In the Forum Proper

The Forum - Temple of Saturn (foreground); Titus' Arch (left)

Titus' Arch (interior detail)

"Inside the passageway of the Arch of Titus are two great relief panels.  They represent the triumphal parade of Titus down the Sacred Way after his return from the conquest of Judea at the end of the Jewish Wars in A.D. 70.  One of the reliefs depicts Roman soldiers carrying the spoils - including the sacred seven-branched candelabrum, the menorah - from the temple in Jerusalem.  Despite considerable damage to the relief, the illusion of movement is convincing.... The heads of the forward figures have broken off because they stood free from the block. "

- Gardner's Art Through The Ages, 11th edition, Vol. I, p. 274

View of the Basilica Nova in the Forum

"[Begun by Maxentius and completed by his rival, Constantine,] the Basilica Nova ruins never fail to impress tourists with their size and mass.  The original structure was three-hundred feet long and two-hundred fifteen feet wide.  Brick-faced concrete walls twenty feet thick ... were richly marbled and stuccoed and could be readily admired by those who came to the basilica to conduct business."

***********************************************

The Arch of Constantine (with the Colosseum in the back right)

"After his victory at the Milvian Bridge, Constantine erected a great triple-passageway arch in the shadow of the Colosseum to commemorate his defeat of Maxentius.  The arch was the largest erected in Rome since the end of the Severan dynasty nearly a century before.  Much of the sculptural decoration, however, was taken from earlier monuments of Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius. ... Sculptors refashioned the second-century reliefs to honor Constantine by recruiting the heads of the earlier emperors with the features of the new ruler."

- Gardner's Art Through The Ages, 11th edition, Vol. I, p. 297

The Colosseum - exterior

"The Flavian Amphitheater, as it was known in its own day, was one of Vespatian's first undertakings after becoming emperor.  The decision to build the Colosseum was very shrewd politically.  The site chosen was the artificial lake on the grounds of Nero's Domus Aurea, which was drained for the purpose. By building the new amphitheater there, Vespatian reclaimed for the public land which Nero had confiscated... The Colosseum takes its name, however, not from its size - it could hold more than 50,000 spectators, but from its location beside the Colossus of Nero, the huge statue of the emperor [Nero]."

- Gardner's Art Through The Ages, 11th edition, Vol. I, p. 271

The Colosseum - interior

"The Colosseum... could not have been built without concrete.  The enormous oval seating area is held up by a complex system of corridors covered by concrete barrel vaults.  This concrete "skeleton" reveals itself today to anyone who enters the amphitheater.  In the centuries following the fall of Rome, the Colosseum served as a quarry for ready-made building materials.  Almost all its marble seats were hauled away, exposing the network of vaults below.  Hidden in antiquity but visible today are the arena substructures, where were located the waiting rooms for gladiators, animal cages, and machinery for raising and lowering stage sets as well as animals and humans.  ... Above the seats, a great velarium [sun-cover]... once covered the spectators.  It was held up by giant wooden poles affixed to the Colosseum's facade."

- Gardner's Art Through The Ages, 11th edition, Vol. I, p. 271

The Palatine and Beyond

Circus Maximus (foreground) and Palatine

The Hippodrome Gardens in the Palatine

Baths of Caracalla

"The Baths of Caracalla in Rome were the greatest in a long line of bathing and recreational complexes erected with imperial funds to win the public's favor.  Made of brick-faced concrete and covered by enormous vaults springing from thick walls up to one-hundred and forty feet high, Caracalla's baths covered an area of almost fifty acres. They dwarfed the typical baths of towns like Ostia and Pompeii and even Rome itself."

- Gardner's Art Through The Ages, 11th edition, Vol. I, p. 291

Baths of Caracalla - Tepidarium

"The design was symmetrical along a central axis, facilitating the Roman custom of taking sequential plunges in cold - , warm - , and hot-water baths in, respectively, the frigidarium, tepidarium, and caldarium. ... Archaeologists estimate that up to sixteen hundred bathers at a time could enjoy this Roman equivalent of a modern health spa.  A branch of one of the city's major aqueducts supplied water, and furnaces circulated hot air through hollow floors and walls throughout the complex."

- Gardner's Art Through The Ages, 11th edition, Vol. I, p. 292

Roman Empire Architecture Outside of Rome

The Via Appia (South-East of Rome)

Roman Quarry for the Via Appia (South-East of Rome)

Aqueduct (in modern Turkey)

"Throughout the far-flung territories Rome administered, millions of individuals depended on the government for food distribution, water supply and sanitation, and police and firefighters.  Second only to food provision, an adequate water supply for the urban population was the most pressing need.  As early as the fourth century B.C., the Romans built aqueducts to carry water from mountain sources to their city on the Tiber River.  As Rome's power spread through the Mediterranean world, aqueducts, roads, and bridges were constructed to serves colonies everywhere in the empire."

 - Gardner's Art Through The Ages, 11th edition, Vol. I, pp. 268 - 269

Library at Ephesus (Turkey) - built during Roman Empire in Hellenistic style

Hadrian's Temple to Zeus (Athens, Greece)

(Photo credit: R. Borneman, 1989)

 Pont du Garde, France (near Nimes)
  *** insert photo here ***