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Chapter 3 Rome. Urban Life and Imperial Majesty. Origins of Roman Culture: Greek and Etruscan. As early as the 8 th century BCE the Greeks had colonized the southern coastal regions of the Italian peninsula
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Chapter 3Rome Urban Life and Imperial Majesty
Origins of Roman Culture:Greek and Etruscan • As early as the 8th century BCE the Greeks had colonized the southern coastal regions of the Italian peninsula • The Etruscans occupied the part of the Italian peninsula that today is known as Tuscany • Scholars continue to debate whether the Etruscans were indigenous to Italy or whether they migrated from the Near East
Etruscan Roots • Most of what we know of the Etruscans comes from their art --no literature survives --scholars unable to translate their epigrammatic texts • Richly decorated burial tombs • Foundations of mud-brick and wooden temples
She-WolfBronze, 33", ca. 500-480 BCE • Etruscan founding myth—twins Romulus and Remus found on the banks of the Tiber by a she-wolf • The two brothers decided to build a city on the Palatine Hill and argued over who would name the city. Romulus won by killing Remus, and the city was named after him • The date, legend has it, was 753 BCE
Republican Rome • In 510 BCE the Romans expelled the last of the Etruscan kings and decided to rule themselves without a monarch • Unlike Greece, not every free citizen enjoyed equal privileges. In the Etruscan manner, the Roman free males were patricians (land-owning aristocrats) and plebians (the poorer class) • The Senate was exclusively patrician
Pietas and Portrait Busts • Under Rome’s patrician system, the upper classes owed dutiful respect, or pietas, toward others—the gods, country, and family, in that order • Propagandistic in nature, the portrait busts that proliferated in the second and first centuries BCE depict the subjects at or near the end of life, celebrating pietas through the wisdom and experience of age • The high level of realism, revealing the subjects’ every wrinkle and wart, is known as verism (Latin veritas, “truth
Imperial Rome • In 27 BCE, Octavian, grandnephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, “reluctantly” accepted the Senate’s appointment of imperium and the title Augustus, “the revered one,” in gratitude for his defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BCE and the reunification of a Rome divided by civil war • Augustus ruled Rome from 27 BCE to 14 CE. His new title gave him semidivine status • In art he is always depicted as young and vigorous
Augustus of Primaporta • This idealized and propagandistic sculpture was displayed at the home of Augustus’s wife, Livia, at Primaporta, on the outskirts of Rome • The military garb announces his role as commander-in-chief • Cupid riding a dolphin at his feet recalls the Julian family’s claim to be descended from Venus and Aeneas • Augustus’s extended arm points toward an unknown, but presumably greater, future
Ara Pacis Augustae • One of Augustus’s first acts was to address the deterioration of morals and family life in Rome and the declining numbers of the aristocrats • He criminalized adultery, required men between the ages of 20 and 60 and women between the ages of 20 and 50 to marry, and punished childless couples with high taxes or inheritance deprivation • His Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace) celebrates family with its exterior-wall decorations picturing three generations of Augustus’s family
Ara Pacis AugustaeDetail of Imperial ProcessionSouth Frieze Spatial depth is created by depicting figures farther away from the viewer in low relief and those closest in high relief.
“I found a city of brick, and left it a city of marble.” —Augustus
Urban Housing: The Insula • In response to overcrowding, the Romans created a new type of living space, the insula, a multistoried apartment block • The insulae essentially were tenements in which 90 percent of the population of Rome lived • A typical apartment consisted of two private rooms—a bedroom and a living room • Noise was a constant problem, and hygiene an even worse issue
Public Works and Monuments • Augustus inaugurated what amounted to an ongoing competition among the emperors to outdo their predecessors in the construction of public works and monuments • Rome had developed haphazardly, without any central plan, in contrast to the empire’s provincial capitals that were conceived on a strict grid plan • Water was scarce, and hygiene was poor, so Augustus had aqueducts built to provide more clean water to the city
Pont du Gard, near Nimes, France180'late 1st century BCE, early 1st century CE
The Colosseum • The Colosseum was built by the emperor Vespasian (r. 69-79 CE) between 72-80 CE • He named it after the Colossus, a 120-foot high statue of Nero that stood in front of it • A giant oval, 615 feet long, 510 feet wide, and 159 feet high, it could accommodate audiences estimated at 50,000 who could enter and exit its 76 vaulted arcades in a matter of a few minutes
Detail of the Colosseum’s Outer Wall • Each level employed a different architectural order: Tuscan on the ground floor, Ionic on the second, and Corinthian on the third • All of the columns are engaged and purely decorative, serving no structural purpose
Triumphal Arches and Columns • While the arch was known to cultures such as the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians, and the Greeks, it was the Romans who perfected it, evidently learning its principles from the Etruscans but developing those principles further • Hundreds of triumphal arches were built throughout the Roman Empire • Like all Roman monumental architecture, they were intended to symbolize Rome’s political power and military might
Arch of TitusRome, ca. 81 CE In 70 CE Titus’s army sacked the Second Temple of Jerusalem. In this interior detail from the arch, Titus’s soldiers carry the Ark of the Covenant and a menorah from the temple.
Trajan’s Column • Trajan was one of the Five Good Emperors who ruled Rome after the Flavian dynasty (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius) • His column narrates in a spiral of 150 separate scenes his defeat of the Dacians (what is now Hungary and Romania) • Laid out end to end, the complete narrative would be 625 feet long • This ceremonial column has symbolic meaning; it is suggestive not only of power but also of male virility
The Forum Romanum and Imperial Forums • The Forum Romanum, or Roman Forum, was the chief public square of Rome, the center of Roman religious, ceremonial, public, and commercial life • Originally comparable to the Greek agora, it became a symbol of the imperial power that testified to the prosperity—and peace—that the emperor bestowed upon Rome’s citizenry • Julius Caesar was the first to build a forum of his own in 46 BCE; Trajan (ca. 117 CE) was the last
Model of the Roman Forum and the Imperial ForumsRome, ca. 46 BCE-117 CE
The Pantheon • Hadrian’s Pantheon ranks with the Forum of Trajan as one of the most ambitious building projects undertaken by the Good Emperors • The Pantheon is a temple to all the gods (Greek pan, “all,” and theos, “gods”) • Its interior consists of a cylindrical space topped by a dome, the largest built in Europe before the twentieth century • The whole is a perfect hemisphere—diameter of the rotunda is 144 feet, as is the height from floor to ceiling. The 30-foot circular opening at the top, the building’s sole light source, is the oculus, or “eye”
Domestic Architecture: The Domus • The Roman domus was the townhouse of the wealthier class of citizen. It served as a measure of social status, as the vast majority of the population lived in the insulae • It was oriented to the street along a central axis that extended from the front entrance to the rear of the house • At the center of the Roman domus was the garden of the peristyle courtyard, with a fountain or pond in the middle
Peristyle GardenHouse of the Golden Cupids, Pompeii, 62-79 CE
