roman america
TRANSCRIPT
ROMAN INFLUENCE ON PHILADLEPHIA
The Roman Republic & Empire was one of the largest in ancient history. The Founding fathers went to Latin school and read theworks of the ancients. People like Adams’ had a personal copy of Plutarch’s Lives, John Dickenson’s personal copy of the works of Roman historian Tacitus, and John Quincy Adams’ personal copy of Cicero’s De Oratore.. Ben Franklin began selling books such asOvid in 1734 on Market at 3rd.John and Abigail Adams exchanged letters in 1776 and Abigail signs her name “Portia” after the wife of the Roman Senator Brutus. The letters are filled with classical references and ideas of republican virtue. The Founding fathers saw Caeser as the end of the Roman Republic. The Founders’ principal Roman heroes were Cato the Younger, Brutus, Cassius and Cicero. They all died to save the republic although the Romans declined and fell, they remains a powerful influence on the western world.
The romans were great engineers. One of their greatest inventions was cement which they formed by mixing lava ash with lime. This allowed them to create the famous roman arch. A series of arches lead to the vaulted ceilings and finally during the rule of emperor Hadrian the completion of the Pantheon started by Agrippa in 27bc with its domed ceiling that formed a large rotunda and exterior portico.
Georgian architecture came from Europe's Italian Renaissance timeperiod, famously recognized by Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), an Italian architect. Renaissance architecture in Italy was a rebirth of Roman architecture. Andrea Palladio is the founder of this famous architectural work. He defined the laws of Georgian architecture in his book, The Four Books of Architecture.(Quattro libri di architettura). Palladio also read Vitruvius books on architecture. The book was part of Jefferson’slibrary and is now at the library of Congress. It is considered by Jefferson to be the Bible of Architecture. Other copies were owned by American Philosophical society and Logan in Philadelphia.
Do to the schism with Rome under Henry VIII. England to use 1500architecture in the 1700s so this naturally came to America. Some examples of his architecture throughout the colonial city are Paneled front doors, capped with a decorative crown (entablature); often supported by decorative pilasters; and with a rectangular transom above (later high-style examples may have fanlight transoms)… REMEMBER THE ARCH!!!
Philadelphia’s Street Plan was that of a Roman castrum(fortified camp) with Market as the decumanus (east-west) and Broad Street as the Cardo(north-south). The Centre Square was to act as the forum. A Forum was the public space in the middle of a Roman city. Typical Ancient Roman forums might be surrounded by temples. \
Ours Forum would initially house the Water Works. Pump was set up at the foot of Chestnut Street to pump water from the Schuylkill to street level, whence it flowed to Centre Square. Latrobe designed a building in the neo-classical style which housed a steam engine to pump water up to a holding tank on the
upper floor.
In fact Philadelphia had a battery down by Washington Avenue, where eventually the mass migration of immigrants would arrive. Right here outside the Visitors Center was the Roman Triumphal
Arch. Built by Charles Peale to Celebrate the End of the
Revolutionary War.
The Arch of Constantine was erected by the roman senate to commemorate Constantines 's victory in 312. In Philadelphia we commemorated the End of the Revolutionary War with the Triumphal Arch. The Roman Arch has the Senate The Philadelphia Arch shows SPQP. Senate People of Philadelphia. The Arch of Titus Shown above is the Senate and Populs of Rome – SPQR.
1. The famous letters of the Roman empire were SPQR. Here above the arch the letters were modified to SPQP. Additionally the arch used the famous General Cincincatus.
2. Talk about Cincinnatus and how George Washington was compared to him. Trumbell Paining. Here he is portrayed aspassing power of the Military over to the Senate. Note the RED cape of the Roman Soldier on the chair behind him. Alsothe Roman temple in the background with Martha in the standsabove.
3.
4.5. The home of the President, in Philadelphia was owned by
Robert Morris the wealthiest man in the colonies. He sent
for Italians to help decorate the house with rich moldings around the doorways and Rococo ceilings.
6. Roman and American culture, from theories of government to slavery and civil
war, to continental expansion and worldwide influence.7. First Bank makes use of the American symbol… the Bald eagle.
The eagles the classic symbol of ancient Rome shared by America.
8. John Adams thought of himself as an American Cicero, the great Roman lawyer and civic leader
9. The Senate at 6th and Chestnut we have the site of the firstmuseum of Fine arts started by Giuspepe Ceracchi. Roman liked to create busts of Scipio , Julius Caesar, and Cicero.American busts of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson were created and displayed here in 1795 forthe Columbinian.
Hamilton Washington
10. During this period Excavated remnants from Pompeii werediscovered. E.g a preserved piece of awall fresco the designs of the frescos were created in houses like Morris and also the home of the grandson of William Penn, Solitude.
11. The Founding Fathers learned the story of the decline and fall of the Roman ... founders admired Cato the Younger, Cicero, Brutus, and Cassius and despised ... Thomas Paine responded to William Smith's rebuttal of Common Sense by.
12. Founding fathers Virgil, Horace, Justinian, Tacitus, Herodotus, Plutarch, Lucretius and Thucydides.had to know their Tacitus, Sallust, Cicero, Livy, Virgil, and Plutarch, as the ... to himself in his college rooms at night, while Thomas Jefferson revealed a few years .
a. Cornelius Tacitus (/ˈtæsiO təs/; Classical Latin: [ˈtakɪtʊs]; c. AD 56 – after 117) was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. Jefferson wrote that he considered him eht first writer in thw wordl with a single excpetion. His bookis a compound of history and morityly which have no other exmaple. Jefferson like tacitus believed in freedom of speech was the core of national iberty.
b. Horace - Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during thetime of Augustus. His career coincided with Rome's momentous change from Republic to Empire. An officer in the republican army defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC,he was befriended by Octavian's right-hand man in civil affairs, Maecenas, and became a spokesman for the new regime.
c. Virgil - He wrote the The national epic of mythical Rome, the Aeneid.
d. Sallust - John Adams would copy long passages of Sallust, the Roman historian
e. Pliny – Ben Frankilin re did hi sexperiements with Water andOil and waves.
f. Pliny wrote of Pompeii .g. Justinian – gave us Roman Code.h. Cato the Younger, Brutus, Cassius and Cicero — all of whom
sacrificed their lives in unsuccessful attempts to save the republic.
i. Brutus was admired by his contemporaries for his pleasant disposition and virtuous temper. Even those who opposed his attack on Caesar believed that Brutus was motivated by a genuine concern for the republic and not by personal animosity toward Caesar
j. Cicero- John Adams, in his Defense of the Constitution, said of Cicero: “All of the ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher united than Cicero…” Firstas a lawyer, then as a consul and senator, Cicero boldly defended the republic against the rise of dictators.
13. . George Washington modeled himself on Cato, the republican senator
Fist Prison/ Balloon Launch 1793 –
Biancardi,/Ravarra – Consul of Genoa.
The Athenaeum – Italianette architectrure. First Brownstone in Philadelphia 1845.
Eternal Flame at tomb of Unknown Soldier – Vestal Virgins in the temple of VESTA in Rome. The Romans built a temple dedicated to Vesta which had her eternal fire at its center
Independence Hall – 1732 – Tower built in 1751 for the Bell. Palladium Window…..
Library Company – Palladium Architecture, Pilasters, Pediment
a Palladian red-brick structure with white pilasters and a pediment interrupting a balustraded roof
Statue of ben Franklin in a Toga.
Today we still see those influences all around us in banks. The tradition goes back to the first Bank in Philadelphia which set the precedent of a portico with Doric columns
Roman Temple First Bank in Philadelphia
SENATE.
The Roman Republic left a form of government similar to the democracy of American government. Rome used a representation method, where senators represented groups of people, allowing fora democracy encompassing a very large population allowing the ability to govern large bodies of people. .
Other:
The mighty pillars, domes and arches of Rome echo in Philadelphiawhere we created the Roman Pantheon with the Girard Bank on BroadStreet in 1907. Now the Ritz Carlton Hotel Additionally the Capitol Building, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial All across the US the seats of regional government were normally built in the grand traditions of Rome, with vast flights of stonesteps sweeping up to towering pillared porticoes, with huge domesgilded or decorated inside with the same or similar themes that were popular in Rome.
The first Bank of Pennsylvania had a Roman temple design and the first vaulted, circular hall in the US. It had the coffered ceiling as in the Pantheon.
