ROMAN CIVILIZATION

PRESENTED TO, PRESENTED BY,

AR. GOPAL SIR
MOHD. ATIF
SHUBHRA
RASHIKA
VAISHALI THAPA
VAISHALI SHARMA
SHIVAM TYAGI
 INTRODUCTION
• ANCIENT ROME WAS AN ITALIC CIVILIZATION THAT
BEGAN ON THE ITALIAN PENINSULA AS EARLY AS THE 8th
CENTURY B.C.
• IT EXPENDED TO BECOME ONE OF THE LARGEST EMPIRE
IN THE ANCIENT WORLD.
• “SUCCESSOR” TO GREECE.
• “CARRIER”OF GREEK CIVILIZATION.
• POLITICAL MODEL FOR LATER EUROPE.
• MEASURE OF SUCCESS FOR NATION & INDIVIDUALS.
 LOCATION
• ITALY.
• TIBER RIVER.
• BETWEEN ETRUSCAN & GREEK CITIES.
• PART OF THE LATIN LEAGUE.
MAP OF ROMAN EMPIRE.
 IN THE BEGINNING…

• ANCIENT ROME BEGIN AS A GROUP OF

VILLAGES ALONG THE TIBER RIVER IN
WHAT IS NOW ITALY.
• AROUND 750B.C. THESE VILLAGES
UNITED TO FORM THE CITY OF THE
ROME.
 FORMATION OF ROMAN REPUBLIC.

• FOR MORE THEN 200 YEARS, KINGS RULED ROME.

• IN 509B.C. ROME BECOME A REPUBLIC.
• THE ROMAN SENATE WAS AN ASSEMBLY OF ELECTED
REPRESENTATIVE. IT WAS THE SINGLE MOST POWERFUL
RULING BODY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
 ROMAN RELIGION AND FESTIVALS.

• .
 The Romans believed in many different gods and
goddesses.
 Special festivals for the gods were held during the
year, with:
 Processions
 Music
 Offerings
 Animal sacrifices.
JUPITER - JUNO DIANA
KING OF Juno was the Diana, the
THE GODS majestic virgin
queen of the huntress,
heaven and Goddess of
wife of light
Jupiter

CERES MITHRAS VESTA

Vesta
Ceres was Mithra, known
guarded the
the ancient as Mithras to the
hearth and
Latin Romans, was
home.
goddess of originally a
vegetation Persian god of
the sun.
MERCURY BACCHUS
VENUS an ever-young
Mercury god of wine and
(Mercurius) the goddess
jolity, but at
protected of love and
times also of
merchants and beauty deep
travelers thoughtfulness.
 RELIGION OF THE STATE.

State religion looked after the Roman people.

The Vestal Virgins guarded the holy flame of
Rome and performed other rituals.
The pontifex maximus was the head of the
Roman state religion - organizations that
controlled public worship and rituals.
Public religious festivals occurred every month.
 ROMAN RELIGION IN THE HOME.

• Women were required to guard and preserve the fire in the hearth.
At the hearth, sacrifices were made to the gods and the ancestors
of a family.
• 2 special household gods: Janus, the god of doorways and
beginnings, and Vesta, the goddess of the hearth.
• Household spirits: lares = spirits of the family ancestors and
penates = spirits of the larder (kept the family fed)
• Births, marriages, and deaths were all celebrated with special
rituals.
 THE AUGUSTAN AGE.

The term “Augustan” was derived from

the name of the Roman emperor Augustus
Caesar.
During this age, Augustus kept soldiers
along all the borders to keep peace in the
roman world.
Architects and engineers built many new
public building.
During this time trade increased with
olive oil, wine, pottery, marble, and grain
being shipped all across the mediterranean.
Lighthouse were constructed.
This was also a time of great roman
literature.
 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY.

After the death of Augustus in 14 A.D. a new religion begin:

CHRISTIANITY.
By 200 A.D. this religion had spread throughout the empire.
Christians were viewed with suspicion and suffered
persecution and many were punished or killed for their beliefs.
Things changed when Constantine became emperor of Rome
in 306 A.D. During his reign, Christianity became the official
religion of the roman empire.
 THE FALL OF THR ROMAN EMPIRE.

• Rome had quite a run- first a

monarchy, then a republic, then an
empire- all roads led to Rome for
over 1200 years.
• In the mediterranean, Rome was in
charge.
• The empire was too large to govern
effectively.
• There was corruption in the military-
dishonest generals and non-Roman
soldiers.
• Civil wars broke out between
different political groups.
• Emperor were often selected by
violence, or by birth.
 THE FALL OF THR ROMAN EMPIRE.
 The increased use of slaves put many Romans out of work.
 The rich became lazy and showed little interest in trying to solve
Rome problems.
 The poor were overtaxed and overworked. They were very unhappy.
 Price increased and trade decreased.
 The population was shrinking due to starvation and disease.
 The empire started shrinking . The huns, visigoths, franks, vandals,
saxons and other barbarian tribes overran the Empire.
 The ancient Romans tried to solve some of their problems by
splitting the Roman Empire in half, hoping that would make the
empire easier to manage.
 THE FALL OF THR ROMAN EMPIRE.
 Each side had an emperor, but the emperor in charge was the
emperor of the western half, the half that included the city of Rome.
 The western Roman Empire did not do well. Instead of getting
stronger, they became weaker. By 400 A.D., it was pretty much
over. The huns, franks, vandals, saxons, visigoths- any of these
barbarian tribes might have been the group that finally brought rome
down.
 They were all attacking various piece of the western Roman Empire.
In 476 A.D. the visigoths sacked Rome. Europe entered the dark
ages. The eastern half of the Roman Empire received a new name-
the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire did fine. It lasted for
another 1000 years.
 ROMAN ARCHITECTURE.
 Results:
 from the Italian origins:
 Practical sense (functionalism)
 Military expansion(imperialism)

 From the Etrurian

 Realistic sense
 Cult to the ancestors

 From Greece
 Philosophy
 Literature

 Art
 ROMAN ARCHITECTURE.

General characteristics of Roman art:

 It is practical and utilitarian
 Interest in public works and engineering
 Monumentality
 Great technical advances
 colossal to show Roman power
 It is commemorative and prpagandistic
Special importance for the internal space
Integral view of the art combining:
 Beauty and sumptuosity with
 Utility and practical sense
 Buildings are integrated in the urban space
 ROMAN ARCHITECTURE.

Building system:
 Lintelled:
• Copied from the Greeks
• Spaces are closed by straight lines
 Vaulted
• taken from the Etrurian
• Use of arches
• Barrel vaults
 Use of domes
 Strong walls so that they do not use external supports
 ROMAN ARCHITECTURE.

Materials
 Limestone
 Concrete
 Mortar

Arches
 They used semicircular
arches
 They could use lintels

above these arches

 Pediments were combined with them

Walls were made in one of these ways:

 Ashlar
 Masonry
 Brick
 ROMAN ARCHITECTURE.
 Greek shapes assimilation:
 Architectonical orders were used more in a decorative than in a practical
way.
 Order superposition
 They used the classical orders and two more:
 Composite Tuscan
 ROMAN TOWN PLANNING.
 Cities were the centre of roman life.
 There was a need of linking them through paved roads.
 The most important part of the city was the Forum(where political,
economic, social,
administrative and religious
activity were centred).
 In big cities there were
theatres, cicuses, stadiums
odeons.
 PAVED ROADS.

• Paved roads were needed to reach to any point

of the empire.
• They facilitated both communication and political
control.
 BRIDGES.
 Roman engineers were true masters building them, since construction
were essential elements for reaching places and cities often at the bank
of rivers.
 This location was due to defensive and infrastructural reasons-supply
and drainage.
 They are characterised by:-
 Not pointed arches
 Construction of ashlars masonry

often with pad shape

 Route of more than 5 m. wide
 Route of horizontal or slightly

combed surface “few curved”.

 Rectangular pillars from their

basis with lateral triangular or circular

cutwater that end before the railings.
 AQUEDUCTS.

• Aqueducts were built in

order to avoid geographic
irregularities between
fountains or rivers and towns.
• Not only valleys were
crossed by superposed cannels,
but also mountains were
excavated by long tunnels, pits and levels of maintenance.
• They were used to bring water to cities.
 PORT AND LIGHTHOUSES
 Roman ships and those for commercial trade should travel from port to port with
the speed and security adequate to the life of a great empire.
 In these ports every necessity for the execution of the usual works in a port
ensemble
should be found:
 Gateways with stores and
bureaux
 Shipyards for stationing ships
 Roads for taking ships to

earthly ground
 Drinkable water fountains

and downloading merchandises

 Indeed, a system of indication
was necessary in order to mark
the right access and exit to the
port.
 FORUMS
 Forums were cultural centres in cities.
 They were often placed at the crossroads of important urban ways: cardo maximus and
decumanus.
 A great porticated square was the centre of a group of building around it.
 They were communicated through it.
 Temples for imperial worship, school, basilicae, market or even termae had a direct
access through forum.
 In many cases even buildings for spectacles- circus, theatres and amphitheatres- were
communicated so.
 Forums were a way in for important persons to tribunals.
 ARCHITECTONIC TYPOLOGY
 Roman Architecture has a rich typology that includes:
 Religious building: temple
 Civil buildings:
 Public: basilicas, baths
 Spectacles: theatre, amphitheatre, circus
 Commemorative: Triumph arch, column
 Domestic: house, village, palace
 Funerary: tombs
 Engineering works:
 Bridges
 Aqueducts
 RELIGIOUS: TEMPLE
 It copied the Greek model
 It has only one portico and a main
façade
 It tends to be pseudoperiptero

 The cella is totally closed

 It is built on a podium PANTHEON
 Instead of having stairs all around, it only has them in the main facade
 CIVIL BUILDING: BASILICA
 It was the residence of the tribunal
 It is rectangular and has different naves
 The central nave is higher and receives light from the sides
 The building ends in an apse
 It is covered with vaults
 Barrel over the central nave
 Edged over the lateral naves
 CIVIL BUILDINGS: BATHS
 There were spaces for public life
 They consisted of different rooms:
 Changing rooms:
 Different temperature rooms:
 Frigidarium (cold)
 Tepidarium (warm)

 Caldarium (hot)

 Swimming pool
 Gymnasium
 Library

Caracalla’s bath house

 SPECTACLES: THEATRE
 It is similar to the Greek but it is not located in a mountain but it is
completely built.
 It has a semicircular scenery .
 The doors to facilitate peoples movement are called vomitoria
 It does not have the
orchestra because in
Roman plays was not
a chorus.
 The rest of the parts
are similar to those of
the Greek theatre .
 SPECTACLES: AMPHITHEATRE
 It comes from the fusion of two theatres.
 Place for spectacles with animals and fights
 There could be filled with water for naval battles
 SPECTACLES: CIRCUS
 It was a building for horse
races and cuadriga competitions.
 It has the cavea, the area
and a central element to turn
around, the spina.
COMMEMORATIVE MONUMENTS:TRIUMPHAL
ARCHES
 They were usually placed at the main entrance of cities in order to remember traveller and
inhabitants the Greatness and strength of roman world.
 At the beginning they were wooden arches where trophies and richness from wars were
shown.
 This habitude changed: Romans built commemorative arches with inscription.
 They were a Roman creation and they succeeded: many of them have been constructed
until the present days.
 Arches were used not only for
commemorating Roman victories
or military generals: they also
marked limits between provincial
borders.
COMMEMORATIVE MONUMENTS:COLUMNS
 They were columns decorated with relieves
 In them some important facts were realated
 They were built in the honour of a person
 The best instance of these works is the famous Traian column at rome.
It is decorated with a spiral of relieves dealing with scenes of his
campaigns in danube and with inscription.
 HOUSES: INSULAE
 There are urban houses
 The ground floor was for shops –tabernae- and the others for apartments
of different sizes.
 Every room was
communicate
through a central
communitarian patio
decorated with flowers or
gardens.
 HOUSES: DOMUS
 It was the usual housing for important people in each city.
 It was endowed with a structure based on distribution through porticated patios:
 The entry –faucas- gives access to
 A small corridor –vestibulum-
 It leads to a porticated patio –atrium-
 Its center, the impluvium, is a bank for the water falling from the compluvium.
 At both sides –alae - there are many chambers as rooms for service slaves, kitchens
and latrines.
 At the bottom, the tablinum or living room can be found, and close to it, the
triclinium or dining room.
 At both sides of the tablinum, little corridors led to the noble part of the domus.
 Second porticated patio peristylium, was bigger and endowed with a central garden.
 It was surrounded by rooms cubiculum and marked by an exedra used as a chamber
for banquets or social meetings.
DOMUS
 VILLA
 Houses far from cities, were thought for realizing agricultural
exploitations –villae rustica- , or else as places for the rest of important
persons –villae urbana-.
 Country villae got stables, cellars, stores and orchards apart from the
noble rooms.
 PALACES
 There were the residence of the emperor
 They considered of a numerous series of rooms
 Their plan tended to be regular

Diocleciano’s palace at splitz