Roman Architecture Flashcards
Acanthus
A plant common to the Mediterranean, appearing often in such Roman architectural ornaments as the swirling vines of the Ara Pacis Augustae, and as rows of leaves in Corinthian and Composite capitals.
Adyton
A shrine on the interior altar of a Roman temple, as originally located in the Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek.
Aedicula (Aediculae)
Niches surrounded with temple-like columns and pediment. A profusion of them can be seen in the restored view of the Nymphaeum at Miletus.
Ala (Alae)
1) The “wings” of a Roman house where the shrines and images of family ancestors were kept; 2) The “wings” formed by the space between the outer walls of the cella and freestanding columns of some temples, most prominently the Temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus in Rome.
Ambulatio
A walkway, for example at Tiberius’ Villa Jovis on Capri.
Annular Vault
A ring vault used in a wide variety of Roman buildings from sanctuaries to theatres. The Santuary of Fortuna Primigenia at Palestrina is one example.
Apodyterium
The dressing room in a Roman bath building with recesses in the wall for clothes, for example in the Stabian Baths at Pompeii.
Arcosolium (Arcosolia)
Large arcuated horizontal niche that contained a deceased body and was sealed by a marble slab, as in the interior of the Tomb of the Caetennii in the Vatican Cemetery.
Arcuated Lintel
An entablature that has been arched up in the center to create a more dramatic effect. Possibly used first in Syria, it was introduced into Roman architecture under Hadrian in such varied locations as Tivoli, Ephesus, and Athens.
Arena
Elongated oval-shaped space, surrounded by tiered seating, in an amphitheater and used to showcase various spectator events, as in Rome’s Colosseum.
Atrium (Atria)
The main room of a Roman house where the paterfamilias greeted clients and other important symbols of marriage and married life were displayed.
Atrium Testudinatum
An atrium without an opening in the ceiling.
Aula Regia
An audience hall in an imperial villa or palace, for example Tiberius’ Villa Jovis on Capri and Domitian’s Domus Augustana in Rome.
Barrel Vault
Vault shaped like a barrel, used in such varied locations as a market hall at Ferentino and an underground cryptoporticus at Arles.
Basalt
A volcanic rock, usually black or grey in color, although its hue may change with oxidation. Its weight made it a good choice in Roman antiquity for support at the base of a wall or a dome, as well as for street pavement stones.
Basilica
An elongated rectangular building with a central nave and side aisles, sometimes lighted by a clerestory. It was most often used for legal transactions, as at Pompeii, but is also an example of the “interchangeability of form” when utilized in another context, for example as a dining room in a Herculaneum house.
Bucranium (Bucrania)
Skull of a bull or ox, used as a decorative motif, often with garlands, as in the inner frieze of the precinct of Rome’s Ara Pacis Augustae.
Caldarium
The hot room or sauna in a Roman bath building, normally with a niche with basin for cold-water splashes. Rectangular or round, depending on chronological date, caldaria are preserved in the Forum Baths at Pompeii and the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.
Cardo
Main north south street of a Roman city, which intersected with the decumanus.
Caryatid
A sculptured female figure that replaced a column and supported an entablature, first used in Greece and then adopted by the Romans, appearing in such contexts as the Forum of Augustus in Rome and Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli.
Carystian Marble
Green-tinged marble from Carystos in Greece, used at such disparate sites as the Severan Forum at Leptis Magna and the Library of Hadrian in Athens.
Castrum
Roman military camp, the plan of which was adopted for Roman town planning, and can be seen at Ostia in its earliest formulation.
Cavea
Semicircular seating of Roman theatres and amphitheaters, as in the Theater at Orange.
Cella (Cellae)
1) The central space of a temple, for example, the Temple of Mars Ultor in Rome and the Capitolium at Ostia; 2) The rectangular spaces at the front of a Roman house that could be opened up as the tabernae or kept closed from the street and used as additional interior residential quarters.
Cenacula (Cenaculae)
Second story dining rooms like those along the Via dell’Abbondanza in Pompeii.
Cenotaph
A marker that commemorates a person’s death, but doesn’t serve as his tomb.
Clerestory
A window-system, located in the second story of a basilica or basilicia-like space, usually above the inner columns or piers, which allows light to stream into the central nave or chamber, as in the Basilica Ulpia in Rome, or the oecus of the House of the Mosaic Atrium in Herculaneum.
Compluvium
The rectangular opening in the ceiling of the atrium of a Roman house that allows water to fall into the impluvium below.
Composite Capital
A capital, which combines features of the Ionic (volutes) and Corinthian (acanthus leaves) orders. The Romans used it infrequently but prominently, as on the Arch of Titus in Rome.
Corinthian Order
The third Greek order, used infrequently by the Greeks in the Hellenistic period. The Romans embraced it and made it their own because it was ornate and looked attractive from all sides. An early example is used at the so-called Temple of Vesta at Tivoli.
Cornice
The uppermost part of a Roman entablature.
Cryptoporticus
Barrel-vaulted underground passageway used in Roman antiquity for a street, storage, or as a dump for discarded antiquities in structures like the Sanctuaries of Jupiter Anxur at Terracina and Hercules Victor at Tivoli, and the Augustan Forum and Arles.
Cubiculum (Cubicula)
Small sleeping rooms that line the side walls of the atrium in a Roman house and sometimes surround the peristyle garden.
Cuneus (Cunei)
Wedge-shaped section of seats in a Roman amphitheater and theater, as in the amphitheater at Pozzuoli and the theater at Orange.
Decumanus
Main east west street of a Roman city, which intersected with the cardo.
Dolia
Urns to hold food that were placed in the open recesses of the counter of a Roman thermopolium.
Domus
The house of a family of means in Pompeii and elsewhere. Examples at Pompeii are the House of the Vettii and the House of the Faun.
Domus Italica
A simple early single-family dwelling, based on the ideal Roman house, known through a description by Vitruvius in De architectura.
Doric Order
One of the canonical Greek orders immortalized through the 5th-century B.C. Parthenon in Athens. Used sparingly in Roman architecture in the Republic (Temple of Hercules at Cori) and the Empire (Temple of Venus at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli) or in combination with the other Greek orders – Ionic and Corinthian – in a Hellenizing display. The façade of the Colosseum is the premiere example.
Engaged Columns
Partial columns that are attached to the wall as on the side and back of the Temple of Portunus in Rome.
Entablature
The horizontal element supported by a colonnade.
Exedra (Exedrae)
Semicircular space or recess, for example in the Forum of Augustus in Rome.
Fauces
The hallway leading into a Roman house. The fauces in Pompeii’s House of the Faun is a well-preserved example.
Frigidarium (Frigidaria)
The cold room of a Roman bath, which was circular with an oculus in its earlier form and rectangular with groin vaults in later versions.
Groin Vault
A ribbed vault formed by the intersection of two barrel vaults, which began to the used in Rome under Vespasian, for example in the second story of the Colosseum.
Headers and Stretchers
Large stones placed in an alternating pattern of long rectangular sides and short square sides as in the Servian Walls in Rome.
Hellenized Domus
A Roman dwelling initiated in the second-century B.C. under the influence of Greek peristyle houses and characterized by the addition of the Greek columnar order of facades, in atriums, and in gardens.
Hemicycle
Large semicircular space that was designed for such diverse Roman locations as a religious sanctuary (Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, Palestrina) and a shopping mall (Markets of Trajan, Rome)
Horrea
Roman warehouses. The best examples, which are faced with exposed brick, are at Ostia.
Hortus
small garden open to the sky and located at the back of a Roman Domus Italica.
Hospitalia
Two wings flanking the Regia of a tripartite stage building or set, depicted in the Second Style Roman wall painting, for example, in the Room of the Masks in the House of Augustus in Rome.
Hymettian Marble
Marble from Mt Hymettos, southeast of Athens, and used in the Monument of Agrippa on the Athenian Acropolis.
Hypocaust
Under-floor heating system that supplied hot air for the tepidarium and caldarium of a Roman bath building. A well-preserved example in the Stabian Baths at Pompeii illustrates how it worked.
Hypogeum
The subterranean chambers under the floor of a Roman amphitheater, as have recently been revealed in the Colosseum.
Impluvium
A central rectangular pool in the atrium of a Roman house used to catch rainwater.
Insula (Insulae)
A multi-storied apartment building or a city block located in crowded commercial cities like Ostia.
Ionic Order
The other canonical Greek order, seen in its purest form in the 5th-century B.C. Erechtheion in Athens.It is experimented with in the Roman Republic, for example at the Temple of Portunus in Rome.
Isodomic Blocks
Ashlar Masonry cut in regular sizes and laid in consistent courses, preserved in paint on First Style walls at the House of Sallust in Pompeii.
Luna or Carrara marble
The high quality grey-veined marble quarried on the northwest coast of Italy, used later by Michelangelo, and still prized today. Early Roman examples of its use are for the Forum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis Augustae in Rome.
Macellum (Macella)
A market, as at Leptis Magna.
Narthex
The transverse entrance to a late Roman round and basilican architecture, later adopted in Italy for early church architecture. Roman examples are the “Temple of Minerva Medica” and the Basilica Nova in Rome.
Natatio
A large swimming pool in massive Roman public baths in cities like Rome. The natation in the Baths of Caracalla is nearly as large as the frigidarium and aligned with it as part of the central bathing block.
Necropolis
Roman cemetery or city of the dead, which stood on major roads outside city walls.
Nymphaeum (Nymphaea)
A fountain, used either in a domestic or monumental public setting. Examples are the small private fountain at the Domus of Fortuna Annonaria at Ostia and the monumental civic fountain at Miletus.
Oculus
Circular opening in a dome, which originates in the frigidaria of Pompeii and culminates in the Pantheon.
Odeon (or Odeum)
A small Greek or Roman music hall for concerts that was roofed to maximize the acoustics. There is a well-preserved example at Pompeii.
Oecus
A small banqueting hall in a Roman house.
Oecus Aegypticus (Egyptian Oecus)
A small domestic banqueting hall in the shape of a basilica (central space and side aisles), incorporated, for example, into the House of the Mosaic Atrium at Herculaneum.
Opus Caementicium
Roman concrete, a composite of various natural elements (stone, mortar, sand, and pozzolana) that became a liquid mass when mixed with water and eventually hardened into a very strong substance.
Opus Incertum
Small irregularly shaped stones used as a facing for opus caementicium in such Republican buildings as the so-called Temple of Vesta at Tivoli and the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at Palestrina.
Opus Mixtum
Opus caementicium faced with reticulate and brick.
Opus Quadratum or Ashlar Masonry
Large rectangular stones laid in regular horizontal courses, as in the foundations of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus in Rome.
Opus Reticulatum
A facing for concrete using small pyramidal-shaped bricks forming a netlike pattern. Good examples are preserved at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli.
Orchestra
Semicircular area in front of the stage building of a Roman theater, for example at Pompeii.
Palaestra
An exercise court in a Roman bath building, examples of which can be seen in small baths at Pompeii and massive imperial baths in Rome.
Patera (Paterae)
Libation dish, used as a decorative motif, often with garlands, as in the frieze of the inner precinct of Rome’s Ara Pacis Augustae.
Pediment
The triangular part of the front of a Greek and Roman temple surmounting a series of columns, as evident in the Pantheon in Rome.
Pendentive
A triangular section of vaulting between the arch an the rim of the dome, used for example, in the Large Baths at Hadrian’s Villa.
Pentelic Marble
Marble from Mt Pentelikon near Athens. Arguably the premiere marble in Greco-Roman antiquity due to its flawless white color and subtle tingle of yellow, set off to perfect advantage by Greece’s radiant sun and deep blue skies. Used for the canonical Greek temples on the Athenian Acropolis and for later Roman structures in Athens, for example, the Temple of Roma and Augustus and the Library of Hadrian.
Peperino
Grey volcanic tufa stone from the environs of Rome used especially in wall building in the Republic and the age of Augustus, for example for the enclosure wall of the Forum of Augustus in Rome.
Peristyle
A courtyard or garden, open to the sky and surrounded by columns or porticoes.
Petit Appareil
The French version of opus incertum, used as the concrete facing at the Trophy of Augustus at La Turbie.
Piscina
A small pool for cold water splashes in early Roman bath buildings like the Stabian Baths at Pompeii.
Plinth
The base or lowest zone of a Roman wall. A painted version is on the First Style walls of the House of Sallust in Pompeii.
Polygonal Masonry
Multi-sided stones piled on top of one another in Late Republican walls in Italy, primarily north of Rome. A 4th century B.C. example is the city walls at Norba.
Porticus
An open rectangular space behind a Roman theater, such as that at Pompeii, with covered colonnades and cubicles for refreshments, souvenirs, theatrical props, storage, and other uses.
Pozzolana
A volcanic substance, plentiful in the area around the Bay of Naples, which was mixed with other elements to create Roman opus caementicium. Second and 1st century B.C. use is attested at the so-called Temple of Vesta at Tivoli and the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at Palestrina.
Proconnesian Marble
White marble quarried on the Island of Proconnesus (modern Marmara) off Turkey. It was used, for example, for the columns of Hadrian’s Temple of Venus and Roma in Rome.
Pseudo-peripteral colonnade
A colonnade that encircles a building, normally a temple, with some of the columns attached as opposed to being free-standing, as on the side and back of the Temple of Portunus in Rome.
Pumice
A volcanic rock used to create a light version of concrete.
Pumpkin Dome
A dome with a circular base and ribbed vault, resembling a gourd or pumpkin. It has been closely associated with the emperor Hadrian, who appears to have designed some himself. An example is the semi-dome of the Serapeum at Hadrian’s Villa.
Quadrifrons (or Tetrapylon)
A monumental four-sided arch located at the intersection of two major roads in some Roman provincial cities. The Arch of Septimius Severus at Leptis Magna is a good illustration.
Regia
Central section of a tripartite stage building or set, depicted in Second Style Roman wall painting, for example, in the Room of the Masks in the House of Augustus in Rome.
Rustication
Stone masonry deliberately left in a rough state and contrasted with finished capitals and bases. The emperor Claudius favored such rustication and it was used during and after his lifetime for architecture built by or associated with him, for example the harbor columns at Portus, the Porta Maggiore, and the Claudianum.
Scaenae Frons
Façade of a Roman stage building (scena), for example at the theaters at Pompeii and Orange.
Socle
The lower part of a Roman wall, visible in color in First Style Roman wall painting, for example at the House of Sallust in Pompeii.
Spolia
Fragments of earlier monuments incorporated into a later one, either because of lack of new building materials or to create a link between the earlier and the recycled monument. The Arch of Constantine in Rome is the quintessential example.
Stringcourse
A decorative horizontal band normally located on the exterior of a building but seen in painted interiors at the House of Sallust in Pompeii.
Suspensurae
Stacks of bricks, interspersed with layers of concrete, which raised the level of the floor to make space for the hypocaust system in Roman bath buildings. These bricks still support the hypocaust in Pompeii’s Stabian Baths.
Taberna (Tabernae)
A rectangular chamber, which opens off the street and normally serves as a shop. Examples can be found street side in Pompeii and in the Markets of Trajan in Rome.
Tablinum
A room on axis with the fauces and atrium of a Roman house and serving first as the master bedroom, later as a location for the family archives, and ultimately as a passageway into the garden.
Tepidarium
The rectangular warm room in such Roman bath buildings as the Stabian Baths at Pompeii and the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.
Tetrastyle Atrium
An atrium with four columns around the impluvium, as in the House of the Silver Wedding and House of the Faun in Pompeii.
Tetrastyle Oecus
A small banqueting hall with columns at the four corners.
Thermopolium (Thermopolia)
An ancient bar or the equivalent of a modern fast-food restaurant with the best surviving examples at Pompeii and Ostia.
Tholos
A round shrine, usually with conical roof and encircling columns, often depicted in South Style Roman wall painting, for example at the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale.
Tower Tomb
A Roman tomb or cenotaph that is taller than it is wide and thus resembles a tower. The Monument of the Julii at Saint-Remy-de-Provence is an example.
Travertine
White limestone quarried in Tivoli and used extensively in Rome in the Late Republic and Early Empire, for example at the Temple of Portunus.
Tribunal
A raised structure in a Roman basilica where the magistrate or judge sat. The tribunal of the Basilica at Pompeii is relatively intact.
Triclinium (Triclinia)
The dining room of a Roman house.
Triglyph and Metope (Doric Frieze)
The Doric order was traditionally combined with a triglyph and metope frieze, which consisted of panels of alternating triple striated bands and a plain or sculpted panel as in the Temple of Hercules at Cori.
Trophy
A Roman monument that commemorated a military or diplomatic victory, such as the Trophy of Augustus and La Turbie.
Tufa
The primary local building stone of Roman and environs; there are a number of varieties, among them a grey peperino.
Tuscan Atrium
An atrium with no columns around the impluvium, as in the House of the Vettii in Pompeii.
Velarium
The awning, supported by brackets, stretched over a theatre or amphitheater to protect spectators from sun or rain. A painting from Pompeii shows what it would have looked like.
Vestibulum
The small vestibule sometimes preceding the fauces of the Roman house, where a visitor, while waiting to enter, could stand below the roof and be protected from sun or rain. The vestibulum of the House of the Faun is a well-preserved example, as is that in the House of the Tragic Poet.
Villa Suburbana
Roman villas on the edge of cities, such as the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii.
Vomitoria
Barrel-vaulted entrances and exits in a Roman amphitheater or theater, for example in Rome’s Colosseum.
Voussoir Blocks
Wedged-shaped stones that each form one segment of an arch as in the arched opening in the wall at Falerii Novi.
Wattle and Daub
Twigs and rods covered and plastered with clay, a building material used for the walls of the 8th century B.C Huts of Romulus.
Zoomorphic Capitals
Column capitals in which the volutes are replaced with animal protomes, such as the bulls at the Inner Propylaia at Eleusis, Greece.
Polygonal Masonry
Ashlar Masonry (Opus Quadratum)
Opus Incertum
Opus Reticulatum
Barrel Vault
Groin Vault
Segmented dome
Hemispherical dome
Pumpkin dome
Doric
Ionic
Corinthian
Elevation
Plan
Section
Axonometric View
