sewage disposal, and the hills gave a safe defensive position.  The site was also located on an intersection between two principal roads leading to the sea coming from Sabinum in the Northeast and Etruria in the Northwest.
  • The Ancient Romans used a specific scheme for city planning that centered around military defense and civil convenience.
  • The basic city plan consisted of a central forum with city services, surrounded by a compact grid of streets and wrapped in a wall for defense.   The wall was also used to mark the city limits and was covered by a Portcullis, or fortified gate at the front of the city.
  • They would lay out the streets at right angles, in the form of a square grid. All roads were equal in width and length, except for two diagonal ones that intersected in the middle to form the center of the grid.
  • Each square marked by four roads was called an insula, the Roman equivalent of a modern city block. Each main road held a gateway with watchtowers. 
  • The collapse of Roman civilization saw the end of Roman urban planning.  The Ancient Roman city planning style is still very clear in Modern Rome and it has influenced many towns across Europe and the world.

Environmental Factors



Even though it is widely assumed that pollution is more of a major problem in the post-industrial era, it was a prominent topic in ancient Rome as it is today in the United States. Roman's faced everyday problems such as air and water pollution from the sewage, which sat in the streets and the runoff from garbage. Air pollution was affected from the burning of mass amounts of wood for heat and craft workshops. Romans also had to deal with the toxicity of lead and mercury in mines; although ironically, they often dined off plates that contained lead.          

The primary problem with the sewage and other solid waste was finding a plausible means of disposal. The ingenuity of the Romans enabled them to come up with solutions to most of their environmental problems through urban development and progressive ideas. Solutions and relevant facts include:

  • Justinian declared that water and air were public property to all, which allowed many regulations to be made regarding them. These public health programs were superior to most of the empires that followed until modernity.
  •  The Roman Senate passed a law to protect water stored during dry periods so it could be released for street and sewer cleaning.
  • Due to severe traffic congestion, Julius Caesar passed a law that forbid people from entering Rome with wheeled vehicles outside the hours of sunrise and two hours before sunset.
  • They constructed sewers to dispose of sewage and aqueducts to bring in fresh water to its parched citizens.
  • The first sewer was built in 500 B.C. Better sewers were built throughout the city since then.
  •  In 100 A.D. the Romans also experimented with solar pumps.
  • They built hospitals and had physicians attend to the poor masses of people exposed to lead and mercury.
  • Some people believe that the decline of the empire may have been from the toxicity from lead and mercury. Even though it was presumed to be bad for peoples’ health, the Romans continued to use it in everyday life (sugar, cups, plates).


Economic Factors

Trade with nearby colonies was vital to the development of Rome. At the height of the Roman Empire the population of Rome was estimated to be around 1 million people. In order to sustain the population, trade and commerce became a necessity.
  • The Roman Empire traded by land and by sea

o   Their sea routes spanned throughout the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
o   The two main reasons for building roads was to facilitate trade and movement of the Roman Army.
  • Rome’s main trading partners were Spain, France, the Middle East, and North Africa
  • Trade in the Roman Empire was encouraged by many years of peace
  • Rome imported a variety of goods such as: beef, corn, iron, leather, marble, silk, silver, spices, tin and wine.

Political Factors

  • Rome was very progressive when it came to politics. Rome was set apart from many other countries during this time period. Rather than having kings rule the citizens would meet to elect their officials. Elected officials consisted of judges magistrates and tax collectors. These officials were supervised by the senate. The senate usually consisted of the leading citizens of Rome, which were about 600 men. These men were a major part in establishing new laws for the country, and handling any financial issues.
  •  Among the senate’s other obligations, they were delegated the task of electing an emperor. The emperor was supported by the army along with some of the senators and other elite advisors. This extreme support led the emperor to have the most authority in Rome.
  •  The Palazzo Senatorio was the primary meeting place of the senators. It was built by Michelangleo in the 13th and 14th century.  It also holds the archives of acient Rome.

Social Factors

Ancient Rome set the premiere example of a modern city; one that would be copied and improved countless times.  The information outlined below represents some of the crucial data influencing the urban design of the city as well as the daily lives of the inhabitants.
  • The forum was a central meeting place located in the heart of the city where citizens and politicians would gather to discuss pertinent issues, broker business deals, and generally congregate.  As time went by, and the Roman Empire grew in splendor and size, more and more emphasis was placed on the Forum (in addition to more forums being constructed).  
  • Like many modern cities, traffic posed a huge problem, so in an effort to reduce congestion any vehicle with wheels was outlawed except for the 2 hours around sunrise and sunset.
  • In one of the earliest examples of internal spatial structures of cities, ancient Rome can be represented by the sector model in the early years, that is, clear residential patterns based on affluence are present.  The city’s poor were concentrated to the east of the original forum in an area known as the subura.  As the city grew progressively larger and more advanced, more and more forums were constructed under different emperors.  As these additional forums were built, business districts and markets would spring up in the immediate area, thus creating multiple centers of commerce in the city. During the height of its power in antiquity, the city of Rome had made a spatial shift away from the sector model and resembled more closely the multiple nuclei model, despite the fact that these multiple nuclei were all in close proximity.
  • Public Housing in Ancient Rome:
    • The affluent of Rome lived in multi-roomed houses called domus. Despite the fact the vast majority of the city wasn’t wealthy enough to live in domus, they made up a disproportionately high percentage of the city landscape, upwards of 30%.
    • Most citizens of Rome lived in what many would describe as an ancient apartment; multi-leveled buildings called insulas.  These buildings were fairly simplistic in nature, without indoor plumbing and with little insulation from the weather.  As a result, the inhabitants of insulas would have to venture to public wells for a steady water supply.
  • Education in Ancient Rome
    •      While Rome in antiquity featured few if any schools, education still played a crucial role in the upbringing of children in society.  
    • The majority of the basic knowledge was taught through the medium of family life.  Many of the rudimentary skills for farming, craftsmanship, and warfare were passed down generation by generation. 
    •  The children of Rome’s affluent were often schooled by private tutors in the fields of the classics and philosophy, as well as many of the prominent Greek works, such as the Homeric and Hesiodic epics. 
  • Slavery in Ancient Rome
    • Slaves played a crucial role in not only the construction of ancient Rome but also the everyday lives of Rome’s many citizens.  Many menial or lesser tasks were assigned to slaves, such as woodworking, beauticians, and messengers; however, it was not uncommon for slaves to also hold more prominent positions in business and to some extent, government.
    •      The wealth and prestige of a man in Rome was often based on the sheer number of slaves owned.
    •       Ironically, the fact that slaves were employed in such great numbers during the construction and rise of Rome probably aided its downfall.  Through a relatively simple process called manumission, it was possible for a slave to receive full citizenship and freedom.  Over time, when enough slaves went through this process, Rome experienced a massive lack of manpower which served as a contributing factor in the eventual downfall of Rome.

Questions

1. What was the Roman equivalent of a modern city block?
     A. etruria
     B. insula 
     C. tiber
     D. portcullis
2. In 100 A.D. Romans experimented with solar pumps.
     A. True
     B. False
3. Which of the following regions was NOT part of Rome's main trading partners?
     A. Spain
     B. Middle East
     C. North Africa
     D. Korea


4. The majority of Rome’s population lived in domus?
     A. True
     B. False
5. Emperor Hadrian was responsible for ______.
A. the Colosseum
B. the invention of concrete
C. the Basilicas
D. the Pantheon



       

Citations

Urban Architecture
  • http://www.crystalinks.com/romearchitecture.html
  • http://www.oneonta.edu/faculty/farberas/arth/arth200/politics/roman_architecture.html
  • http://rome.mrdonn.org/builders.html
  • http://www.roman-colosseum.info/roman-architecture/ancient-roman-architecture.htm


Planning Factors
  • Cities of the World Textbook
  • http://www.idealcity.org.au/index.html
  • http://www.spur.org/events/calendar/ancient-roman-city-planning
  • http://italian.classic-literature.co.uk/history-of-rome/01-the-period-anterior-to-the-abolition-of-the-monarchy/pages.html


Environmental Factors
  • http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/offbeat-news/environmentalism-in-100-ad/769
  • http://www.radford.edu/~wkovarik/envhist/1ancient.html
  • http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/01/03/getting-root-environmental-problems.html


Economic Factors
  • http://library.thinkquest.org/13406/16/


Political Factors
  • http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/how_was_rome_governed.htm
  • http://history.howstuffworks.com/ancient-rome/rome-and-the-roman-empire4.htm
  • http://wikimapia.org/1234745/Palazzo-Senatorio-Senate-Palace-Rome-City-Hall


Social Factors

  • Cities of the World Textbook
  • http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture13b.html
  • http://www.roman-empire.net/society/society.html
  • http://www.exovedate.com/ancient_timeline_six.html
  • http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome
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