ROMEROME

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Etruscan Supremacy: 700-509 BCEProvided link between Greek and Roman ArtKEYWORDS: TERRA-COTTA

Roman Republican Period: 509-27 BCE Begins with overthrowing last Etruscan King, continues with the Punic Wars against Chartage and ends with Julius Caesar… Major buildings built more for POLITCAL use than for WORSHIPKEYWORDS: TEMPLES, ARA PACIS, HOMAGE TO RULERS

Early Empire Period: 27 BCE-180 CE KEYWORDS: WALL PAINTINGS, CONCRETE, ARCH, COLOSSEUM

The High Empire: 180-195 CE Five Good Emperors (Trajan, Hadrian, etc.) kept things prosperous and peaceful.KEYWORDS: COLUMN OF TRAJAN, HADRIAN’S WALL, PANTHEON

The Late Empire: 195-400 CEDiocletian had Empire divided into four parts.KEYWORDS: TETRARCHY, ARCH OF CONSTANTINE

 Archimedes was a Greek mathematician and inventor, who wrote about geometry and mechanics. Archimedes was born in Syracuse, Sicily, and was educated in Alexandria, Egypt. In mechanics, Archimedes defined the principle of the lever and is credited with inventing the compound pulley. While he was studying in Egypt he invented the hydraulic screw. This was a device for raising water from a lower to a higher level. He is best known for discovering Archimedes' principle, which states that a body immersed in fluid loses weight equal to the weight of the amount of fluid it displaces. As the story goes, Archimedes made this discovery as he immersed himself in a full tub of water and watched the water overflow. Archimedes is also said to have invented the catapult and even a mirror system that focused the sun's rays onto the boats of invaders causing the craft to ignite.

Archimedes(287 - 212 B.C.)

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The Roman House

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Atrium of the House of the VettiiPompeii, Italy, second century B.C., rebuilt A.D. 62-79

One of the best preserved houses at Pompeii, partially rebuilt and an obligatory stop on every tourist’s itinerary today, is the House of the Vettii, an old Pompeian house remodeled and repainted after the earthquake of A.D. 62

The photograph was taken in the fauces. It shows the impluvium in the center of the atrium, the opening in the roof above, and in the background, the peristyle garden with its marble tables and mural paintings.

The house was owned by two brothers, Aulus Vettius Restitutus and Aulus Vettius Conviva, probably freedmen who had made their fortune as merchants. Their wealth enabled them to purchase and furnished houses that would have been owned only by patricians.

Pompeii & the

Cities of Vesuvius

VILLA OF MYSTERIES- Pompeii

House of Vettii (Ixion Room)- Pompeii (1° century A.D.)

ARISTOCRATIC ROMAN HOUSE

ROMAN CITIESROMAN CITIES

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Pompeii & the

Cities of Vesuvius

Aerial view of the amphitheater, Pompeii, Italy, ca 80 B.C.

The forum was an oasis in the heart of Pompeii - an open, airy plaza. Throughout the rest of the city, every square foot of land was developed. At the southern end of the town, immediately after the Roman colony was founded in 80 B.C., Pompeii’s new citizens erected a large amphitheater. It is the earliest such structure known and could seat some twenty thousand spectators. The word- amphitheater means “double theater”, and the Roman structures closely resemble two Greek theaters put together, although the Greeks never built amphitheaters. Greek theaters were placed on natural hillsides, but supporting an amphitheater’s continuous elliptical cavea required building an artificial mountain- and only concrete, unknown to the Greeks, was capable of such a job. Barrel vaults also form the tunnels leading to the stone seats of the arena.

Arena is Latin for “sand”, which soaked up the contestants’ blood. Instead of refined performances, the Amphitheater held mostly bloody gladiator combats.

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Brawl in the Pompeii amphitheaterPompeii, Italy, ca. A.D. 60-79

This painting that is found on the wall of a Pompeian house depicts an incident that occurred in the amphitheater in A.D. 59. A brawl broke out between the Pompeians and their neighbors, the Nucerians, during a contest between the two towns.

The fight left many wounded and led to a 10 year prohibition against such events.

The painting shows the cloth awning (velarium) that could be rolled down from the top of the cavea to shield spectators from either sun or rain. It also has the distinctive external double staircases that enabled large numbers of people to enter and exit the cavea in an orderly fashion.

Pompeii & the

Cities of Vesuvius

ROMAN CASTRUM

FAMILY PIETAS